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6/16/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Twelve Airmen working together for the past nine months at the remote Iraqi Military Training Base of Kirkush, located in the Diyala Province just over 10 miles from the Iranian border, are hoping to work themselves out of a job. As the only Americans living among thousands of Iraqi Soldiers and trainees, their objective has been to work with the leadership at the base to improve operational and logistical processes. "We're here to train and advise the Iraqi Army. Our goal is to put ourselves out of a job," said Master Sgt....

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors. They are Maj. Barclay B. Young, of Hartford, Conn.; and Senior Master Sgt. James K. Caniford, of Brunswick, Md. The names of the two others are being withheld at the request of their families. All men were U.S. Air Force. Caniford will be buried May 28 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., and Young’s burial date is being set...

4/29/2008 - MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- Airmen from the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB performed a maritime rescue in the Gulf of Mexico April 25 that saved six lives. Moody Airmen responded by providing two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters from the 41st Rescue Squadron, a 71st RQS HC-130P King and pararescue assets from the 38th RQS. The wing received the support request from the Joint Personnel Recovery Center at Tyndall AFB, Fla., around 11 a.m. The request was in response to a report the Coast Guard received from the Eos, an 800-foot Panamanian-flagged tanker ship operating in...

On Dec. 3, 1943, a B-24D Liberator bomber with two Army airmen from Massachusetts flew a stealth mission to destroy Japanese war vessels in the Bismarck Sea. The mission turned out to be a success. The crew found a Japanese convoy and bombed it.

4/24/2008 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and Chief of Staff of the Air Force T. Michael Moseley have issued the following letter highlighting the contributions of America's Airmen: Airmen, This past Monday, the Secretary of Defense delivered an address at Maxwell AFB to the students of our Air War College and Air Command and Staff College. Initial press coverage of his remarks misrepresented the tone and content of his address. Whereas some press reports characterized Secretary Gates as making a singular critique about one Service's commitment to the Global War on Terror, his...

Family and friends waited in anticipation at Volk Field Saturday to welcome home the troops of the Wisconsin National Guard Troop E, 105th Cavalry.  Roschelle Easterday, wife of Troop 1SG Paul Easterday, can't wait to see her husband, who's been gone almost a year fighting in Iraq. "We're pretty excited to see each other.  It's been a long time and the rest of his family's here as well and we're pretty excited," says Easterday.     Soldiers from the Troop E, 105th Cavalry saw significant action while stationed in Iraq, which made some family members nervious at times.  "If I don't get in touch with...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2008 – On his way home from working in his family’s field near Kirkuk, Iraq, Rahmey didn’t see the hidden improvised explosive device until it was too late. Soldiers and U.S. soldiers load an Iraqi teenager injured by an improvised explosive device onto a medical evacuation helicopter near Kirkuk, Iraq, March 27, 2008. The soldiers are assigned to the 10th Mountain Division's Company C, 2nd Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Staggering for home after the blast, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy had no way to know that his life would be saved by...

3/27/2008 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- In its 50 years of flight, only six women pilots have been at the controls of the U-2 Dragon Lady. Three of those six are currently in the Air Force, and two of those three are currently fighting in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, flying with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, the only U-2 squadron in Southwest Asia. Maj. Merryl Tengesdal and Capt. Heather Fox, both U-2 pilots with the 99th ERS and deployed from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., continue to add to women's and the U-2's history,...

3/25/2008 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Nine Iraqi firefighters graduated the Basic Firefighter Skills Course here as Airmen of the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Fire Department trained the newest graduates March 24 at Ali Base. The six-week course teaches students "the basics of fighting fires, search and rescue and lifesaving skills," said Chief Master Sgt. Jeffrey Horne, the 407th ECES fire chief. Hazim Nadoom, an Iraqi who has been translating the course for the firefighters since 2006, said the course is working. "We have a guy from two classes ago who was able to save a little baby and...

3/24/2008 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Hundreds of Kirkuk Air Base Airmen commemorated the fifth year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom by honoring the 42 Airmen who gave their lives supporting the war on terrorism March 20 here. The ceremony included a 21-gun salute, a flag-folding ceremony performed by the base honor guard, and ended with a bag pipe performance of taps and "Amazing Grace." Members of the 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron also set up a memorial in-front of the formation to honor the sacrifices of two Airmen from the 727th EACS who died during combat operations...

Missing WWII Airman is Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is 2nd Lt. Arthur F. Eastman, U.S. Army Air Forces, of East Orange, N.J. He will be buried in September in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Representatives from the Army met with Eastman’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the...

CAMPBELL HALL — When Sean Harrington drives around Orange County, he scans the roadsides looking for wires, overturned dirt, suspicious-looking rocks or any other evidence he's about to be attacked. He can't help it. Harrington, 24, did two tours in Iraq, leading patrols both in Kirkuk and in the south. His squad's job was to protect Iraqi truck drivers transporting goods from the port city of Umm Qsar to the interior. "My unit was hit 21 times," he said at his home in Campbell Hall, where he's enjoying a week's leave from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. "It seemed...

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Arming fighter planes with bombs during wartime is no off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all proposition. Munitions airmen with the right tools and training must prepare munitions to order, assembly-line fashion, at what can be a relentless, keep ’em coming pace. Airmen of the 51st Munitions Squadron at Osan have been honing those skills this week as part of the annual Foal Eagle exercise. The squadron is part of Osan’s 51st Fighter Wing. “It’s meant to be an assembly line,” Capt. Andrea Wild, the squadron’s maintenance operations officer, said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of different components that are...

3/19/2008 - GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFPN) -- Approximately 50 Airmen deployed to support Joint Task Force Guantanamo in February to put the finishing touches on the Expeditionary Legal Complex construction projects at Camp Justice here. With a group of civil engineers including plumbers, carpenters, electricians, heavy equipment operators and air conditioning and heating specialists on hand, the new members of the 474th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron will finish the projects initiated by their unit predecessors. Joint Task Force Guantanamo personnel conduct safe and humane care and custody of detained enemy combatants. The 474th ECES Airmen will support base members while...

3/19/2008 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) -- With last year's operations in Afghanistan among the highest since they began in 2001, Airmen here are acutely aware of the mission importance to refuel aircraft supporting those operations, as well as provide world-class service and care to transiting passengers, said Col. Harrison Smith, the commander of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, the host unit at Manas Air Base. The wing members' attention to detail in the latter of those tasks was not lost on the Marines moving through this week and last. "Deploying to this theater is never an easy task,...

3/18/2008 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) -- Manas Air Base Airmen, Soldiers and transitory personnel got a firsthand glimpse into history this week. Three Medal of Honor recipients from the Vietnam War toured the base and spoke at several local engagements on their stop here before touring other locations in the U.S. Air Forces Central area of responsibility. Retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, Marine Capt. John J. McGinty III and Army Command Sgt. Maj. Gary L. Littrell highlighted Manas Air Base's contributions in the war on terrorism. "Americans appreciate the great service you've provided for our country," Colonel...

Regional World War plane wreckages found in ArunachalItanagar (PTI): Arunachal Pradesh is gradually becoming the missing link of hundreds of war heroes who disappeared while flying fighter planes during the Second World War in the eastern front. And no else but the state Governor Gen (Retd) J J Singh, former chief of Army staff, took notes on Monday evening from Oken Tayeng who had already spotted wreckages of aircraft of the Allied Forces in eight locations in Lohit, Dibang valley, Upper Siang and Papum Pare districts. It all started when Tayeng, a local tour operator, joined an American investigator...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In honour of the crouching, naked blonde painted on its nose, its pilot had named his bomber the "Hot as Hell". But it was a freezing and stormy day as the American B-24 Liberator made its way across the Himalayas on Jan 25, 1944, flying what was known as "the Hump", perhaps the most dangerous route in air transport history. It was one of nine American planes that went down that day as they tried to resupply China's besieged army in the city of Kunming, desperately trying to hold out against the invading Japanese during World...

3/12/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Airmen from the 64th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron here were called out to rescue two American citizens lost on a hiking trip March 2. "We initially started hearing information about a possibility of American citizens getting lost during a hiking trip at around 4 a.m.," said Navy Lt. Evan Scaggs, a 64th ERQS pilot and the flight lead for the rescue. "The Joint Personnel Recovery Center started to gather information about who the people were, where they were and checking to see if there were any other problems, while we were on stand-by...

WASHINGTON - Borrowing a theme from the presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the possibility of a 3 a.m. emergency call to the White House is all the more reason for the next commander in chief to follow through on President Bush's plans for a national missile defense. "It's plain to see that the world around us gives ample reason to continue working on missile defense," Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation at a dinner recognizing the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed network of rockets capable of shooting down incoming intercontinental ballistic...