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Air Force leadership laid out Friday afternoon what units will lose missions and which ones will get new ones with the Air National Guard bearing the brunt of the drawdown. The Air Force will retire or reclassify aircraft in seven squadrons with four being Air National Guard units. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley announced the service will retire 286 aircraft over the next five years with 227 leaving the fleet in 2013. Read the exact details of what aircraft are going where and what squadrons will receive new missions over the next five years in the white paper issued by...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A snafu marred the critical moment of silence Wednesday at the Pearl Harbor ceremony observing the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack.... ...But on Wednesday, emcee Leslie Wilcox was still speaking at 7:55 a.m., even as the Hawaii Air National Guard's F-22's roared overhead on schedule 42 seconds later.

Hundreds of mud-covered participants darted from one obstacle to the next as they competed in the grueling eight-mile Super Spartan Race yesterday at Wolfe's Pond Park, as part of the Spartan Race Challenge. Under the Spartan Race banner, there are four different obstacle courses with varying degrees of "extremeness," starting with the Spartan Sprint, then the Super Spartan followed by The Spartan Beast and -- the most extreme -- The Death Race.

As if to call out the absurdity of Democratic plans to run against George W. Bush's record this November, a crop of young Republicans - who weren't in office back then - is eagerly taking on establishment Democratic politicians. Adam Kinzinger, running in Illinois' 11th District, is one example of this trend. Less than 2 years old when Ronald Reagan won his first presidential election, Kinzinger is seeking office in President Obama's home state. ...internal poll shows Kinzinger leading the incumbent opponent by 11 points. ...Kinzinger has an impressive resume. He served in the Air Force Special Ops, Air Combat...

Imagine flying a fighter jet at a speed of sound and reaching out for your radio switch only to discover that the control you’ve hit unexpectedly triggers your speed brake. That points to just one of the many differences pilots in the 120th Fighter Wing have had to ask their bodies to memorize as they’ve switched from one aircraft to another over the last year and a half. “It’s a game of milliseconds and split decisions that you have to make up there,” said Maj. Matt Ohman. “We can fly the plane in relatively few hours, but to be able...

The 174th Fighter Wing concluded its F-16 operations on Saturday March 6, 2010 with a formal ceremony that was attended by the new Adjutant General for New York State. Brig Gen. Patrick A. Murphy, NY-TAG joined 174FW Wing Commander Col Kevin W. Bradley on stage to speak to assembled group about the final F-16 flyoff from Hancock Field. Murphy said, "Today should not be a moment of sadness as I have spoken to Air Force and Air National Guard Leaders about the dwindling piloted aircraft. Thanks to your leadership this unit is one of the most if not the most...

As the island mobilized to help Haiti, Interim Gov. Kenneth McClintock sent three military helicopters and two C-130 cargo airplanes from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard filled with emergency personnel and equipment to aid the neighboring Caribbean nation, which was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Tuesday evening. “Since this morning I have been in contact with United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton and Haitian Consul General in Miami Ralph Latourtude to put Puerto Rico at Haiti’s service,” McClintock said during a news conference to announce various collection centers where local residents can make donations of water,...

EXCLUSIVE: Four New York City men were arrested Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up New York City synagogues and other city locations, WNBC's Jonathan Dienst has learned. Raids by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force in the Bronx captured the suspected ringleader and three followers in what law enforcement sources are calling a homegrown terrorist plot. Investigators stress the suspects' meetings had been infiltrated early on and there was "no chance" the alleged plot could succeed. Investigators said several of the suspects are Muslims who allegedly talked about destroying two Jewish temples, including at least one...

Three F-16s roared toward Fenway Park, flying wingtip to wingtip. Suddenly a fourth F-16, trailing behind the formation, caught up, flew under the three F-16s, then looped up and over the formation to take its rightful spot for a perfect V formation. The maneuver, performed during the Red Sox Opening Day game Tuesday, came just as the Boston Symphony Orchestra finished playing the national anthem. It elicited roaring applause and cheers from the full-capacity crowd, which clearly appreciated what it thought to be great showmanship. But as it turns out, the maneuver was improper and the Vermont Air National Guard...

Would anyone like a free dinner at Golden Corral? Well, there is an easy way if you are an American military veteran. Golden Corral just announced this year’s Military Appreciation Monday will be November 12, 2007, from 5 to 9 pm. For the past 6 years, Golden Corral has been honoring the US Military with a free “thank you” dinner and beverage at any Golden Corral restaurant on Military Appreciation Monday (first Monday after Veteran’s Day), to honor any person who has ever served in the United States Military. In the past the only requirement to receive the free meal...

This Fourth of July, President Bush spoke to the West Virginia Air National Guard 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, WV (Transcript) Former President GHWB and Mrs. Bush were welcomed by Tiger Woods to the AT&T Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am today in Bethesda, MD. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

<p>A military plane may have crashed Tuesday afternoon in southeast Kentucky, though there are conflicting reports about where or if the plane went down.</p> <p>Initial reports said that a C-130 Hercules had crashed in Knox County near Granny Rose Hollow at Highway 459 near the Whitley County line. Several reports were called in to police just after 4 p.m. that a large plane had been flying low in the area trailing smoke, clipped some trees, then went down.</p>

CHARLOTTE -- Members of one Charlotte Air National Guard unit spent their last night at home for a while Sunday night. Monday, personnel from the 145th Airlift Wing will head to the U.S.-Mexican border in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration. It is part of President Bush's sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration policies. The National Guard's presence at the border will help free up border agents, so those agents can more effectively combat other serious issues like drugs and crime. The National Guard will leave Monday around 12 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Air Force officials announced March 16 that the 131st Fighter Wing at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis will join the elite B-2 mission at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The announcement means the 131st Fighter Wing's Airmen will team up with the world's only B-2 long-range stealth bomber mission located at Whiteman AFB. The move will pair the 131st's Guard unit air crew, maintainers and support staff with the current active-duty B-2 unit. The 131st was selected from Air National Guard units nationwide to support the B-2s. "I am pleased that the U.S. Air Force found...

BEAUMONT, Texas (Dec. 14, 2005) -- An Airman from the Houston, Texas, area who has already won many accolades for his quick thinking and actions received yet another award from Insurance company Allstate Dec. 7 for potentially saving hundreds of lives in anticipation of Hurricane Rita. Faced with a new mission as a result of the hurricane, Master Sgt. Lynn Bailey, 147th Fighter Wing fuel superintendent, completed a task others might have thought impossible. The task garnered him the nickname “The Nozzle Man” because his nozzle was indirectly responsible for the getting vehicles carrying sick and elderly back on the...

November 09, 2005 Mary Mapes Names Names ("Anonymous" Ones) Posted by Bill An excerpt from page 201 of her new book: Within minutes of Buckhead's original posting, Freepers began to repeat and embellish Buckhead's thoughts. Not surprisingly, they all agreed with him, they all agreed with one another, and they all agreed this should be pursued aggressively. Freethinkers they are not. The Freepers and their lockstep like-minded fellow travelers moved as a group, like a school of sharks sweeping toward an unaware and unarmed victim. CBS was like some sunburned, overweight Florida tourist with a cut foot, floundering and flapping...

CAMP MABRY (26 Sep, 2005) – The Adjutant General visited Ellington Field yesterday with the purpose of seeking out a reluctant hero and awarding him for his tireless efforts. The Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Charles Rodriguez, was specifically interested in speaking to one of the eighty essential personnel who had initially hunkered down at Ellington Field in Houston to wait out the storm, but who subsequently had been sent out before the storm. Master Sgt. Lynn Bailey was awarded the Army Achievement Medal because Maj. Gen. Rodriguez said: “This man is my hero too. When I was awakened at 1:30...

149th Fighter Wing security forces return from Louisiana LACKLAND AFB, Texas (Sept. 15, 2005) – Forty-seven security forces personnel from the 149th Fighter Wing returned Sept. 13 from Louisiana after providing security and evacuation assistance to New Orleans residents during the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The group arrived at Kelly Field via C-130 aircraft and was taken to the 149th Fighter Wing for health assessments before leaving for home and much-needed showers and sleep. The security team left from San Antonio Aug. 31, commanded by Lt. Col. Scott Elliott of the 204th Security Forces Squadron, and included Air Guard...

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (Sept. 6, 2005) -- Just days after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of Louisiana, members of the 149th Fighter Wing started heading for the Bayou State to assist victims of the disaster. A medical task force was first to leave Aug. 31, deploying a mobile medical support kit. At the New Orleans Convention Center, the Texas National Guard was the primary medical resource Friday and Saturday, running a triage system to evacuate those needing serious medical attention, and providing treatment on the spot to others. The fighter wing’s “medics” have even delivered babies. That same day, 48...

WASHINGTON — Air Force officials made a final public plea yesterday for their plan to overhaul more than 24 Air National Guard units, warning the squadrons would steadily become more ineffective and poorly equipped unless their proposal were approved. Testifying with other Pentagon officials at the last public hearing of the nine-member commission assessing the Pentagon's base-closing plan, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper, warned "this round of closures and realignment represents the last opportunity we will have for a generation to reset our forces." The Air Force wants to retire aging aircraft from many Guard units,...

WASHINGTON - A shake-up of dozens of Air National Guard units has emerged as the most contentious part of the Pentagon's proposal to close or restructure hundreds of military bases across the country. States are suing over the issue. Lawmakers in both parties are griping. And the independent commission reviewing the sweeping proposal has serious concerns about the impact of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Air Guard plan. A major question about that plan also remains unresolved just weeks before the commission's September deadline to send its recommendations to President Bush, himself a stateside Vietnam-era pilot in the Texas Air...

    For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.     Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!       ~ MILITARY SHORT SPEAK ~             The military seems to have a language of its own, with many terms, Acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations that aren't generally used in the "civilian world." What is an acronym? It is a word created from the first letter of a series of other words. It is spoken as one word.  What is an initialism?...

At CBS, they still don't get it. The same holds true for the investigators of Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" report, which charged that George W. Bush, while in the Texas Air National Guard, used political pull to escape punishment for his insolent insubordination to a superior officer. For this story, at root, is about far more than just the blunders, deceptions and stonewalling of Rather, Mary Mapes and CBS. The real story is who was behind this criminal conspiracy to bring down a president of the United States, using fake and forged U.S. government documents, which is a felony. And...

At CBS News the long awaited "memogate" report is in and four people are out of a job. Is this one of the biggest scandals ever to hit American journalism? Did the report go far enough? And what about the recommendations made by the independent panel investigating the "60 Minutes Wednesday" story about President Bush's National Guard service? Our panelists will weigh in on those questions and much more! Then, in our "Quick Takes on the Media" segment: • What was the real reason for the massive media coverage of the South Asian tsunami? • Should a reaction to a...

It sounded like somebody running across the roof of the elementary school in a New Jersey township Wednesday night, said the cleaning woman who called the police. No prowler was found. But yesterday, what had seemed a minor item in a police blotter touched off state and federal military investigations after it was disclosed that an F-16 warplane had strafed the school with cannon fire. The Air National Guard warplane, flying a night training mission out of Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, fired a burst of 27 rounds from its 20-millimeter cannon shortly before 10:15 p.m. as it streaked...

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Documents reveal Bush not disciplined in Guard WASHINGTON (AP) — Unearthed under legal pressure, three-decade-old documents portray President Bush as a capable and well-liked Air National Guard pilot who stopped flying and attending regular drills two-thirds of the way through his six-year commitment — without consequence. The files, many of them forced to light by Freedom of Information lawsuits by The Associated Press, conflict with some of the harshest attacks Democrats have levied on Bush's Vietnam-era service, such as suggestions that Bush was a deserter or absent without leave.

In 'Commentary' section. Long read, but outlines everything you want to know about Bush's service - Addendums, allegations with responses, including forged memo's, etc.: George Bush and I were fighter pilots. Lt. Bush flew F-102s in the Air National Guard (ANG) -- 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS); I flew F-105s in combat -- 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS). Both our flying assignments were inherently dangerous -- Lt. Bush's because of the high performance nature of the fighter interceptor aircraft he was flying, the training required to fly the F-102, and the high risks that come with all weather (night and...

"Isolated, behind enemy lines or far out in front of advancing friendly armies, a combat controller might be tasked with coordinating an air strike on an enemy air-defense position. Equipped with special range-finding binoculars, a palm-top computer, a GPS (global positioning system) receiver, and a rifle, the airmen can clandestinely spot the target, direct an attacking pilot to it, and then leap on a motorcycle and race toward another target where he will repeat the process."

What exactly did Ben Barnes do to get President Bush in the ANG? I haven't seen him interviewed. Barnes says he got the President into the ANG. Did anyone ask him any follow up questions, such as who did he call, what did they discuss, etc. It's easy to claim that you did something, but where is the corroboration for the claim.

What do you really know about George W. Bush’s time in the Air National Guard? That he didn’t show up for duty in Alabama? That he missed a physical? That his daddy got him in? News coverage of the president’s years in the Guard has tended to focus on one brief portion of that time — to the exclusion of virtually everything else. So just for the record, here, in full, is what Bush did: The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three weeks...

Just received this in an e-Mail message: Doc, Another Point about CBS, Zip code 77034 does not have and never has had PO Boxes. The closest Zip code in Houston with PO Boxes is 77032. PO Box 34567 Houston, Texas 77034 never existed in 1972 My company is in the data business and has the history on addresses. Propostional spacing was introduced in 1980 with the Xerox Memorywriter which competed with the IBM Selectric. I wouldn't be so sure IBM didn't have a Times Roman font ball. They definitely didn't have it in proportinnal spacing. I spent 28 years with...

In case it's has escaped your attention, Dan Rather and the MSM, at least based on my review of it, has marched on. The forged documents have become yesterday's news. What sould have been a defining moment in this year's presidential election is being ignored by the MSM, and by default, the general population. We know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that CBS news used forged documents in its politically driven attempt to discredit President Bush's Air National Guard service. And we know that, to their credit, bloggers not only identified those documents as forgeries, but exposed them as forgeries. Initially...

The common assumption in the MSM is that there was a waiting list for pilots in the Texas Air National Guard when President Bush joined. I have always thought that was an ignorant assumption, since the qualifications to become a pilot are much more stringent than the qualifications to simply enlist in the military. This morning I saw an interview where those evil bastards at Fox News actually dared to question that assumption by asking the question of someone who was actually in a position to know - Col. Earl Lively (Ret), the former Director of Operations for the Texas...

Guard commander's son thinks memos are bogus By Jack Douglas Jr. Star-Telegram Staff Writer The son of a late Texas Air National Guard commander said Saturday he's convinced that none of the 1970s memos attributed to his father that criticized George W. Bush, then a lieutenant in the Guard, are authentic. Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984, almost always had someone else type his correspondence, and then had that person initial the work, said Gary Killian of Houston, who served in the Guard with his father. His father was a terrible typist and would never have been able...

Bush Guard records: Back to the future? -Posted by david.berlind @ 8:29 pm (PDT) * Home * Security * Web Technology The Washington Post has reported (registration required unless accessed from Google News) that several forensics experts have examined the documents produced by CBS News that substantiate alleged gaps in President Bush’s service record and have concluded that the technology used to produce those documents didn’t exist at the time they were supposedly created. According to the report, "William Flynn, a forensic document specialist with 35 years of experience in police crime labs and private practice, said the CBS documents...

The following excerpt is from MyWay.com.The first four months of 1972 are at the beginning of a controversial period in Bush's Guard service. After taking his last flight in April 1972, Bush went for six months without showing up for any training drills. In September 1972 he received permission to transfer to an Alabama Guard unit so he could work on a political campaign there. I have read just about every post listed on FR today about this item. And no where have I seen it posted or stated that in 1972 there were 641 casualties from all types of...

In this story, it has been reported that CBS obtained the Air National Guard documents, turned them over to the White House and then the White House released them. Just MHO, but I have to believe that someone in the White House knew that the documents were bogus and allowed them to be released knowing what would happen next. If this is true, then this is a stroke of strategic genius. It puts a black eye on CBS, bloodies the lip of the DNC and should put a blanket on any further “Bush National Guard” questions. All of which make...

A petition to CBS News & "60 Minutes" to immediately retract its Bush TX ANG story based on forged documents: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cbstxng/petition.html Please sign the above petition AND send a direct message to CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

Ask retired Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed whether the press has accurately reported what he said about George W. Bush, and you'll get an earful. "No, I don't think they have," he begins. Turnipseed, the former head of the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group of the Alabama Air National Guard, was widely quoted as saying he never saw Bush in Alabama in 1972, and if the future president had been there, he would remember. In fact, Turnipseed says, he doesn't recall whether Bush was there or not; the young flier, then a complete unknown in Alabama, was never part of the 900-man...

Letters to the Editor 'Bush and I were lieutenants' George Bush and I were lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), Texas Air National Guard (ANG) from 1970 to 1971. We had the same flight and squadron commanders (Maj. William Harris and Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, both now deceased). While we were not part of the same social circle outside the base, we were in the same fraternity of fighter pilots, and proudly wore the same squadron patch. It is quite frustrating to hear the daily cacophony from the left and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, et...

President Bush spoke Monday to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision that ended racially segregated schools. He greeted the fueling squadron on the way in, and greeted the Air National Guard troops on the way out of the airport at Topeka, Kansas.

Looks like a hit piece on the Bush controversy, as well as fueling the race baiters ................. "Vietnam revealed a negative aspect of relying on reservists. For largely domestic political reasons, President Johnson chose not to mobilize most of the nation's reserve forces. The 1968 callups were only token affairs. Johnson's decision to avoid a major reserve mobilization was opposed by the senior leadership of both the active duty military establishment and the reserve forces, but to no avail. The Reserves and the Guard acquired reputations as draft havens for relatively affluent young white men. Military leaders questioned the wisdom...

Story Number: NNS040326-16 Release Date: 3/26/2004 10:40:00 PM From Commander, U.S. Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The pilot of a Navy F/A-18 Hornet aircraft, which crashed the afternoon of March 26 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, is uninjured. He has been identified as Lt. j.g. Wesley Baumgartner of Yorktown, Va. Baumgartner was the pilot of the aircraft, assigned to the “Valions” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 15 based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. He was part of a two-aircraft flight on a routine cross-country training mission when they made a stop at...

3/1/2004 - CAMP DENALI, Alaska (AFPN) -- A pilot is out of the woods, literally, after being rescued by the Alaska Air National Guard’s 210th Rescue Squadron on March 1. Ted Greene, an Anchorage resident in his mid-70s, called in a mayday report after his plane crashed and was hung up in some trees in the Skwenta area, about 60 miles northwest of Anchorage on Feb. 29. The plane, a Piper PA-15, went down shortly after Mr. Greene dropped off snow machiners at Toehead Lake. The mayday, originally heard by a commercial aircraft crew, was garbled. The identification of the...

A retired Alabama Air National Guard officer said Friday that he remembers George W. Bush showing up for duty in Alabama in 1972, reading safety magazines and flight manuals in an office as he performed his weekend obligations. “I saw him each drill period,” retired Lt. Col. John “Bill” Calhoun said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Daytona Beach, Fla., where he is preparing to watch this weekend’s big NASCAR race. “He was very aggressive about doing his duty there. He never complained about it. ... He was very dedicated to what he was doing in the...

Gephardt the Chickenhawk A regular occurrence in the blogosphere revolves around liberals calling President George W. Bush a "chickenhawk" because he served in the Air National Guard (in their opinion to avoid service in Vietnam) and has been ordering American forces into combat. If service in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam era while supporting any war since then makes someone a "chickenhawk", why haven't these liberals stuck the same label on Dick Gephardt? According to his bio, Gephardt served in the Air National Guard from 1965-1971 following law school. I'm not saying I agree with the label for...

Lauren Orton's 11th birthday is still two weeks away, but she's already gotten the only thing she really wanted: a $30 million F-16 jet fighter - with her dad at the controls. "She said that if Daddy could come home by her birthday, that would be the best present of all," said her mom, Jill Orton, as the family waited on the tarmac at Buckley Air Force Base on Wednesday for Lauren's dad - and a lot of other kids' dads - to return from the war. Family and friends covered their ears and cheered as the F-16s thundered overhead...

McEntire personnel called up Air National Guard members going to Persian Gulf soon An F-16 takes to the air on Thursday from McEntire Air National Guard Station during a training exercise. About 400 members of the S.C. Air National Guard and their fighter jets were ordered Tuesday to the Persian Gulf as the United States readies for a possible war with Iraq. The call-up affects units that are part of 169th Fighter Wing, based at McEntire Air National Guard Station near Eastover, said spokesman Lt. Col. Les Carroll. "We have expected this for some time, and we were told several...

The president was dead wrong when he said the Senate does not believe in the security of the American people. This coming from a man who was so interested in the security of the American people during the Vietnam War, that he hid out in the Texas Air National Guard for a while. His vice president also failed to serve his country during the same conflict.