Category: Air Force

The Air Force Times reports that PT test tracks at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas and Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts were too long, 85 feet and 360 feet respectively, and may have cost 59 airmen their careers as a result.

The Goodfellow track was last accurately measured in 2010. At some point, its lanes were adjusted, Brzozowske said, and were either not remeasured afterward or were remeasured inaccurately. This caused 18 airmen to fail the fitness test who would otherwise have passed, the Air Force said.

The Hanscom track had construction done after its last accurate measure in 2008 and was similarly not remeasured or remeasured inaccurately, Brzozowske said. As a result, 41 airmen there failed their fitness tests.

However, it may be difficult to tell whether the Air Force’s estimates include every airman negatively affected by the incorrectly measured tracks.

Yeah, well, they might have tried to pass with the max score rather than the minimum.The Air Force should have kept their mouths shut, fixed the problem and never admitted that this was a problem.

The Air Force said all affected airmen are being notified and will be provided avenues for remedy.

Brzozowske said that for airmen who are still on active duty, this means their fitness scores will be adjusted and any personnel actions that were taken as a result of those fitness scores will be remedied. She said airmen who were affected should work with their chain of command, force support squadron, legal office and the Air Force Personnel Center to correct their records.

Airmen who have since left should contact the Discharge Review Board or the Board for Correction of Military Records, she said.

They should publish a list so we all know who the hairy-backed Marys are who only do the bare minimum.

Marine_7002 sends us a link to the story of three crew members of a KC-135 aerial refueling tanker who earned the Hoyt Award, named for Brigadier General Ross G. Hoyt, who took part in experimental refueling flights in 1929. It’s given every year for outstanding service by an aerial-refueling crew among the 400 crews that do that dangerous job. Captains Benjamin Oatley and James Quon, and Master Sergeant Jarrett Crawford had just finished fueling some aircraft over Syria when they noticed an A-10 which had lost an engine;

The three-person crew of a KC-135 tanker, from Scott Air Force Base, had just completed an in-air refueling when the ground-attack jet’s left engine disintegrated.

The tanker crew stayed within view of the A-10 at an unusually low altitude for more than an hour, arranged for escort from other fighters and supervised its safe landing at Al Asad in northern Iraq.

That American-occupied forward base is north of Ramadi and, at the time, was within territory claimed by the Islamic State and subject to occasional attack. Air Force and Marines personnel repaired the Warthog, which was flown to a secure base five days later.

I don’t need to tell you how much guts it takes to fly a 31,000 gallon gas can over enemy air space at a low altitude, but these three did just that to help a fellow pilot get home that night.

Poetrooper sends us a link to a report by the Government Accountability Office entitled “Better Information Needed to Support Air Force A-10 and Other Future Divestment Decisions” in which the agency scolds the Air Force for it’s lack of a plan to replace close air support capabilities of the A-10 Thunderbolt when they finally scrap the program;

[T]he Air Force has not established clear requirements for the missions the A-10 performs, and in the absence of these requirements, has not fully identified the capacity or capability gaps that could result from the A-10 divestment. Without a clear understanding of the capability or capacity gaps and risks that could result from A-10 divestment, it is also unclear how effective or necessary the Air Force’s and the department’s mitigation strategies will be. For example, although the Air Force has several efforts underway to generally mitigate the loss of capabilities that would result from A-10 divestment, it has not identified how or if it will replace the A-10’s role in combat search and rescue missions. Depending on the specific mitigation strategy chosen, the Air Force may have to address a number of different secondary impacts that could affect its ability to execute existing missions. The A-10 is one example of a challenge DOD could continue to face as it balances current needs against investing in the future force to replace aging systems.

The report says that the Air Force hasn’t discussed the issue with A-10 pilots or crews to fill the gap that, if they had their way, would already exist. The Air Force is pinning it’s hopes on the F-35 which won’t even be able to engage in close air support for at least five more years. Of course, the problem rests with the politicians who only want to save money without a thought for how it would affect the ability of the military to fight and win wars.

A number of readers have sent us links to this story in the Air Force Times in regards to Colonel William Jones, the former vice commander of the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.. Apparently, he’s been arrested on charges that he possessed nasty pictures of children and that he unsuccessfully obstructed justice;

“The charges are being worked through the legal process outlined in the UCMJ, and Col. Jones is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law,” Col. Stephen Jost, commander of the 20th, said in the release.

Jost relieved Jones of command Feb. 17. At the time, the wing said it was due to a loss of confidence, but did not offer any further explanation as to why Jones was relieved.

I’m sure that Colonel Jones won’t be the only one punished – every Airman will be subjected to hours of training slides explaining why they shouldn’t have dirty pictures of children. Field grade and Flag officers will be exempt from the lectures.

Bobo and I discussed the picture yesterday and it seems that Jones missed participation in the GWOT. Maybe if he’d had a deployment or two, he would have been too busy to be a criminal.

Military Times reports that two airmen, Master Sergeant Aaron B. Frederick and Staff Sergeant Bradley D. Mock were awarded Bronze Star Medals with Valor and an Air Force Combat Action Medal and the Purple Heart for their actions while on patrol in Afghanistan on December 21st;

Both Frederick and Mock were on an outside-the-wire mission approximately three miles north of Bagram when their patrol was approached by a Taliban terrorist operating a motorcycle loaded with explosives, according to their award citation. Frederick, the team’s patrol leader, lunged toward the attacker, just 15 feet away.

The suicide bomber detonated his device, mortally wounding six airmen and critically injuring five others. Disoriented and badly burned, Frederick quickly came to and led the remaining survivors to establish a security perimeter in the area, and directed back-up forces to send in medical evacuation. He insisted that survivors receive treatment once the medevac arrived as he remained on the battlefield confirming all were accounted for, the citation continues.

In the meantime, Mock received cuts to his face and lost consciousness for a few minutes during the blast. When he woke up, Mock, a tactical security element radio telephone operator, called in for immediate assistance to the back-up security team while simultaneously administering triage to two severely wounded teammates. He also helped secure sensitive equipment and intelligence, the citation said.

Together, he and Frederick coordinated medevac and treatment for six wounded teammates, and the extraction of 12 personnel total within 40 minutes of the blast.