Category: Air Force

Bobo sends a link to the story of Lt. Col. Erin Weatherly and Chief Master Sgt. James Clark who were the commander and senior enlisted member of the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming until they were canned last month;

Col. Stacy Jo Huser, commander of the 90th Missile Wing, “lost confidence in their abilities to carry out their duties and determined that new leadership was necessary to ensure the highest levels of precision from a squadron leadership.”

[2nd Lt. Nikita Thorpe, a spokeswoman for the 90th Missile Wing] said there was no single incident that led to their removal, but that Huser’s loss of confidence in them “accrued over time.”

Mick sends us a link to Fox News which reports that an Air Force T-38 Talon II crashed near the Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. Both pilots ejected safely.

First responders have extinguished the fire and are securing the area. There are no houses or other structures in the immediate area of the crash.

The Air Force crash today is the fifth U.S. Air Force non-combat aviation crash of 2018 versus seven for all of last year:

The Air Force tweeted the above message to their followers and then deleted it and apologized, for some reason.

We apologize for the earlier tweet regarding the A-10. It was made in poor taste and we are addressing it internally. It has since been removed.

— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) May 17, 2018

Own that shit, Air Force.

Thanks to Bobo for the tip.

The other day we talked about Minot Air Force Base missing some Mk-19 ammunition. Today they’re missing an M-240.

Officials at Minot Air Force Base say they discovered that a M-240 machine gun was missing during a standard weapons inventory Wednesday.

The 5th Bomb Wing and 91st Missile Wing immediately began searching their weapons inventories, and have opened an investigation with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

The weapon is a 7.62 caliber. Lt. Col. Jamie Humphries says that all ammunition is accounted for.

Nice.

The Air Force announced today that they are adopting the Army’s Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) uniform, according to the Air Force Times;

The Air Force announced Monday that it is adopting the Army’s OCP as its official utility uniform. The uniform will roll out across the force over the next three years.

While some airmen already wear the OCP ? such as airmen in the Middle East and Air Force Global Strike Command security forces ? the Air Force will start rolling it out to others beginning Oct. 1.

By April 1, 2021, all airmen will be required to wear the OCP, and the current airman battle uniform, or ABU, will be no more.

“Our airmen have made it clear, with a resounding, ‘Hey, we want to get into this uniform as soon as we possibly can,’” Maj. Gen. Robert LaBrutta, the Air Force’s director of military force management policy, said in a May 9 interview at the Pentagon.

Well, it was probably cheaper than coming up with their own pattern, too. There will be military fashionista designers who are unemployed as a result. AMFers.

Andy11M sends us a link to the news that the 91st Missile Wing Security Forces team from the Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota are missing a box of Mk19 machine gun rounds;

The team was traveling on rough gravel roads about four miles west of Parshall when the back hatch of the vehicle opened, and an ammunition container fell out, the Air Force said.

I hope the Air Force is more cautious with aircraft cargo doors.

The explosives were lost on 76th Avenue Northwest, somewhere between 33rd Street Northwest and Highway 23, the sheriff’s office said. The missing explosives were reported to the sheriff’s office about 4:15 p.m. on May 4, Sheriff Ken Halvorson said in a news release.

More than 100 airmen walked the entire six-mile route several times on Friday to search for the explosives but were unsuccessful, Halvorson said.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the munitions. The Air Force issued its first public statement on the lost ammunition about 7:30 p.m. Friday, 10 days after the explosives went missing and hours after Halvorson first issued a press release.

Lemme see, 100 Airmen walk six miles at a pace of 10 complaints per foot per Airman. I guess the Army is lucky that they don’t have any units near Minot. When I was in Panama, the Air Force used to task us for everything that might get their uniforms dirty.

AW1Ed sends us a link to the Air Force Times which tells the story of Lieutenant Adam Sacchetti, a supply and logistics officer with 2nd Security Forces Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, who was getting a tattoo a few weeks ago when he heard an accident outside.

“I looked up and all I saw was a vehicle flying vertically through the air,” Sacchetti said in the release. “It flipped and landed, crushing right down on the roof.”

Sacchetti has been a security forces airman for almost 12 years, and he immediately ran out to the busy three-lane road and tried to stop traffic.

“I could see this kid was in complete shock, but he was moving around trying to get out. The car was smoking and there was fluid all around. That was when I made the decision to pull him out,” he said.

Sacchetti reached in and pulled the 17-year-old to safety. When first responders arrived, the airman relayed the information and went back to the parlor to get his tattoo.

“Being prior enlisted, I have had a lot of deployments and have dealt with these sort of situations overseas,” Sacchetti said in the release. “When it happens, you don’t do it for notoriety or recognition, you do it because you have to. My adrenaline was pumping and I didn’t really think about myself. I saw that kid in need and felt I had to get to him. It was just instantaneously reverting back to my training.”