U.S. AIR FORCE NEWS

  • Airmen arrive in Poland for air meet

    U.S. pilots and maintainers arrived here Sept. 4 for an operation placing them with, and pitting them against, the world’s foremost fighter aircraft. NATO Air Meet 2003, a major recurring exercise, kicked off live-flying exercises Sept. 5 and runs through Sept. 19 here and at Powidz Air Base,

  • Band of the Rockies becomes academy band

    The U.S. Air Force Band of the Rockies will be renamed The U.S. Air Force Academy Band on Oct. 1. The band will continue its primary mission of "troop support" while refocusing its national touring mission to support the recruiting and community relations needs of the academy.This move realigns the

  • Air battle management system honored

    An Air Force program that cuts across service lines and allows automated and fully integrated air battle management has been selected to receive an award of excellence.The Theater Battle Management Core Systems was chosen to receive the Association for Enterprise Integration’s Government Award for

  • Officials offer tips for West Nile

    Base health officials here confirmed Sept. 4 that a sample of mosquitoes collected on base tested positive for the West Nile Virus. Other Air Force bases have reported similar discoveries.As part of ongoing monitoring, workers at the public health flight here have been setting mosquito traps at

  • Turkish native enlists, returns home

    An airman here has known what he wanted to do ever since he was a small boy growing up in a middle-class neighborhood near Balgat Air Base in Ankara, Turkey.Staff Sgt. Erim Celik, a contract specialist assigned to the 39th Contracting Squadron, wanted to live the American dream. There was only one

  • MRE menu debuts new items

    Servicemembers in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere will soon have several new MRE options to choose from for their deployed-dining pleasure.The newest meals, ready-to-eat, feature three new entrée items: pot roast with vegetables, barbecue pork ribs and vegetable manicotti. The menu also includes

  • Deployed airmen get break on loans

    Servicemembers who have been deployed or mobilized are not required to make student loan payments during their absences.Federal regulations require lenders to postpone the student loan program payments of active-duty servicemembers. This applies to people of the National Guard and Ready Reserves

  • Committee debates tanker lease plan

    Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee do not question the Air Force’s need for new tankers, only how the service plans to get them.Air Force Secretary Dr. James G. Roche met with the committee Sept. 4. He outlined the importance of immediately upgrading the service’s aging aerial refueling

  • Airmen join nations in exercise

    More than 70 airmen from U.S. Air Forces in Europe bases arrived here Sept. 1 for Exercise Cooperative Key 2003. They joined servicemembers from eight NATO nations and 12 partner nations.According to officials here, the goal of the exercise is to enhance the interoperability of NATO and partner

  • Romanian pilot calls Pope home

    In 1991, 13-year-old Nick Radoescu took his first trip away from home. That morning, he helped his mother pack the suitcases they would carry to the airport. He was excited because this would be his first trip to another country. He was even more excited because his family would now have