U.S. AIR FORCE NEWS

  • Dust, noise, heat not beating down Bashur airmen

    As airmen continue to unload cargo around the clock in the blazing sun, dust and noise at Bashur Airfield in northern Iraq, others ensure they stay healthy.A team of bioenvironmental engineers and public health troops look out for their welfare, preventing the things that could make them sick or

  • Motorcycle safety leaves no margin for error

    In December, a young airman was visiting his family for the holidays. After dinner and a movie with his mother, he told her he was going for a ride on his motorcycle. That was the last time she saw her son alive.He was 10 minutes from home when he lost control of his bike and was killed instantly.

  • Spitting incident reminds airmen to stay safe

    The wife of a military member here received an unexpected message recently from an anti-war protester.Jessica Resendez, who was wearing a sweatsuit printed with an Air Force emblem, was walking through a shopping center parking lot when a woman grabbed her sleeve and asked her if she was in the

  • Commander recounts historic Iraq C-17 airdrop

    It was by any measure a landmark moment for airlift operations and the C-17 Globemaster III. The nighttime airdrop last month of 1,000 "Sky Soldiers" from the 173rd Airborne Brigade behind enemy lines into northern Iraq was the largest combat airdrop since the invasion of Panama in December 1989

  • Seven Americans recovered alive near Samarra

    Seven U.S. service members listed as missing or prisoners have been returned to American control, U.S. Central Command chief Army Gen. Tommy Franks said today.Franks, speaking on CNN and Fox news networks, said Marines found the seven Americans walking along a road near the city of Samarra.Defense

  • Coalition command post: coordination keeps aircraft, info flowing

    Flexibility is the key to airpower, but a lot of coordination and some planning are the keys to a successful integration of coalition partners in wartime. Such is the case for the 401st Air Expeditionary Wing command post, temporarily located at a Royal Air Force base in the eastern

  • 1st humanitarian flight arrives at Baghdad airport

    Although combat continues in a number of areas in Iraq, coalition efforts to increase humanitarian assistance are becoming more important, according to U.S. Central Command officials."Last night, the first humanitarian-focused flight went into Baghdad International Airport," said Army Brig. Gen.

  • B-52 Litening II pod used in combat

    For the first time in combat history, a B-52 Stratofortress used a Litening II targeting pod to strike targets at an airfield in northern Iraq on April 11, according to officials at the U.S. Central Command's combined air operations center.Using the Litening II system,a crew of reservists from the

  • Bashur airmen toughing it out

    If they did not know before, the more than 200 airmen who run Bashur Airfield in northern Iraq now know what it is like living in austere conditions.Because if it was not for the cargo that transport aircraft drop off day and night, there would not be much here to write home about.The only claim to

  • A-10 fixers log deployed phase maintenance

    Maintainers at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, are performing groundbreaking maintenance checks on their aircraft under a unique program they say is an Air Force first.Maintainers deployed with the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron are completing the first-ever "contingency phase maintenance" on