U.S. AIR FORCE NEWS

  • C-17 test team conducts airdrop tests

    An Air Force test team set out from here Feb. 2 on a C-17 Globemaster III to conduct egress and airdrop tests with help from soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C.Each of the tests supports a combat mission needs statement from Air Mobility Command. The egress testing will evaluate the emergency procedures

  • Secretary Rumsfeld visits base in Italy

    Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told servicemembers during a town hall meeting here Feb. 7 that they "stand between fear and freedom, and America is counting on its military."Rumsfeld visited the Air Force's only fighter wing south of the Alps for a few hours as part of a trip to gain European

  • Priest tackles life at Tinker

    He is new at cooking, new at cleaning and relatively new at English, but the new chaplain here still counts his blessings.In his Midwest City apartment, the Chaplain (Capt.) Gildardo Garcia could not be happier."Here, I live like a king," he said.Hundreds of miles from his family in Colombia, Garcia

  • 'Miracle baby' born at Wilford Hall

    Jessica Decker delivered a perfectly healthy girl at Wilford Hall Medical Center here Jan. 30. Although it does not sound like a miracle, to Jessica's doctors it was. None of the doctor's thought the baby would live long enough to be born.Jessica told her husband, Army Capt. Brent Decker, a

  • Two Scott heroes rescue strangers in need

    A house fire and an apparent heart attack while driving could have been fatal had it not been for the heroic acts of two Scott airmen.Tech. Sgt. Tim Schodorf of the 375 Maintenance Squadron and 1st Lt. J'Wana Fletcher of the 375th Medical Group helped rescue strangers recently.In the first rescue,

  • Servicemembers visit African orphanage

    A group of primarily female servicemembers from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa recently spent some time with the youngsters of an all-female orphanage here.The troops, including a few former Girl Scouts, handed out candy which was donated by Girl Scouts from Lebanon, Conn., sang songs and

  • Blood drive breaks record -- again!

    First Lt. Scott Cassano of the 82nd Communications Squadron here donates blood Jan. 27 during a blood drive. The base collected 653 units, breaking the Texas state record set by Plano East High School, which collected 457 units recently. Sheppard had set the record previously before being unseated

  • Flag Day in February

    Christa Wolfe, wife of 1st Lt. Marc Wolfe from the 741st Missile Squadron here, hangs a two-star service flag on her door. Christa's service flag honors her husband and her father, Lt. Col. Dennis McCarty, a chaplain at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. Service flags are hung during any period of

  • Ladies' night over Afghanistan

    In one of her songs, country singer Shania Twain croons about all the things women do these days -- they are judges, politicians, doctors and soldiers, to name a few.Not mentioned in the song, but occurring more frequently as the global war on terrorism continues, is something else: female fliers

  • Two Robins units receive deployment orders

    The 5th Combat Communications Group and 116th Air Control Wing here received orders to deploy to the U.S. Central Command theater of operations.The orders are a part of a larger action by the United States to reposition some of its military forces to support the global war on terrorism and to