Members of the National Capital Region and Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Chiefs Groups took time to honor one of the Air Force's "Charter Chiefs" during a small ceremony at the Air Force Memorial recently.
Retired Chief Master Sgt. Francis Collier was one of the original 625 enlisted Airmen promoted to chief master sergeant Dec. 1, 1959, as a result of the Career Compensation Act of 1958.
Collier is a northern Virginia resident but had never been to the Air Force Memorial, and Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Reeves, a member of the NCR Chiefs Group, said area chiefs wanted to ensure he and his family had the opportunity to visit.
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Defense Commissary Agency officials have announced the end of magazine sales in their overseas stores beginning January 2012.
This policy affects all commissaries in Europe, the Pacific (Japan, Okinawa, South Korea and Guam) and Puerto Rico.
DeCA will continue to sell the Stars & Stripes newspaper since it is printed in theater. Commissaries in Alaska and Hawaii are not affected by this sales change. Magazines will also continue to be available in military exchanges and bookstores located near most overseas commissaries.
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An Air Force electronic warfare officer recently became the first to upgrade and become a fully qualified instructor teaching Navy pilots flight maneuvers in the EA-6B Prowler.
Maj. Martin Rann, an EA-6B Prowler instructor assigned to the Fixed Wing Electronic Attack Squadron 129, is attached to the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.
"It is such an honor to be an instructor teaching these young lieutenants how to fly and land the Prowler on carriers," Rann said. "This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and one of the main reasons I made the decision to return to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., and be a part of the boat program."
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Air Force officials held a training conference recently to teach those operating the Integrated Disability Evaluation System how to process service members who, because of medical conditions, may no longer be able to serve in the Air Force.
The conference, held jointly between the Air Force Personnel Center and the Air Force Medical Operations Agency, was attended by more than 250 base-level physical evaluation board liaison officers, who guide service members through the disability evaluation system, and medical physicians, who recommend service members for the disability evaluation process.
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Nellis Air Force Base Airmen worked alongside the Army National Guardsmen Aviation unit stationed in Stockton, Calif., to conduct recovery and clean-up efforts for the F-15C Eagle aircraft crash site in the Nevada Test and Training Range recently.
The operation was the 820th RED HORSE Squadron airborne flight's first real-world sling load operation.
The F-15 crashed Oct. 24, 2011, northwest of Alamo, Nev., and the Safety Investigation Board had been examining the scene since the incident occurred. Once the SIB concluded its initial stage of gathering information from the site, Nellis AFB Airmen from the 820th RHS, 99th Civil Engineer Squadron, 99th Logistics Readiness Squadron and the 99th Security Forces Squadron were permitted to begin cleaning up the crash site.
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In an effort to build stronger relationships, members of Task Force Thunder at Kandahar Air Wing hosted Afghan air force maintainers for a visit recently.
During a maintenance facility tour, Afghan air force members saw firsthand the processes and equipment TF Thunder teams employ into their aviation maintenance functions.
Also, Afghan air force leaders were briefed on capabilities and responsibilities of TF Thunder maintenance crews and also got an up-close look at the CH-47 Chinook, UH-60 Blackhawk and AH-64 Apache.
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The Air Force recently transitioned mortuary affairs call center responsibilities from a temporary call center in Washington D.C., to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Trained experts will continue to answer calls from the toll-free number 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet the needs of any concerned family members.
The call center was established following the announcement of results of a year-long investigation of the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center, the point of entry for the remains of U.S. service members who are killed or die overseas. Investigators found no evidence of anyone intentionally mishandled remains, but concluded the mortuary staff failed to maintain accountability while processing portions of remains for three service members.
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The simple thought, "What can I do at my level," led the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing chaplain to a Bishkek church to start a religious exchange program.
One of the four mission pillars of the Transit Center is to build relationships, and after contemplating how he could do this, Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Steven Thompson decided to reach out to his Kyrgyz Republic brethren.
He asked a few of the translators at the Transit Center if there was a Baptist church in town. They did some research and found one. So one Sunday, Thompson, Master Sgt. James Iaun, the superintendent of chapel operations, and a translator showed up for a service.
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Experience the Southeast Asia War Gallery online on the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force's Virtual Tour, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. Air Force campaign during that war.
The gallery is now fully embedded with audio and video hotspots and touch-screen devices located throughout the gallery .
Located at
www.nmusafvirtualtour.com, the Southeast Asia War Gallery is now interactive with initial materials available on more than 150 hotspots allowing users to click on an artifact or exhibit and access factsheets, audio-tour podcasts with printable transcripts, videos and an interactive touch-screen display.
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With the recent announcements from Air Force officials regarding civilian workforce restructuring and continuation of the enlisted date of separation rollback program, there is understandable potential for a feeling of fear about the uncertainty of what the future may hold.
While these changes may not directly impact all of us, not one of us is unaffected by these changes -- we are in this together as Airmen, civil servants and wingmen.
We need to focus not on what we don't know, but what we do know. We know that we are the world's finest Air Force because of our personnel, both military and civilian. We know that in order to move forward boldly into an uncertain future, we need to focus on what makes us great and improve upon it -- our people.
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