God and Country

The Air Force has identified the three Airmen killed in Friday’s crash of a KC-135 in Kyrgyzstan.

Capt. Mark T. Voss, 27, of Colorado Springs, Colo.,

Capt. Victoria A. Pinckney, 27, of Palmdale, Calif., and

Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of Bakersfield, Calif.

They were apparently a Fairchild AFB-based crew.

Also at AF.mil.

Initial reports indicate (and Air Force sources reportedly confirm)  a US Air Force KC-135 has crashed after takeoff from Manas, Kyrgyzstan, which is a transit hub for US forces in Afghanistan.

Five people were on board, said Elmira Shyrypova, at the Kyrgyz Emergencies Ministry press office. The U.S. military didn’t give the number of those on the plane and said “the status of the crew is unknown.”

Purported photos of the crash site show KC-135 wing parts and a McConnell AFB tail flash.

KC-135s can carry cargo and are also refuelers for the many fighter aircraft supporting combat operations in Afghanistan.

Also at FoxNews.

After much controversy, the “Distinguished Warfare Medal,” which was purportedly designed to recognize those who contribute to the battlefront without being there, has been eliminated by the Secretary of Defense:

Just two months after its creation, Hagel said the Pentagon will replace the DWM with a device that can be attached to other previously existing medals.

The pejoratively-nicknamed “drone medal” was the subject of Read more…

The US Navy reported an F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed while operating off the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the North Arabian Sea:

Search and Rescue (SAR) swimmers from an SH-60F of HS-5 “Night Dippers” recovered the two aircrew and safely delivered them back to the carrier.

Unlike Air Force reports, which withhold details until a month-long investigation is completed, the initial Navy release speculated as to the cause of the crash:

The two aircrew, from VFA-103 “Jolly Rogers” based in Virginia Beach, Va., safely ejected from their jet when it incurred an engine failure at 12:20 p.m. local time.

In case you were wondering, the F/A-18 has two engines.

The US Air Force identified the F-16 pilot killed in Afghanistan last week as Capt James Steel, a 2006 US Air Force Academy graduate and Shaw Air Force Base pilot.

The F-16 reportedly crashed while on a night final approach to Bagram Air Base after his fragged sortie.  News reports do not indicate a family, other than his father, retired MajGen Robert Steel.

An American F-16 has reportedly crashed in Afghanistan, killing the pilot.  The ISAF release noted only that a plane had crashed, though other news sources identified the nationality as US:

A U.S. military pilot was killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed while on a night flight over mountainous terrain in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

The articles seem to indicate it was not likely a result of hostile fire.

His identity has been withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The Christian Post quoted President Obama making a remark about wanting to don a fake mustache to tour Israel incognito.

In an interview taped at the White House earlier this week, the president said, “Sometimes I have this fantasy that I can put on a disguise, wear a fake mustache and I can wander through Tel Aviv and go to a bar and have a conversation.”

Admittedly, it has nothing to do with the fighter pilot tradition of Mustache March (which is virtually officially recognized by the Air Force), but the timing is right.

The US Navy announced three crewmembers were killed in an E/A-6B Prowler crash near Spokane, Washington.

A source familiar with the crash confirmed that there were three people onboard the aircraft…[from] a fleet replacement squadron that trains pilots, naval flight officers and maintainers…

FRSs are responsible for training freshly winged pilots and NFOs straight from flight school, as well as ones that have been out of the cockpit for an extended period of time, or ones that are learning to fly an entirely new type of aircraft.

Also via the Associated Press.

John Mollison is an artist with a unique calling.  To quote his website, he

interview[s] old guys and draw[s] their airplanes.

And he does a fine job of it.  His website contains much of his work, including his current project.

His site also contains some unique historical artifacts.  Notably, he has Read more…

Retired Col Lee Ellis, whose outstanding book Leading with Honor made the Recommended list here as well as General Mark Welsh’s professional reading list, recently addressed cadets at the US Air Force Academy as part of the 2013 National Character and Leadership Symposium.

A prisoner of war held in the “Hanoi Hilton” for five and a half years shared his compelling story of imprisonment and success with cadets…
 
Retired Col. Lee Ellis was held captive along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others after his plane was shot down Nov. 7, 1967.

Col Ellis shared his perspective on purpose, passion, Read more…

B-25 navigator Maj Thomas Griffin died in a VA nursing home last week.  While most such deaths would be noted by surviving family members, Griffin’s was noted by how many Doolittle Raiders he leaves behind:  only 4.

As noted previously (and clarified by Doolittle Raider Association manager Tom Casey), the final public Doolittle reunion will be this year.  The remaining Raiders will gather at another location privately and open the bottle of cognac reserved for the final survivors.

The US Air Force announced Sierra Nevada Corp, in alliance with Brazil’s Embraer, has won the contract to provide the Afghan Air Force with a light attack aircraft.  The contract has a very specific dollar figure:

The firm-fixed-price contract is worth $427,459,708…Work will be completed by Feb. 26, 2019, and the first delivery order is expected to be complete by April 2015.

The Super Tucano was competing only with Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6.  The aircraft for this contract will reportedly be built in Florida.

The Air Force is continuing steps necessary to replace the venerable T-38, a 50-year-old jet trainer originally conceived as a lead-in to the century-series fighters (F-100, F-102, etc.).

The winner of the T-X competition will replace Northrop Grumman’s T-38 Talon, in use since 1959. “The T-38 needs a replacement system by sometime in the 2020s,” a deadline that means the replacement program needs to be up and running “by the end of this decade” at the latest, Aboulafia said.

Because the US Congress hasn’t passed a budget in years, new programs are still not funded.  The “program” is essentially administrative research until the venture is appropriated.

The US military has created a new combat medal — which includes those who don’t actually go into combat:

Modern technology enables service members with special training and capabilities to more directly and precisely impact military operations at times far from the battlefield.  The Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded in the name of the secretary of defense to service members whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat theater, deserve distinct department-wide recognition. 

Technically, it seems any member of the military is eligible for the Distinguished Warfare Medal (DWM), including those involved in direct combat — so long as their extraordinary act did not involve “valor.”  However, the fact the citation criteria so Read more…

For the second year in a row, the biography of a military Christian has made the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s official “Reading List.”  Last year, it was Unbroken, the story of Louis Zamperini, the Olympic athlete turned bombardier turned POW — a man who eventually became a Christian and returned to meet his former torturers.

This year, General Mark Welsh’s first list contains Lee Ellis’ Leading with Honor, previously reviewed here.  The Air Force write up says

How did American military leaders in the brutal POW camps Read more…