Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is “disappointed” in the airman who appeared in a photo that is being circulated of her posing with her tongue in the mouth of the prisoner of war depicted on the iconic black-and-white POW/MIA emblem. “We do not yet have all details behind the photo, but it certainly is a concern; it’s a concern any time someone shows disrespect for prisoners of war and those missing in action. They deserve our utmost respect and we must always remember their sacrifice and the legacy they’ve left for us as men and women serving our nation.

In trying to reduce the cost of its specialized AC-130 gunships, the U.S. Air Force may have made them more vulnerable to enemy gunfire. This is the disturbing conclusion reached by the Pentagon’s top weapons testers in their latest annual report on the AC-130J. According to the report, the new AC-130J Ghostrider—a Lockheed Martin C-130 transport with special sensors and side-firing guns—will only be required to have armor for its crew and their oxygen system. And the armor only needs to be thick enough to stop light machine gun bullets, around 7.62 millimeters in diameter. That’s a significant and potentially...

The US military has suspended 34 officers in charge of launching nuclear missiles for cheating on a proficiency test, Air Force leaders said Wednesday. The scandal at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana marked the latest in a series of damaging revelations dogging the country's nuclear force,including a separate probe into illegal drugs that came to light last week. "There was cheating that took place with respect to this particular test," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a news conference. "Some officers did it. Others apparently knew about it,and it appears that they did nothing,or at least not enough,to...

Air Force pararescuemen, from the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, secure an area after being lowered from an HH-60 Pave Hawk during a mission in Afghanistan. Nov 2012.U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Snyder.

Hoping to boost sagging morale, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a rare visit Thursday to an Air Force nuclear missile base and the men and women who operate and safeguard the nation's Minuteman 3 missiles. But his attempt to cheer the troops was tempered by news that launch officers at another base had been implicated in an illegal-narcotics investigation.... Two officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana are being investigated for allegations of drug possession, said Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth, a service spokesman in Washington. Both of those being investigated are ICBM launch officers with responsibility for operating intercontinental...

The U.S. Department of Defense recently granted the manufacturer of the new F-35 fighter a waiver for having some illegal Chinese components in newly built F-35s. The cheap Chinese components were nothing exotic; they were $2 magnets and stuff like that. These items inadvertently got into the supply chain as a Japanese subcontractor built parts of the aircraft. An audit later discovered the Chinese parts. The manufacturer told the Department of Defense that it would cost over $10 million and weeks, if not months, to take apart the offending assemblies, replace the Chinese items with American ones and reassemble, test...

A World War II fighter pilot who gained fame for dramatically flying beneath the Eiffel Tower's arches to take down a German aircraft has died aged 92. William Overstreet Jr. died on Sunday at a hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, according to his obituary, but there was no indication of the cause of his death. Overstreet's famously flew his P-51C 'Berlin Express' beneath the Eiffel Tower in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944, which has been credited with lifting the spirits of French Resistance troops on the ground. For his valiant service, the French ambassador to the United States presented Overstreet with France's...

<p>SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — Officials at Shaw Air Force Base are trying to determine what to do about a holiday display after a Nativity scene was taken down last week.</p> <p>Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Keavy (kev-EE) Rake said Tuesday a Nativity display was set up Friday by a group of volunteers from the base chapel at a small lake on the installation. The site was near where a tree lighting ceremony was scheduled Friday evening.</p>

Frank Buckley, Jessica Holmes and Mark Kriski were live from the Tournament of Roses House in Pasadena. They watched in awe as the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds rehearsed their Rose Parade flyover with six F-16s soaring in formation along the Colorado Blvd. parade route.

PINAL COUNTY - An illegal immigrant is arrested in Pinal County and it's discovered he had gained access to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. On Thursday, Dec. 26, at 7 p.m., a Pinal County Sheriff's deputy stopped a 2006 Ford Expedition westbound on Interstate 10 near milepost 180 for a traffic violation. The driver of the vehicle identified himself, using an Arizona Identification Card, as 37-year old Armando Villalobos of Phoenix. The deputy did a routine license and warrant check. Villalobos returned with a "No License" status and a felony warrant for his arrest out of Texas. The warrant showed he...

The Air Force this week announced that airmen will be judged on how they create a positive work environment in addition to how well they do their jobs.The move comes at the end of a year that left the service mired in scandal. The biggest centers on sexual misconduct between recruits and drill instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.In a news release, the Air Force said airmen would be graded on how they contributed to a culture of “dignity and respect”.Formally adding it to the evaluation paperwork, considered by promotion boards, adds consequences for those who fall short....

Capt. Mario Ramirez and Capt. Suzanne Morris confirm a patient's identity and prepare to administer a blood transfusion during a flight from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Ramirez and Morris are members of the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron Critical Care Air Transport Team. Feb 2012.U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Chris Willis.

The MiG-21 FL was the force multiplier that allowed other IAF aircraft to go in for the kill without having to watch their back during the 1971 War, thereby hastening the fall of the Pakistani military The MiG-21 may be the only aircraft in aviation history to have forced a nation to surrender. The devastating attack on the Governor’s House in Dhaka in East Pakistan by MiG-21s proved to be a turning point in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. India’s blitzkrieg strategy against the Pakistani military had brought the Indian Army to the outskirts of Dhaka within just nine days. Holed...

Washington (AFP) - Long disliked by the US Air Force, the A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack jet may finally be heading for the chopping block due to budget constraints...

When former Air Force Academy cadet Eric Thomas faced a disciplinary board in August 2012, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said he would come to explain how Thomas worked dozens of cases as a confidential informant and had been of great service to the Air Force. The agent never showed up, and Thomas was expelled from the academy eight months later. On Friday, an active-duty member of the Air Force Academy with direct knowledge of the case said the agent, Brandon Enos, did not show up because he was told not to by the...

Why does Santa need a fighter escort? Children's groups outraged as NORAD militarises Christmas Eve tracker • NORAD officials say the inclusion of jet fighters is a nod to the true mission of the agency - which is to track and intercept airborne threats Outraged child advocates are blasting NORAD's new 3D Santa Tracker program because it includes a fighter jet escort for jolly old Saint Nick. Some say the new online portrait could give kids the wrong impression about Santa Claus - associating him with the military and violence. But Pentagon officials argue the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

<p>KINSHASA, Congo (AP) -- At a ceremony held at a pockmarked airport in Congo's troubled east, the United Nations launched the first of five drones which will be used to gather intelligence about the myriad armed groups still lurking in the nation's vast jungles.</p>

There has been a wave of attacks against religious freedom inside the United States Military. There was the Air Force officer who was forced to remove a Bible from his desk because it might offend someone. There is the military chaplain who was instructed to resign his commission if he refused to “get on board” with the abolition of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. There’s the 20-year-old ethics course that was eliminated in July 2011 because it referenced scripture. And there is the painting containing a verse from scripture that was removed from the Mountain Home Air Force...

The U.S. Air Force has released a new request for a high-powered laser weapon that could be mounted on a next-generation air dominance fighter in the post-2030 era. “The emphasis of this effort is to identify potential laser systems that could be integrated into a platform that will provide air dominance in the 2030+ highly contested Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environments,” the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said in a Request for Information document posted on FEDBIZOPPS last week. The AFRL is particularly interested in lasers that would be at technology readiness level four (TRL4) by October 2014. That means the...

The debate over the U.S. Air Force Academy's recent removal of the words "So help me God" from oaths and making the phrase instead optional for cadets has intensified as a chaplains religious liberty group is calling for the military branch to explain why the action was taken, and activists have stepped up their campaign against expressions of Christian faith within the academy located in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty said in a statement received by The Christian Post on Tuesday that it is receiving calls from concerned parents of Air Force Academy cadets about the...