Free Republic

A two-time recipient of the Bronze Star and a father of five were killed during military free-fall training in Florida, the Air Force announced late Tuesday. Tech. Sgt. Timothy Officer Jr., 32, and Tech. Sgt. Marty Bettelyoun, 35, were rushed to local hospitals after the accident at Eglin Air Force Base on Monday. Both were Special Tactics Airmen, a force made up of specially-trained air traffic controllers, pararescuemen specializing in rescue operations, and military weathermen and forecasters. ... Special tactics airmen are the Air Force's ground special operations forces. They often embed with Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces to...

Of all the candidates vying to become the nation’s next commander in chief, none has spent as much time in the military as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham. The South Carolina Republican retired from the Air Force this summer after a 33-year career, including two decades as a reservist while serving in Congress.Graham is running as a ­national-security hawk, calling himself a “battle-tested leader” with “a lifetime of military service.” Images of him wearing camouflage in the field are a common thread in his campaign.But a detailed examination of Graham’s military record — much of it obtained under the Freedom of...

See the inside of Fifi, the only B-29 Superfortress currently flying. It's part of the Aviation Museum of Kentucky's 20-year anniversary celebration.

The Navy and Marine Corps have joined the Army and Air Force in making it harder to discharge transgender military members. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus signed a memorandum last Wednesday stating, "Effective immediately, separations initiated under the provisions of the reference for service members with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria, who identify themselves as transgender, or who have taken steps to externalize the condition, must be forwarded to the assistant secretary of the Navy (manpower and reserve affairs) for decision." The memo was directed to the chief of naval operations and commandant of the Marine Corps. Previously, discharge...

A military fighter jet crashed into a Cessna flight midair about 11 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina this morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The condition of the pilots of the planes is unknown at this time. There have been no reports confirming any other passengers. In a statement, the FAA said the collision involved a Cessna C 150 and an F-16 fighter aircraft at around 11 a.m. A defense department official confirmed to ABC News that the pilot of the F-16 ejected safely. The plane and pilot came from Shaw Air Force Base, roughly 100 miles north...

...The Iranians may break or cheat on an agreement, and try build a nuclear weapon anyway. That’s why, at least three times in the past year, a B-2 stealth bomber has taken off from an Air Force base in Missouri and headed west to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. For these missions, the $2 billion plane was outfitted with one of the world’s largest bombs. It is a cylinder of special high-performance steel, 20 feet long and weighing 15 tons. When dropped from an altitude likely above 20,000 feet, the bomb would have approached supersonic speed before...

n F-16 from the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard has crashed near Douglas close to Arizona's border with New Mexico, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has confirmed.

Strength. That’s the first word that comes to mind when most of us think about 3D printing in metal. And expense is usually the second–but when it comes to fixing up a nation’s fighter jet, thrift is most likely not an issue. And if you were up against a constant adversary like North Korea, you’d want the best, most secure repairs possible for the main fleet’s F-15K fighter jet–especially if you were the one flying it. When it came to the attention of the South Korean Air Force powers that they needed to modify and repair two high-powered turbine components...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A grandson and namesake of the man who piloted the massive B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II is taking over leadership of the United States' aging fleet of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers. Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets IV takes command of the 509th Bomb Wing during a ceremony Friday at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, replacing Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck, who has led the wing since February 2014. Tibbets, 48, was previously deputy director for nuclear operations for the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in...

We are reliably assured by progressives in the modern era that spending, deficits and the national debt are no big deal and are generally just distractions and dog whistles tossed out by conservatives. After all, you can always just print more money or go out to the White House rose garden and pick more off the money tree or something, right? That’s why my LADAR (Leftist Radar) is always set off when I hear one of their spokesmodels suddenly becoming concerned over the budget. The most recent example of this comes from Steve Lopez at the LA Times, who takes...

Portrait of General Mihailovich by Wisconsin artist Jim Pollard. Aleksandra's Note: It's now 40 years since a group of American Airmen rescued by General Mihailovich in WWII along with Serbian patriotic organizations in the Diaspora initiated the effort to get a monument to General Draza Mihailovich erected on the grounds of Washington, D.C. at their own personal expense. From the time the effort was initiated in 1975, progress was made, then setbacks had to be dealt with. Now in 2015, many of the American airmen are gone, but their dream does not have to die with them. A lot has...

“History,” it has been written, “does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Today it’s rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents. The hubris of the “battleship Navy” was such that just nine days before Pearl Harbor, the official program for the 1941 Army-Navy game displayed a full page photograph of the battleship USS Arizona with language virtually extolling its invincibility. Of course, the reason that no one had yet sunk a battleship from the air — in combat — was that no...

A U.S. airman “with no apparent motive” walked into a Wal-Mart Supercenter in North Dakota early Tuesday and opened fire with a handgun, killing one worker and injuring a second before turning the gun on himself, police said. Grand Forks police said the shooting a few minutes after 1 a.m. may have been random, with no link yet found between Marcell Willis, 21, and either the store or the employees. Willis was stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, about a dozen miles west of the city....

Named counter-electronics high-powered microwave advanced missile. Weapon destroys electronic systems without hurting people or buildings. Champ is now an 'operational system already in [the] tactical air force.' Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range has been chosen as the delivery vehicle. From Ocean's Eleven to Star Trek, weapons that wipe out enemy electronics are a staple of science fiction films. For years, scientists have been attempting to create such a weapon as part of Champ, or the Counter-electronics High-powered microwave Advanced Missile Project. Now, the US Air Force claims it has advanced the technology, and says it can deploy it using...

Eric Sheppard, the Valdosta State University student who was confronted last month by an Air Force veteran after he stomped on the American flag, has issued a violent 4,700-word anti-white rant in which he threatened to “annihilate those who come after me.” Sheppard is wanted by police after they found a gun in his backpack days after the flag-stomping demonstration. In his lengthy letter, submitted to The Valdosta Daily Times this week, Sheppard said he will not surrender and will use violence if necessary. The flag incident made national news after Michelle Manhart, an Air Force veteran and former Playboy...

The Textron Scorpion costs $20 million, still not exactly a bargain by most people's standards, but a fifth of the cost of the F-35. It suggests that not every advanced defence project has to necessarily come in years late and billions over budget – and points to a new twist in not only the future of fighter-jet design, but also in more humanitarian roles that a budget jet could carry out. Textron aren’t the only ones creating the tech to address this issue. The single jet fighter JF-17 is a Chinese design, currently being built in collaboration with its sole...

A two-star general resigned his command in San Antonio last week after making a racially-charged comment during a lower-ranking officer's disciplinary hearing, the Air Force said Monday. Maj. Gen. Michael Keltz, then commander of the 19th Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, told an accused officer that he appeared “drunker than 10,000 Indians” in a photo of him and another airman. The Air Force confirmed that Keltz made the remark, which initially was reported in a blog.

Two Russian nuclear-capable bombers intruded into the U.S. air defense zone near Alaska last week in the latest saber rattling by Moscow, defense officials said. The Tu-95 Bear H bombers flew into the Alaska zone on April 22. But unlike most earlier incursions, no U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow them, said defense officials familiar with the latest U.S.-Russian aerial encounter. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), declined to confirm the incursion. But he said no jets were dispatched last week to intercept intruding aircraft. The incident...

A US Air Force refuelling aircraft disappeared off the radar over the English Channel last night. The Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker left Amiens in northern France at 0.05am local time (11.05pm BST) and was last reported on a flight tracking website between Dover and Calais 15 minutes later. It is not yet known why the plane - flying under the code QID72 and based at Mildenhall in Suffolk - fell off the radar at 0.20am. The US Air Force was unavailable for comment.