Free Republic

Donald Trump made a promise and he delivered. In October, the Republican presidential candidate made a commitment to U.S. Army First Sgt. Todd Landen (Ret.) very, very personal. In front of a large crowd at a Sioux City, Iowa, event, he promised the wounded veteran and his family that he would get action to end the runaround Landen was getting from the Veterans Administration. "I am going to put pressure on the VA like you won't believe," Trump said then. "As president, I can guarantee it. As Trump I can say, 'I'll probably be able to pull it off anyway.'"...

According to Turkish media, Ankara halted the flights of its aviation over Syria. ANKARA – Turkey has suspended its Air Force flights over Syria in the international coalition campaign in the fight against the Islamic State after the downing of the Russian Su-24 Fencer bomber, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported Friday, citing diplomatic sources. On Tuesday, a Turkish Air Force F-16 downed the Russian bomber 4 kilometers from the Turkish border. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Su-24 never crossed into Turkish airspace and was shot down over Syrian territory, citing precise objective...

In my latest In Depth Analysis (The Question of Government Size and Scope), I discussed four issues that should be kept very much in mind before we reflexively turn to government, especially the highest level of government, to solve our problems. But one thing I deliberately avoided in that essay was a consideration of the purpose of government in the first place. I’d like to address that briefly here. .... But in the midst of all these attitudes, predispositions, and mood swings, we really ought to stop to ask ourselves: What, in the abstract, is the actual purpose of government?...

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash., November 18, 2015 — Growing up in rural Tarlac province in the Philippines, Air Force Reserve Senior Airman Anne Venice Jalos, a finance manager with the 446th Airlift Wing here, never envisioned that at age 19 she would be serving the U.S. military as a naturalized citizen. "Being raised in the Philippines was very traditional; we depended on our parents a lot. Women weren't encouraged to succeed; it sometimes felt like I was being drug down," Jalos said. After her mother moved the family to the United States, Jalos felt emboldened with a new sense of...

Just a breaking news banner and video at link: http://go.cnn.com/?stream=cnn Full title: French air force conducting major bombardment against ISIS targets in Raqqa, Syria, the French Ministry of Defense says. Watch CNNgo.

He is an award-winning combat photographer who stands accused of trying to pick up women in the public affairs office at MinotAir Force Base in North Dakota, and for that prosecutors wanted to put him in prison for 130 years. The prosecutorial zeal was so great that an Air Force officer appointed to investigate the case said the piled-up charges were combined to “artificially exaggerate the criminality of the accused,” who often was simply “socially maladroit and crass.”

Remember this? http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/hear-this-intense-declassified-recording-of-f-14s-shoot-1739696849

NEW DELHI, OCT.29, 2015: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is staging its biggest exercise, codenamed 'Live Wire', to test its preparedness to fight a two-front war in case of a simultaneous armed conflict with China and Pakistan. This exercise, which begins on Oct 31, involves the simultaneous activation of all airbases across the country from Leh in Jammu and Kashmir to Car Nicobar in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for about 15 days. "The most important part of Exercise Live Wire is to rehearse quick movement of air assets from one theatre to another," a top IAF officer explained to Arming...

WASHINGTON – The Air Force said Tuesday it chose Northrop Grumman Corp., maker of the B-2 stealth bomber, to build its next-generation bomber, a highly classified, $80 billion project designed to replace the aging bomber fleet with an information-age aircraft that eventually may be capable of flying without a pilot aboard. The loser of the high-stakes bidding contest was a team formed by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Air Force just announced that the Long Range Strike Bomber contract has been awarded to Northrop Grumman.

LAS VEGAS - Private land overlooking the secret base at Area 51 has officially been taken from the owners and transferred to the United States Air Force. Last month, the U.S. Air Force condemned the Groom Mine property when the family who owns it rejected a government buyout they felt was unjust. The I-Team broke the story of the family's fight with the government. The Sheahan family, which until now owned the mine, knew they faced an uphill fight. They also expected the government would probably take the land through eminent domain even though the Sheahan's owned it since Abe...

Last month the Air Force announced it had received the final competing design submissions from Northrup Grumman and Boeing/Lockheed Martin for the Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B), also known as the B-3. The Air Force will be reviewing the two submissions and in a few months will announce who has won the contract for its first new bomber in 25 years. At the low end, the contract will be worth some $55 billion. But factoring in development costs and the cost-growth patterns of the last 20 years for these types of projects, the value of the contract easily ends up exceeding...

In the 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pentagon has more or less taken air superiority for granted; but that complacency is coming back to haunt the Department of Defense. Neither Donald Rumsfeld nor Robert Gates took air power seriously, and as such, the U.S. Air Force is left with a tiny fleet of 186 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors instead of the minimum 381 it needs. If that wasn’t bad enough, those F-22s have not received the upgrades that would keep them at the top of their game. The Raptor doesn’t even have a helmet-mounted cueing...

At approximately 9:15 a.m., after the peak of inbound morning traffic passed, the Defenders closed the entry control point on Vandenberg Drive to a single lane. In an instant, a calm situation turned chaotic when a person drove his car upwards of 80 miles an hour into the gate. Before ramming the gate, he hit a light post. At this moment, the Defenders reacted as if the person was seriously injured and immediately went to render first aid. That was until the person got out of the vehicle brandishing a rifle. The Defenders then went from first responders rendering aid...

As if they suddenly came to an epiphany, the United States Air Force brass is now admitting what many of us have been screaming about for so long: We didn’t build nearly enough F-22s, and the F-35 cannot simply pick up the slack.

A U.S. C-130 transport plane crashed near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, early Friday, two defense officials told NBC News. The crash happened shortly after midnight local time near Jalalabad Airport.

A U.S. airman who helped disarm a gunman on a Paris-bound train last month will receive a Purple Heart medal, the U.S. Air Force leader said on Monday, in an unusual award of the honor to a serviceman wounded while not in a combat zone. (snip) In addition to the Purple Heart, Stone will receive the Airman’s Medal, the Air Force’s highest non-combat award for bravery. The medals will be awarded at a ceremony at the Pentagon this week.

The Pentagon sank $400 billion into the F-35 stealth jet—only to have it come up way short. So they’re working on a secret new bomber to handle the job instead. Government officials and aerospace executives have met in secret. Engineers have drawn up blueprints, crafted components, and assembled prototypes, all under strict confidentiality agreements. Lobbyists are prowling the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, smiling, shaking hands, exerting influence. For the first time in more than three decades, the Pentagon and America’s aerospace industry are uniting to build a big, expensive, high-tech stealth bomber. And that’s a huge deal for...

LAS VEGAS – The U.S. Air Force is giving an ultimatum to owners of a remote Nevada property that over time has been surrounded by a vast bombing range including the super-secret Area 51. They're being told to take a $5.2 million "last best offer" for their property by Thursday -- or the government will seize it through condemnation. The owners include descendants of a couple who lost their hardscrabble mining enterprise after the Air Force moved in in the 1940s. Nuclear tests then began in 1951, their mine mill mysteriously exploded in 1954 and they ran out of money...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's calamitous effects, an image of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Mike Maroney locked in a heartwarming embrace with a young girl he encountered during rescue operations became a symbol of hope and optimism. For the last decade, Maroney has been determined to meet the child he hugged in the iconic photo. In March, the Air Force Times launched the "Find Katrina Kid" campaign to help Maroney reconnect with the little girl.