Free Republic

... Larry received his wings and commission in the U.S Air Force in 1943. During WWII, he saw service in North Africa, Italy and China. He was recalled again for the Korean War. He was later assigned to the Philippines, Japan, and Okinawa. Major Guarino was flying combat missions in Southeast Asia in early 1965 when he was shot down and forced to eject over North Vietnam. He was captured and taken as prisoner of war, spending the next 2,801 days in captivity. Colonel Guarino was released on February 12, 1973. He was awarded the nation's second highest award, the...

Deaf and severely hearing impaired individuals could soon serve in the Air Force if legislation introduced in July by a California lawmaker is passed. An Air Force captain convinced U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-California, to introduce a bill that would allow deaf and hearing impaired people to serve in the Air Force as part of a pilot or demonstration program. Current Defense Department hearing requirements bar the deaf from serving, as well as individuals who currently require or previously used a hearing aid, or have a cochlear ear implant.

Aleksandra's Note: ...Lt. Col. Milton Friend of the USAF, a Halyard Mission veteran that I met in person in Chicago in 1994 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Halyard Mission Rescue Operation, got in touch with me in 2009. I had wondered if he was still living. Indeed he was, and he had a story to tell. When I searched for him on the internet, I discovered that he was not featured anywhere that I could find. I told him that his story needs to be made public and be given wide exposure, and it is my absolute pleasure...

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is about to put a new advanced satellite into space to spy on other countries’ satellites. On Wednesday, a Delta IV rocket will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and place two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites into orbit. They will be the first GSSAP satellites ever launched. “This neighborhood watch twosome … will be on the lookout for nefarious capability other nations might try to place in that critical orbital regime,” Gen. William Shelton, the head of Air Force Space Command, told reporters at the Pentagon. Because of its enhanced maneuvering capabilities,...

The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation. The Pentagon announced this week that Air ForceLt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation....

The military on Thursday said it had grounded the entire fleet of Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets until completion of additional inspections of the warplane's single engine built by Pratt & Whitney. The Pentagon's F-35 program office, Air Force and Navy issued directives on Thursday ordering the suspension of all F-35 flights after a June 23 fire on an Air Force F-35A jet at a Florida air base, according to statements by the Pentagon and the F-35 program office. The Pentagon said U.S. and industry officials had not been able to pinpoint the cause of the fire, which occurred...

In what was one of the most outrageous Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) opportunities of the decade, and the first time the F-22 Raptor made a SE Asia international exercise appearance, Cope Taufan brought the US and Malaysian air arms closer together in a wonderfully aggressive manner. Cope Taufan is a biennial exercise between Malaysia and the US, and it has grown over the past few evolutions to become one of the premier multinational air combat exercises in the hemisphere. For 2014, America's most capable air-to-air fighters were deployed to take part, and sending the Raptor to Malaysia fired a...

Northrop Grumman Corp has won a five-year contract valued at up to $9.9 billion from the U.S. Air Force to modernize and support the B-2 stealth bomber, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday. The Air Force is going to make sure everyone’s favorite bat-winged bomber stays stealth through 2058. The B-2 Spirit will be included in upcoming modernization planning being conducted by the Pentagon. Northrop Grumman has a contract with the Pentagon to complete a massive upgrade on the nuclear bomber. Its $9.9 billion contract will include new computer processors, avionics, radar warning receivers and communications gear, the defense website military.com...

As hardcore Islamic maniacs close in on Baghdad, Iran puts the finishing touches on its nuclear weaponry, Russia annexes its neighbors, and communist China flexes its muscles, this story from Albuquerque gives an idea of what Commander in Chief Barack Hussein Obama has our troops doing: Kirtland Air Force Base will celebrate their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender members at a Thursday picnic. … Kirtland is embracing the LGBT community in a historic way. For the first time ever, the base will host a pride picnic on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Millennium Park. Nature abhors a...

On Thursday, Kirtland Air Force Base will host an event that just three years ago could have cost many airmen their careers – the first-ever Team Kirtland LGBT Pride Picnic. “The significance of this event is, for me, the normalization of us (the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community) as part of the Air Force community,” said David Hardy, the civilian director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland and head of the event’s coordinating committee. “I like seeing that, finally, openly, it is recognized that the LGBT community is part of the Air Force family.”...

The U.S. House on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted an amendment to the 2015 defense appropriation bill that would prohibit the Pentagon from spending any money to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II jet — a mainstay of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. But the fate of the venerated “Warthog” close-air-support jet remains far from certain, as the Senate still must act, and the issue will likely be hammered out in conference committee. The amendment’s bipartisan adoption was a victory for Rep. Ron Barber, a Tucson Democrat, and other A-10 supporters, who were chagrined when the House Appropriations Committee left A-10 funding out of...

The Boeing B-52 - sometimes known as the Stratofortress - is a long-range, jet-powered strategic bomber which is widely expected to prop up the US Air Force well beyond the year 2045 Before our marathon eight-hour flight Captain Thomas Hyde, the commanding officer of one of the B-52 bombers, briefly describes the mission. He says we will be doing a number of simulated bombing runs around what he calls "the island". He makes it sound like a short training flight over a remote abandoned outcrop of rock somewhere in the North Sea. But the island he is referring to is...

The AC-130 flying gunship fleet is one of the most fabled and feared assets in the entire USAF inventory. Known for its ability to unleash a broadside of cannon fire in the dead of night, the newest of the AC-130 lot is more about smart bombs than raining lead and howitzer shells down on the enemy. Before the turn of the decade it became clear that the aging AC-130 fleet was in low supply and exceedingly high demand. As a result the Air Force Special Operations Command decided that it should augment the existing fleet on AC-130H and AC-130Us in...

A survey of basic-training instructors conducted during the worst sex scandal in Air Force history revealed a sharp distrust of senior commanders at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and a widespread fear of recruits. In occasionally bitter comments, some instructors lashed out at basic-training leaders. They talked of stressful working conditions and declining standards that had made training too easy, with recruits even saying they expected to have a harder time. The survey, done last year and obtained this week by the San Antonio Express-News, revealed basic training remains haunted by recruit abuse and misconduct, the same issues that prompted a...

A blistering internal review has revealed that an Air Force security team botched a training exercise last summer that simulated an attack on a nuclear missile silo, prompting expanded training to prepare for the possibility of a real attack. A senior U.S. defense official confirmed the details of the report to Fox News. The report was first obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. The review said the security forces were unable to speedily regain control of the captured silo during the exercise at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, calling the failure a "critical...

We embrace heroes in America. Senior Airman Brian Kolfage defines hero: the triple-amputee veteran of the Iraqi War overcame insurmountable odds to survive his horrific injuries. Kolfage recently sent a powerful – and damning – letter to his commander-in-chief: I nearly died in a war that you and most of your colleagues supported overwhelmingly, including the two presidents who came before you. Many citizens may not agree with waging war in Iraq to free the oppressed Iraqi citizens, but it’s something that warriors like myself have zero control over. I joined to serve my country and to better my life....

DOVER, Del. - The Dover Air Force Base is on lockdown because of a suspicious person on base. Dover Air Force Base Public Affairs said the base went on lockdown around 11:00 a.m.

America’s gazillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter is supposed to go virtually unseen when flying over enemy turf. But that’s not how things are working out. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—the jet that the Pentagon is counting on to be the stealthy future of its tactical aircraft—is having all sorts of shortcomings. But the most serious may be that the JSF is not, in fact, stealthy in the eyes of a growing number of Russian and Chinese radars. Nor is it particularly good at jamming enemy radar. Which means the Defense Department is committing hundreds of billions of dollars to a fighter...

Late in the day on April 4th (just before AFPC closed its doors and unplugged its phones for the weekend), notices began going out to airmen retracting previously approved retirements, explaining that approval had been “erroneous.” They’d been given permission to retire, allowed to act on it for a few days, and then informed AFPC was “taking back” that approval. In some cases, this second notice came after the acceptance of a job offer or the hiring of a real estate agent. Spouses gave notice at work or accepted new jobs. In some cases, child care providers were given notice...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force took the extraordinary step Thursday of firing nine midlevel nuclear commanders and announcing it will discipline dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base, responding firmly to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period than originally reported. A 10th commander, the senior officer at the base, resigned and will retire from the Air Force. Air Force officials called the discipline unprecedented in the history of America's intercontinental ballistic missile force. The Associated Press last year revealed a series of security and other problems in the ICBM force, including a failed safety...