Free Republic

If you had told the average person that an anarchist or an airman had set himself on fire to protest Israel’s campaign against Islamic terrorists, you would get two very different reactions. Unsurprisingly the media led with the data point most likely to produce a favorable reaction. And Aaron Bushnell cynically played the same game, wearing (the wrong) uniform to his Hamas suicide attempt rather than the Antifa red in which he had been previously photographed. The Washington Post gets around to admitting that Bushnell was an “anarchist”. Less than two weeks before Aaron Bushnell walked toward the gates of...

Decorated Tuskegee Airman Brigadier Gen. Charles McGee has died. He was 102. McGee died peacefully in his sleep Sunday morning, a family spokesperson said. “He had his right hand over his heart and was smiling serenely,” his youngest daughter Yvonne McGee said in a family statement. “He was a wonderful human being……I feel proud and privileged to be called his son," McGee's son, Ron McGee, said McGee, a longtime resident of Bethesda, Maryland, flew 409 combat missions in conflicts from World War II to Vietnam

A Federal Aviation Administration advisory group is urging the agency to replace words like “airman” and “cockpit” with gender-neutral terms like “aviator” and “flight deck.” The FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee put forth the recommendations in a report released Wednesday, part of a broader push for equity in the agency and aviation industry.

After enduring countless hardships and overcoming unimaginable obstacles, Airman 1st Class Guor Maker, a dental assistant currently in technical training, found his way out of war-torn South Sudan, Africa and into the U.S. nearly 20 years ago.SurvivingAs one of roughly 20,000 children uprooted by the gruesome Second Sudanese Civil War, Maker’s childhood was far from normal. After losing 28 family members, including eight of his nine siblings, 8-year-old Maker set out on foot from South Sudan to live with his uncle.“The country I came from was torn apart by war,” said Maker. “It was all I knew growing up,...

The Air Force said it will conduct a review to determine whether the use of "airman" is appropriate given the military's push towards full gender equality. [...] This confirms that a review of job titles, like the one initiated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, is soon coming. Mabus' review resulted in an order to the Marine Corps to purge the word "man" from job titles, with the exception that compound words can remain the same. In other words, "infantryman" is acceptable, but "reconnaissance man" is not. That order came as part of the broader initiative to open all combat roles...

The remains of a World War II airman from San Francisco, who was missing for seven decades after his plane was shot down over New Guinea, will be returned to the United States and buried with full honors, the Department of Defense said Monday.

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OPELIKA, AL (WTVM) - News Leader 9's Elizabeth White spoke with the father of the 20-year-old Airman who was shot in the stomach March 6 by an Opelika police officer. It was the first on-camera interview Billy Davidson has done since the incident. He met with us in a parking lot just across the street from East Alabama Medical Center, where his son is still recovering with serious injuries to his stomach. Billy tells us his son is and has always been a good kid who is dedicated to his Air Force career. He is well-loved by his friends, family...

Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk has served in the U.S. Air Force for 19 years with a clean service record. But his new lesbian commander has relieved him of duty and is threatening his career, allegedly because of his Christian beliefs regarding gay marriage. Officials are investigating as Monk appeals his punishment. Monk was First Sergeant of the 326th Training Squadron, stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. According to his attorneys, Monk recently returned from a deployment and found he had a new commander, Maj. Elisa Valenzuela, who is openly lesbian. Monk explained to Fox News...

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJBK) - Students at L'Anse Creuse High School were evacuated Tuesday morning after reports of a suspicious person roaming the halls in military gear. Macomb Co. Sheriff Anthony Wickersham says the man was a 21-year-old former student and airman at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard base. He arrived on campus after his overnight shift to meet with a school counselor after 6 a.m. wearing a camouflage uniform, flack jacket and an empty gun holster.

A year and a day after undergoing ground-breaking surgery for wounds suffered in an attack in Afghanistan, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Tre Porfirio, died Nov. 28 from complications of the same injury. The Knoxville-born serviceman's father, Karl Porfirio, said Thursday that the past year "has been rough." "I keep calling him a boy, but he's a man," Karl Porfirio said, his voice cracking. "He's my boy, but to everybody else he's a man. A senior airman in the United States Air Force." The 22-year-old airman will be buried today at the East Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery.

Nearly every airman has forgotten to salute, missed a meeting, showed up for work late or flubbed a test. By and large, those moments strike fear in airmen’s hearts — and for good reason. A little thing, or a seemingly little thing, can kill a career as much as a big thing. You don’t have to commit a crime to get kicked out of the service. You can be handed your walking papers for simply being in an overmanned career field or flunking the PT test. And in these times when the Air Force is looking to get rid of...

5/5/2010 - NEW YORK (AFNS) -- The editors of TIME magazine honored Chief Master Sgt. Antonio D. Travis as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his efforts following the Haiti earthquake. He was recognized May 4 during the 2010 TIME 100 gala event at New York City's Lincoln Center. Chief Travis was one of the first U.S. military members on the ground at the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port au Prince, Haiti, only 30 hours after the earthquake and less than 12 hours after the nation's president requested U.S. assistance. The chief led a...

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Jan. 11, 2010 – When Airman Christopher Platte decided to join the Air Force last year, he didn't know he would be following in famous footsteps. Retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Claude Platte signs a wall at the 323rd Training Squadron dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen as his great nephew, Airman Christopher Platte, looks on Dec. 11, 2009, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Captain Platte was one of the first African-American officers to be trained and commissioned in the Air Force pilot training program. Airman Platte graduated from Basic Military Training Dec. 11, 2009....

10/19/2009 - CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AFNS) -- A Charleston Air Force Base technical sergeant was honored Oct. 15 for his heroism and bravery while suffering from injuries sustained during a patrol on his seventh deployment to the Middle East. Tech. Sgt. Michael Williams, an explosives ordnance disposal technician with the 437th Civil Engineer Squadron, was on patrol Aug. 2 near the Mushan Village in Afghanistan after one of the locals said they knew where an improvised explosive device was located. With one step, his foot landed on a different land mine with an IED on it. "(Following the...

A Texas Airman stationed at an Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. has lost both legs after surgeons reportedly botched a routine surgery to remove his gallbladder. Colton Read, 20, underwent laproscopic surgery last week at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento. Laproscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that involves making a tiny incision to minimize pain and speed recovery time. About an hour into the surgery, something went wrong. Read's wife Jessica told CBS11TV.com. "A nurse runs out, 'we need blood now' and she rounds the corner and my gut feelings is 'oh...

Terry was the only member of the unit convicted in the Freeman Field Mutiny, in which black officers plotted to integrate an all-white officer's club in Indiana in 1945. He was pardoned in 1995.

5/14/2009 - KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) -- Most of us hear stories of Airmen saving lives in combat, but an Airman who saves the lives of more than 300 passengers is definitely a story worth hearing. A fuel leak on a civilian aircraft caught the attention of Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda, 909th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, during a flight from Chicago to Narita airport, Japan. After alerting the pilots and aircrew, the ranking pilot made the decision to divert the flight to San Francisco. "I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right behind the...

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Jan. 2, 2009 – For the past 15 months, Leo Knight-Inglesby has pushed himself beyond the limits he and his loved ones ever thought possible. Leo Knight-Inglesby, left, reviews his Air Force enlistment contract with his recruiter, Air Force Staff Sgt. Ty Lopez, in the Rockville, Md., recruiting office. The 22-year-old lost more than 160 pounds to join the Air Force. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ty Lopez   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 22-year-old Silver Spring, Md., native shed more than 160 pounds to meet the physical standard of...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2008 – Air Force Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro has made remarkable strides in his recovery in the three years and 102 surgeries since he and his team were ambushed by the Taliban in the mountains near Qalat, Afghanistan. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro works out at the Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, fitness center. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Cecilio M. Ricardo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. His fight to survive started on that mountain, where he refused to leave his 3-year-old son fatherless. He’d lost his father early in...