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FEATURES

  • ANG family deployed simultaneously: Sniders support 779th EAS

    The term ‘beans and bullets’ was started in the civil war, a time where fathers and sons served together side-by-side. Beans, as in coffee beans, and bullets where items supplied to support the frontlines, similar to the mission here at Ali Al Salem Air Base. For one Illinois family, the tradition

  • Are You Okay?

    It’s 2010 and Airman 1st Class Leonard James’ phone vibrates silently in his pocket; he quickly reaches down and sends the call to voicemail.“I was in class and we weren’t supposed to have our phones,” the now staff sergeant recalls.James was at Port Hueneme Naval Base, California, a technical

  • 627 SFS attack their mission at JBLM

    Many Airmen stationed here may not have much information or knowledge about the 627th Security Forces Squadron’s (SFS) mission at McChord Field.It has three mission sets: defend the JBLM flight lines, protect aircraft in austere environments through the Phoenix Raven program and instruct Airmen on

  • The Rise of a Loadmaster

    The powerful vibrations of four engines propelling a 282,400 pound aircraft several miles above the ground hum across the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster III on its way to drop off much needed cargo.Two pilots sit upstairs in the flight deck guiding the C-17 through the sky while another two rest

  • Humble, approachable, credible: 509th Weapons Squadron

    While all KC-135 pilots train for air refueling, some get the chance to go above and beyond the basics by learning advance tactics and skills in the 509th Weapons Squadron, which produces 24 boom operators, pilots and navigators every year that are fully trained in providing advanced air refueling

  • Programmed depot maintenance modernizes KC-135s

    With eight buildings, nearly 3,000 workers, and 26 KC-135 Stratotankers, the 564th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the largest squadron in the U.S. Air Force, dedicated to providing programmed depot maintenance and upgrades to all U.S. Air Force KC-135s. Through

  • Cramped spaces and fuel vapors: MacDill “Tank Divers”

    Tucked away behind U.S. Central Command and MacDill Air Force Base, Florida’s traditional hangars lies a hangar originally built to house fighter jets. On a given day, peeking out of that hangar will sit a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft seemingly out of place in the considerably smaller maintenance