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FEATURES

  • Total Force maintainers road trip for KC-135 recovery

    The skies were calm over the state of New York as a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, cruised through the veil of blue, en route to a deployment. All of a sudden, un-commanded flight control movements began to inexplicably shake the aircraft. As the pilots rushed to

  • McConnell Airman helps locate Vietnam War MIAs

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. — It’s Jan. 29, 1969. Maj. Campbell and Capt. Horton are flying in their F-4 Phantom II during an armed reconnaissance mission in Laos. After spotting an enemy supply truck, they roll in for the attack.

  • Airman uses psychology work to help other Airmen, community

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.— One McConnell boom operator has made it her mission to improve the mental health of her fellow Airmen and members of the local community.Tech. Sgt. Chelsey Thornhill a 350th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, is currently acting as 22nd Air Refueling Wing

  • Hitting the right notes: Singing boom operator inspires others

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.— Growing up in a poverty-stricken, single-parent family, he used singing as a kind of therapy.Airman 1st Class Julian Awari, 349th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, was only six when he first realized he had a talent for singing, and it was a hobby he would stick

  • Heart to heart: Air Force steps up to help Airman’s family

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.— Five days after their baby was born in 2011, they realized something was wrong. When they took her back to the hospital, they found out they were in for a long, rough road ahead.“They quickly rushed us over to the neonatal intensive care unit, and we met with a

  • Airman puts maintenance skills to use on motocross track

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. – He ran the motorcycle through a five-foot pool of water, wrecking the bike; everything he had worked for all his life seemed to be over. Staff Sgt. Thomas Tangedal, 22nd Maintenance Squadron aircraft metal technology journeyman, was completing a practice run on a

  • Family reunites after four years apart

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kansas – When asked what he would be willing to sacrifice for the good of his family. Airman 1st Class Messan Atayi can say four years. That’s how long it took him to reunite with his wife, and a daughter who he had never met. Atayi, an Individual Equipment journeyman with

  • A chief’s foundation: Faith, family, mentorship

    MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  Thirty feet up in the air, clinging to a utility pole, was a brand-new Airman crying out for help. He was panicking and insistent that he was going to fall.An instructor stared up at him from the ground and sighed. This was the sergeant’s first day as a technical

  • 30 years of service: mistakes made, lessons learned

    A picture of him as a master sergeant hangs on the wall in his office, welcoming every Airman who walks through the door. To some it may seem as a decoration of self-importance, but if you ask him, he’ll tell you it holds a much different significance.“I have the picture there to remind me that I