• It's flu-shot season again

    Receiving the annual flu vaccine is the best way to prevent influenza. Influenza is a serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and death. Even healthy people can get very sick from the flu and spread it to others. Over the past three decades, as many as 49,000 deaths can be attributed to the

  • JBER’s Back-to-School BASH

    JBER's Arctic Oasis Community Center had their annual 'Back to School Bash' August 17. The event allowed Alaska students an event the final weekend before school, and parents to gather information on various base facilities."This is the weekend before schools starts," said Michelle Carpenter,

  • New community center opens on JBER-Richardson

    The new Richardson Community Center opened for the JBER community Monday on the JBER-Richardson side of the installation."We saw at least 300 folks at the opening ceremony," said Rachel Hodgson, general manager for Aurora Military Housing. "It was hosted by Air Force Col. Brian Duffy, (673d Air Base

  • Holly Petraeus visits with JBER troops and families

    The U.S. military is overwhelmingly a young population. Often they are recently out of high school or college, in their first real job. And, flush with cash, service members can be an easy mark for scammers and unscrupulous businesspeople.Holly Petraeus, assistant director for Servicemember Affairs

  • Former US MiG pilot talks with 3rd Operations Group Airmen

    A two-ship of F-4 Phantom II fighters arced over the simmering Mojave desert, their four J79 engines rapidly converting JP-4 fuel into thundering noise and blinding speed. The lead pilot, scanning the scorched landscape for radar contacts, could just make out twin subsonic glints of light moving at

  • Alaska Reserve unit rebuilds tornado-ravaged school

    An Alaska Reserve unit has just returned from Tennessee where the task at hand was rebuilding a school that was destroyed by a tornado in 2011. Members of the 477th Civil Engineer Squadron installed lighting units, rewired the facility to meet code, hung sheet rock, and painted the interior of the

  • Soldier 1 of 8 to finish Fireweed 400

    For some, the idea of hopping onto a bicycle and riding almost nonstop for 400 miles of hilly road might sound like punishment, but for Army Staff Sgt. Trevor Jones, 59th Signal Battalion master resiliency trainer, there's no better way to kick off a weekend.The Fireweed 400 is a bike race that

  • Operational F-22's employ small diameter bombs during WSEP

    During a Combat Hammer exercise Alaska F-22 Raptors became the first operational F-22 unit to drop GBU-39 small diameter bombs.Although small diameter bombs have been employed by test pilots, Combat Hammer, a weapons system evaluation program sponsored by the 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron, provided

  • Welsh 'humbled' to serve as Air Force chief of staff

    The Air Force chief of staff flag passed to the service's 20th chief in a ceremony here Aug. 10.Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, a 36-year Airman, stepped into the position, taking over for Gen. Norton Schwartz, who also retired from the Air Force during the ceremony."Mark is respected throughout the Air