• 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

  • Australian airman pilots F-22s at JBER

    A transient Kadena Air Base F-15 Eagle roared down the JBER airfield like a top-fuel funny car blasting down a quarter-mile track. An instant after lifting off the tarmac, the pilot turned the Eagle's nose nearly straight up, and the engines' afterburners catapulted the jet skyward in an almost NASA

  • Waiting loved ones receive reunion training

    People line the runway, making for a sea of shifting bodies, anxious for the aircraft door to open. They are wives, husbands, children, girlfriends, boyfriends and family members who have been waiting these long months for their Soldiers to come home. There are signs and banners showing the

  • Civil Air Patrol hosts summer encampment at JBER

    The Civil Air Patrol was founded December 1, 1941 by more than 150,000 citizens concerned about the defense of America's coastline, one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor."The Civil Air Patrol became the auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force in 1948; charged with three primary missions - aerospace