Air Force

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Dover Mortuary Punished Whistle-Blowers

Report tells Air Force to act, or else

(Newser) - Officials at the Dover Air Force Base, beset by accusations that they horrifically mistreated the nation's war dead, punished the whistle-blowers who brought those abuses to light, according to a new report from the Office of Special Counsel. The special counsel sent its 39-page report on the abuses to...

29% of Drone Pilots Are Burned Out, Exhausted

Air Force points to three reasons for the stress

(Newser) - Drones may be unmanned, but they're not pilot-less, and many of those pilots are having a pretty rough time. NPR reports on a new Pentagon study, commissioned by the Air Force, that looks at the mental toll that fighting "remote-controlled war" takes, and the stats are somewhat disheartening....

Air Force Probing Casket Gag
 Air Force Probing Casket Gag 
Dec 16, 2011 1:03 AM CST

Air Force Probing Casket Gag

Tasteless photo angers military

(Newser) - Dumb: Posing for a joke photo with the kind of casket used to bring war dead back to the US. Dumber: Putting it on Facebook. The Air Force is investigating a photograph of airmen posing around a casket in which a colleague wrapped in chains plays dead with a noose...

Air Force Discharges Birther Sergeant

Daryn Moran taunted officials to arrest him

(Newser) - The Air Force is cutting loose a staff sergeant who championed the debunked “birther” conspiracy theory online. Daryn Moran says he stopped reporting for duty at an Air Force base in Germany, arguing that his orders were invalid because Obama was an invalid president. “Now it’s plain...

Poll: Air Force Losing Ground With Public

Army, Marines now ranked as more important

(Newser) - The public now considers the Army and Marines significantly more important than the Air Force, according to a new Gallup poll. That might not sound that earth-shattering, but it represents a major shift in public thinking, Politico observes. In May 2001, the Air Force was overwhelmingly the public’s favorite,...

Lightning Strike Sends 77 Air Force Cadets to Hospital

All appear to be doing fine

(Newser) - Scary lightning strike in Mississippi, though no serious injuries appear to have resulted: The bolt hit a power pole near tents where Air Force ROTC cadets were training, sending 77 cadets to the hospital for evaluation. Two went by ambulance from Camp Shelby and the rest by bus, reports AP...

Air Force Boots Gay Pilot Over DADT

Policy still in play, as evidenced by the April 29 discharge

(Newser) - President Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act in December, but it’s not entirely safe for servicemen and women to come out of the closet just yet. The Air Force discharged an Airman under the policy as recently as April 29, the Metro Weekly reports....

'Sheen' Used for Libya Psy-Ops
 'Sheen' Used for Libya Psy-Ops 
WINNING?
Mar 25, 2011 6:21 AM CDT

'Sheen' Used for Libya Psy-Ops

Actor's name used as flight call sign

(Newser) - Charlie Sheen won't likely bring his " Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour to Libya, but military flights bearing his name are doing a tour of their own. A Dutch radio buff monitoring and tweeting military communications has discovered that Libya flights by an Air Force cargo plane configured to broadcast...

Plan to Train Saudi Fighter Pilots in Idaho Under Fire

Training part of a $60-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia

(Newser) - It's been nearly a decade since a Saudi pilot crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, but a plan for the US Air Force to train Saudi Arabian pilots in Idaho has some people outraged, reports al-Jazeera . As part of a huge $60 billion arms deal made last autumn, the Air...

Boeing Lands $35B Air Force Contract

Beats out Europe company to build new refueling tankers

(Newser) - It took a decade and two false starts, but Boeing has finally landed the massive Air Force contract to build the military's next generation of refueling planes, reports the Seattle News . The decision surprised plenty of defense analysts who figured that the $35 billion contract would go to Europe's EADS,...

American Air Jet, Air Force Had Near-Miss

Planes came within seconds of mid-air collision

(Newser) - An American Airlines jet got a little too close to comfort to two Air Force cargo planes two weeks ago, and the feds are investigating the close call, reports the New York Daily News. About 12 minutes after takeoff from JFK airport, the passenger jet's proximity-detection system went off, warning...

Military: Don't Use Facebook Places in War Zones

Commanders fear social media could reveal locations to the enemy

(Newser) - The Air Force is warning personnel that while geolocation features like Facebook Places or Foursquare may be a great way to let your buddies know where you're having lunch, you shouldn't use them in war zones. "Careless use of these services by airmen can have devastating operations security and...

Glitch Boots 50 Nukes Offline
 Glitch Boots 50 Nukes Offline 
Oct 27, 2010 3:03 AM CDT

Glitch Boots 50 Nukes Offline

Commanders unable to communicate with ninth of arsenal for nerve-wracking hour

(Newser) - A hardware glitch knocked 50 nuclear missiles—a ninth of America's land-based arsenal—offline for nearly an hour over the weekend. Commanders at an Air Force base in Wyoming found themselves unable to communicate with the missiles as engineers scrambled to find out what the problem was, the Atlantic reports....

US Military Officers: UFOs Deactivated Nukes

Ex-Air Force captain giving press conference today

(Newser) - Extraterrestrials do exist … and they apparently are not fans of our missiles, according to a few former US Air Force officers. Capt. Robert Salas and some of his colleagues will give a press conference in Washington, DC, today to testify that UFOs have appeared at numerous nuclear weapons sites—...

Judge Gives Gay Air Force Nurse Personal Words of Support

'You are truly blessed as a family'

(Newser) - The judge who ordered the Air Force to reinstate a gay flight nurse yesterday also paused to deliver personal words of encouragement to Margaret Witt, notes the Seattle Times . "You said something in the trial that resonated with me," said District Court Judge Ronald Leighton. "You said...

Judge Orders Air Force to Reinstate Lesbian

Margaret Witt was discharged under 'don't ask, don't tell'

(Newser) - Another setback for "don't ask, don't tell": A federal judge says the Air Force violated the constitutional rights of a highly decorated flight nurse when it discharged her for being gay, and ordered that she be given her job back as soon as possible. US District Judge Ronald Leighton...

Air Force Uses Falcons to Protect Planes

Trained birds keeps nuisance birds away

(Newser) - The Air Force is using falcons to protect its planes, Network World reports. Unfortunately, the falcons aren't being fitted with sci-fi style lasers or missile launchers, but they perform a crucial function: protecting the aircraft from birds. Crows and other birds had become a nuisance at one Air Force base...

17 Afghan Soldiers Have Gone AWOL in Texas

Some have security access badges

(Newser) - A nationwide alert has gone out warning that 17 Afghan military members have gone AWOL while training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The men were training to be pilots, know some English, and have security badges granting access to any Defense Department installation, according to a bulletin entitled...

Experimental Jet Crushes Speed Record

Unmanned, hypersonic aircraft flies 3,500mph

(Newser) - The Air Force let loose with an unmanned, experimental hypersonic jet yesterday, and watched it shatter all manner of record. The X-51 WaveRider tore across the Pacific at 3,500 mph, using a hypersonic engine that runs on air and uses virtually no moving parts. It stayed airborne for 200...

What Is the Air Force Doing With This Spaceship?

Unmanned X-37 will be launched this month for indefinite time in orbit

(Newser) - This month the Air Force will send the X-37—a sort of unmanned mini-space shuttle salvaged from a scrapped NASA project—into orbit, but its intentions, what the X-37 is designed to do, and why it rescued a project NASA planned to ax in 2006 remain mysteriously unclear. The Air...

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