19 Oct 2005

'Swimming with the fishes' takes on whole new meaning

Terrified! I've spent 30 years of my life holding my breath under water, and now someone I've only known for a few days is telling me to descend 10 feet in a pool and breathe continuously, deeply and slowly. "You should be able to stay under water for a few hours on one tank of oxygen," the instructor said. Yeah right, if I don't panic and take out

19 Oct 2005

Air Force Commodity Council saves $5.8M for major commands

By leveraging the buying power of the Air Force, the Air Force Information Technology Commodity Council saved the service approximately $5.8 million in its latest quarterly enterprise buy, or QEB, of desktop and laptop computer and monitor configurations. The QEB process, executed by the IT Hardware Acquisition team at Headquarters Operations and

19 Oct 2005

Chrome plating improvements save time, money and energy

The 402nd Maintenance Wing's Process Improvement and Quality Assurance Office's efforts to increase production efficiency while reducing hazardous waste, hazardous material consumption and energy use are paying off.According to Steven Battle, 402nd MXW process improvement and quality assurance division environmental engineer, one of the top ideas

19 Oct 2005

Trial moves forward with jury selection

Senior Airman Andrew Paul Witt, the Robins Air Force Base, Ga., Airman on trial for his life in the double slaying of a fellow Airman and his wife, and the attempted murder of a second Airman, pleaded "not guilty" on all charges Sept. 13 in the Bibb County Federal Courthouse.Airman Witt is charged with two specifications of premeditated murder,

19 Oct 2005

Security forces military dog section honors one of its own

Since the initiation of the first U.S. sentry dog training branch at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in 1958, military working dogs in the United States and abroad have been honored for playing an active role in the Air Force mission. That honor was once again passed down Sept. 1 during a Military Working Dog funeral at the Edwards MWD facility for

19 Oct 2005

NASA Dryden chief engineer dies in airplane crash

The crash of an aerobatic plane in Oklahoma has claimed the life of Marta Bohn-Meyer, chief engineer at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and a widely known precision aerobatic pilot.Bohn-Meyer, 48, died Sunday morning when the Giles G-300 she was flying crashed as she was beginning an aerobatic practice

19 Oct 2005

World War I aviation drama coming to Air Force’s national museum

One of the nation’s premier historical aviation events will bring the excitement and adrenaline of World War I air power to the National Museum of the United States Air Force Sept. 30 - Oct. 2.The Dawn Patrol Rendezvous World War I Fly-In will feature vintage reproduction World War I aircraft flying over the museum, with aircraft launching from and

19 Oct 2005

Raptor completes avionics testing, advances to next phase of acquisition

The F/A-22 Raptor recently finished avionics Engineering Manufacturing Development, or EMD, testing here, and surpassed 2,592 flight hours, pushing the aircraft testing one step closer to taking its place as the premiere weapon system of the U.S. Air Force. "This Mission-Avionics testing tied in system effectiveness (can we accomplish the mission),

19 Oct 2005

AFMC headquarters overhauls office symbols

Alphabet soup isn't the staple in the joint-forces world that it is in the Air Force. If you're at a joint job and you need to talk to somebody in personnel, you don't look for the two-letter symbol, DP. You look for the number, 1, preceded by J, for Joint. So does everybody else, regardless of their branch of service.Beginning Oct. 1, everyone at

19 Oct 2005

Systems group adds technology to mix of Hurricane Katrina relief support

While millions of tons of relief supplies are flowing into the Gulf Coast daily, the Operations and Sustainment Systems Group here is shoring up the vital flow of communications to the hurricane-stricken region. Hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the group's team of communications, logistics, contracting and acquisition experts were