Airman articles from August 2004

Airman archives from August 2004

Convoy protectors: airmen-soldiers pull convoy duty in the heat of Iraq.
August 1, 2004... "Brasham get down!" the convoy commander shouted to his gunner as 3rd Platoon rapidly approached an abandoned car. He feared deadly shrapnel from a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device planted by terrorists to halt the progress of...

Military honors fallen commander in chief.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Members of a joint honor guard carry the flag-draped casket bearing former President Ronald Reagan's remains to a horse-drawn caisson at the transfer point for the funeral procession from the White House to the Capitol, Washington, D.C., in...

C-17 airlifts Iraqi child to Hungarian hospital.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Medics from the 379th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron helped airlift a 13-year-old Iraqi to Budapest, Hungary, in June. A dozen crewmembers aboard a C-17 Globemaster III helped transport Abbas Jabbar,...

Medics treat more than 620 in Cambodia.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... KEP, Cambodia -- U.S. military medics treated more than 620 patients and scheduled 100 surgeries midway through their work in a small hospital complex in Cambodia in May. "Ten hours after the mission started, the surgery schedule was fully...

Airmen destroy grenade launchers.(Airman's World)(Tallil Air Base, Iraq)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq -- More than 600 rocket-propelled grenade launchers collected by coalition forces throughout southern Iraq were destroyed by Airmen of the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron in May. In order to destroy the...

Mother, daughter reunite after 15 years.(Airman's World)
August 1, 2004... AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- It was a mother's nightmare. Juanita Heismann's daughter, April Turner, was gone without a trace. After dropping off her first-grader for a scheduled visit with her estranged father in Lawton, Okla., in June 1988,...

Pet donkey inspires children to publish book.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Three children of an Airman here have completed a two-year project ant published their story. Myles, Scarlett and Preston Gallagher are the children of Chief Master Sgt. Richard Gallagher and his wife,...

Airman struggles to save her family.(Airman's World)(Ayaan Nduli)(United States Air Force)(Column)
August 1, 2004... LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. -- Soon, Airman 1st Class Ayaan Nduli hopes to sleep well at night. It would mean years of worrying and waiting were over. It would mean her family is safe. Her story begins in Somalia during 1981, when her...

Learning about America.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... A Japanese girl picks up an American flag during the 16th annual American Day celebration outside Misawa Air Base in June. The event brings visitors who are interested in learning about American culture from throughout northern Japan. More...

Air Force wins triathlon championship.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... SAN ANTONIO -- The Air Force team won the 2004 Armed Forces Triathlon Championship held in May at Naval Base Ventura County, Calif. The armed forces championship was an Olympic-distance course at the base's Point Mugu. The course included a...

8th annual Air Force Marathon set.(Airman's World)
August 1, 2004... WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The 8th annual Air Force Marathon will be held Sept. 18. The event will also include a half-marathon, wheelchair race, four-person relay and 5K race. The race is open to the public, and all entries...

Get a grip.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Staff Sgt. Joshua Stromberg strains to keep his grip on two 400-pound, all-terrain vehicles during a "strongman contest" in May. He won the contest by out-muscling seven other competitors in events including the Humvee pull and tire flip....

Air Force women win soccer championship.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... First Lieutenant Rosemary Costello of Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., dribbles past Navy competitors during the 2004 Armed Forces Women's Soccer Championship. Air Force won the double round-robin competition at Fort Eustis, Va., in May. The...

Absentee voting: ensure your vote counts while deployed.(Airman Consumer)(United States Presidential Election 2004)
August 1, 2004... In just two three, voters nationwide will decide who will win the 2004 general election. With many service members and civilian employees deployed overseas, voting by absentee ballot is just as important to the election as the votes of those in...

Reality check.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... I'm stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan, but presently am assigned to the 732nd Civil Engineer Squadron Detachment 6 (better known as "Ridilla's Gorillas" after our commanding officer) supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. At the beginning...

Make it real.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Regarding the lead photo for "Eyes on the Skies" on Pages 18 and 19 of the May 2004 issue of Airman, it's visually dramatic but fails to ring true. The person sprinting toward the F-15 isn't dressed in flight gear (no G-suit, survival vest or...

Teaching tool.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... I just wanted to thank you so much for the three articles I pulled from your great magazine this past year. There was one article on the F-16s the U.S. government sold to Poland ]"Paving a Pathway," December 2003], an editorial in the same...

The rest of the story.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... We at the A-10 Thunderbolt 11 System Program Office at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, would like to shed a little light on the planned "life after death" of aircraft 81-987 featured in the magazine ["Warthog's Finiflight," May 2004]. It's true...

Meet the staff.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Master Sgt. Efrain Gonzalez is an 18-year veteran from McAllen, Texas. The 1998 Department of Defense Military Photography Workshop "Top Shooter" and graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology Military Photojournalism program, has...

The best of Jake.
August 1, 2004... "It was your idea, sir. You suggested we take time off to participate in sports." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Rising above the water.(Airman Fitness)
August 1, 2004... Ralph Samuelson was the first person to water ski. In 1922, the Minnesota native used two large skis and was towed by an airplane equipped with floats, What he originated became an exhibition sport on both side of the Atlantic in the 1920s and...

Eglin's other world: wildlife finds sanctuary in the middle of chaos.(Eglin Air Force Base, Florida)(United States Air Force)
August 1, 2004... When the Marines hit the beach near the test and training range at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., not much stands in their way. When the Air Force launches a volley of missiles on the testing range, the action is enough to keep even the stoutest...

Reaching for the stars.(Lieutenant Colnel Rex Walheim)(United States Air Force)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Lt. Col. Rex Walheim works anchored to the mobile foot restraint at the end of the International Space Station's Canadarm2. The station is the destination for the spring launch of Discovery, marking the shuttle fleet's return to flight since...

Going from Air Force to NASA blue for astronaut wings.(United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
August 1, 2004... It's the all too famous image seen across the world--the orange suits, the big smiles, the friendly waves--as an astronaut crew prepares to launch out of Earth's orbit. Since the first U.S. manned space flight in 1961, the Air Force has been a...

The godfather: leading the attack, aiming to improve pilots.(Mike Lawrence, United States Air Force)
August 1, 2004... From the confines of his armchair, he has the capability to strike down anyone entering his domain of more than 67,000 square miles. Defeated survivors, armed with the world's most sophisticated weaponry, make their way to the confines of...

The new CRO: wanted: a new generation of action heroes.(In Theaters Now)(combat rescue officers)
August 1, 2004... After 53 years as an enlisted-only career field, combat rescue is fielding the first generation of officers trained to be experts in repatriating isolated Airmen. Combat rescue officers will provide an important voice in survival, evasion,...

Military student: when you're simultaneously handling academic and military schedules for four years, it helps to have determination.(Airman Profile)
August 1, 2004... Cadet First Class Kristina Belcourt's day ended at 1 a.m. For most college kids, this is normal. But what isn't is the sound of her alarm clock going off at 5:15 a.m., the same day. But Cadet Belcourt isn't the average college student. And...

Would you like to sit inside or out?(@af-la.af.mil)(airforce officail experience)
August 1, 2004... Where else but in a city twice the size of Switzerland can Airmen live in a house on the Pacific Ocean and still have the cultural feel of a land-locked metropolis. Los Angeles holds many distinctions, and for many Airmen stationed at Los...

In the eye of the beholder.(Airman's Notebook)(Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado)
August 1, 2004... One person's perception of reality isn't everyone's. But all it takes is one person with a skewed sense of the truth to spread rumors and change that reality. During a recent trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., I came across an individual who...

Freeze-frame.(Air Force Base)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Timber! These "freeze-frame moments" were captured in May when contractors for the 88th Air Base Wing Civil Engineer Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, brought the 117-foot control tower crashing down using a backhoe and...

Then & now.(working in Maxwell Air Force Base)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... When "20-something" Walter Lilley struggled to the top of an inverted obstacle while preparing for the 1984 Peackeeper Challenge at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. (above), the senior airman had just begun a career climb that has brought him to...