Airman articles from December 2003

Airman archives from December 2003

Future flight.(A Centennial Of Flight Special Feature)
December 1, 2003... In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright combined existing technology and early avionic research with a desire to reach the sky and stay there. The result? The birth of powered flight. One hundred years later, the Centennial of Flight celebration...

F/A-22 Raptor arrives at Tyndall.(Airman's World)
December 1, 2003... TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- AIt's sleek. It's stealthy. It's supersonic, It's just flat out "ba-ba-ba-ba-bad to the bone." And like the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park," this bird will strike fear in the hearts of any enemy. It's the...

Lieutenant from Iraq calls United States home.(Airman's World)
December 1, 2003... U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- For one Air Force lieutenant, March 19 was the day war broke out in his former homeland. Known only as Mohammed for security reasons, the officer is an Arabic linguist deployed as part of Joint Task...

Guardsman cheers, reads, pours and rides.(Airman's World)
December 1, 2003... BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The yelling gets loud, so she flips a lot on Sundays. Girls from East Aurora, N.Y, say she's bionic. But pumping iron is the only way she can relax and put everything out of her mind. The Buffalo Jills boost crowd...

Teams help troops send smiles home.(Airman's World)
December 1, 2003... SAN ANTONIO -- Army Sgt. 1st Class Peter Rimar tried to catch at least a few hours" sleep on the C-130 Hercules transport before hitting the ground at the next destination. As soon as his desert boats hit the dusty tarmac of his 20th base, he...

Helping a country.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SWABE, Iraq -- Senior Master Sgt. Tommie Tracey treats an infants bedsores during a medical and humanitarian assistance mission in Iraq. Tracey deployed with file 101st Expeditionary Rescue Squadron from the Air National Guard's 122nd Medical...

Tech. Sgt. Emmett Tibbs, 506th expeditionary security forces Squadron.(Airman's World)
December 1, 2003... Tech. Sgt. Emmett Tibbs, 506th Expenditionary Security Forces Squadron, waits for his cue from Army Sgt. 1st Class Jamie Posten during a hometown greeting at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq. During the four days at Kirkuk, the Army And Air Force Hometown...

Record review available online.(Airman's World)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Airmen can now complete record reviews online through the virtual military personnel flight. Airmen will receive annual e-mail notifications near their birth dates advising them to review electronic records...

Beat that old colonel in the PT test.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... SAN ANTONIO -- Have you ever had your butt kicked by an old, crusty colonel during one of those "fun" runs? C'mon. Be honest. Well, I did, and as a former track star (you know I was) and cross country runner, I was mad. Not only was I mad,...

New ribbon recognizes deployed airmen.(Commentary)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Did you know the Air Force has a new ribbon? One that recognizes your work during air expeditionary force deployments? The Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon is awarded to Air Force active duty,...

Airman Rachel Nicole Murphy of the 43rd civil engineer squadron.(Commentary)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Airman Rachel Nicole Murphy of the 43rd Civil Engineer Squadron is gettin' down to business as she trains for the new fitness standard with other squadron members as part of morning resistance training. Three times a week squadron members at...

McChord couple overcomes adversity.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Reserve Senior Airman Chris Murphy was just an dad in the hospital operating room waiting to see the birth of his daughter. That is until doctors told him he had to leave so they could start the fight to save...

Trading stripes for bars: commissioning programs could change your career direction.(Consumer)
December 1, 2003... Why would a new staff sergeant give up a soaring Air Force enlisted career? Why would a master sergeant suddenly trade in six stripes that took 15 years to earn? Why would an airman first class who was just starting her career be willing to go...

Respect for the flag.(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... In response to Staff Sgt. Kenneth Hair's comment about folding the flag ["Air Mail," September 2003], get a grip! That F-15 pilot has bigger things to worry about than to make sure the flag is bided correctly. This is a pilot who loves what he...

Wasted space?(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I usually enjoy reading the magazine every month, but I'm becoming disheartened by the waste of space in your "Air Mail" section. Instead of reading letters contributing to the Air Force's advancement, firsthand experience in historic moments...

Where's Jake?(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I'm curious about what happened to "Here's Jake." I'm a 20-year veteran of the Air Force and look forward to reading the latest news from "Boondock Air Force Base" every month. I've just retired and missed the last couple of issues, so I...

Providing aide.(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I read "Opening Doors" [August 2003] about the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group's "Adopt-a-Village" program. Last year my father was stationed at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, and we held a stuffed animal drive for Charikar Orphanage. I...

Forgotten explorer.(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... In "Stepping into the Unknown" [September 2003], you omitted reference to another Air Force explorer who was lost on Columbia: Lt. Col. Michael Anderson, the mission payload commander. Staff Sgt. Candace Skalet Travis Air Force Base,...

New uniform.(AirMail)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... I really like the new uniform, I think it's good for each branch to have its own distinctive look. I also think it will give each individual additional time to do better work because this uniform requires much less maintenance. name...

The power of freedom: airmen help Iraqis regain their nation.
December 1, 2003... In March and April of this year, the Air Force joined coalition forces in defeating the regime of Saddam Hussein for the second time in 12 years. This time, however, the road to victory led military forces all the way to Baghdad. Today U.S....

The enemy from within: a Hill Air Force Base, Utah, unit keeps an aye on the sky, making it virtually impossible for aircraft to fly undetected over the United States.
December 1, 2003... While smoke still billowed from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pentagon officials turned to the 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron to learn exactly what happened. Within two hours, the unit...

Crash trackers.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... In 1996, members of the 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron discovered a secondary service they could provide by using radar instruments and unit-developed computer software. No one realized the valuable contribution these "event analyzers"...

Defenders of America: they flew so many sorties in so little time, one would have thought they were in a war. In a way, they were. Protecting America is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job.
December 1, 2003... Staff Sgt. James Trolio had never worked so hard in his life. His job as a jet engine mechanic was to keep the 34th Fighter Squadron F-16s flying 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was difficult. Extremely difficult. Operation Iraqi...

Opera man: singer hones 'hobby with a goal' in Naples.(Biography)
December 1, 2003... As a 2-year-old, Manny Martinez would climb onto the family recliner and perform for his mom such crooner classics as "Moon River" by Andy Williams and other mellow melodies by artists such as Perry Como and Julio Iglesias. During one such...

Paving a pathway: Air Force team breaks a trail leading to the addition of F-16s to the Polish fleet.
December 1, 2003... Their names will probably be a mere footnote in the annals of Polish air force history, but they're fully aware of the key roles they played in assisting their NATO counterparts to take a giant leap forward. "It's great to be a part of...

A fur-footed force: love, attention and care breed elite military working dogs.
December 1, 2003... Jackson was born at Lackland Air Force Base. Texas, atop sheets bearing the Wilford Hall Medical Center monogram. He'll probably never meet his father. Dear ol' dad was on temporary duty in Southwest Asia when he was born, and, although he's...

Taking the extraordinary for granted.(Airman's notebook)
December 1, 2003... As our van drove through the gate of the 31st Air Base in Poland, it occurred to me how unremarkable it had become interacting with our former Warsaw Pact foes. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, we rushed eastward and marveled how...

Finding solitude.(Final Frame)
December 1, 2003... In a place where intimacy and privacy are cherished, but rarely found, Airman 1st Class Joshua Lewis, a firefighter from Beale Air Force Base, Calif., finds a few precious moments to talk with his wife while deployed to Southwest Asia with the...