Reuters: “The US Air Force is denying early retirement to all transgender service members with between 15-18 years of military service, opting instead to force them out with no retirement benefits. These longer-serving transgender service members will have the same choice as more junior ones: quit or be forced out. Multiple service members had already been approved for early retirement, but those approvals were rescinded.”
Meidas Touch
In an incredibly unusual move, the Air Force is making a point to let its hundreds of thousands of personnel know that it will provide families with medical and legal help if they are personally affected by new state laws attacking gay and transgender children.
And if those service members feel they need to leave those states entirely, for the sake of their kids’ mental or physical health, the Air Force will help them to do that, too.
The Air Force is the only branch of the U.S. military doing this. Its leaders informed personnel late last month, both internally and in a press release, that they have several resources available to them if they need help navigating anti-LGBTQ state laws that may be hurting their families.
HuffPo
Nor will it be as long as the GOP controls the Senate and Trump is in the White House.On Monday, lawmakers began stumping for the Senate to adopt an amendment that would bar the Pentagon from spending money at nearly five dozen Trump properties worldwide. The House passed the clause in July as part of the broader annual defense policy bill, but it has not yet been adopted into law.
Politico
Might.The provision that the House adopted in July would block the Pentagon from spending money at 57 specific Trump properties. Under the provision, Trump could waive the ban if he reimburses the Treasury Department for the expenses.
[...]
The push to outlaw the practice will join a growing list of conflict-of-interest concerns that Democrats want to highlight in the coming months as House leaders decide whether to begin formal impeachment proceedings against the president. The overnight stops at Turnberry have already sparked a broader House Oversight Committee investigation of military spending at and around Trump properties. The Air Force over the weekend also launched a worldwide review of how it chooses lodging on overnight layovers. A legislative battle could be next.
[...]
The Air Force has said the stops are within Pentagon guidelines and noted that the Turnberry bookings fall within acceptable rates for military travel. But the service also conceded that the appearance of staying at the president’s property might create a negative perception.
Probably because Trump has had an arrangement with that airport to send people to Turnberry since 2014.The Air Force stays at Turnberry date back to at least September 2018.
[...]
What was “also odd,” the person said, was that Prestwick Airport went above and beyond for the service members — the airport booked the rooms at Turnberry, coordinated free rides to and from the resort, and even packed the crew lunches for the day they departed.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.A Top Gun-evoking video showing US pilots scrambling to intercept Russian fighter jets near the Baltics may be a tad bit over-dramatic. The Russian MoD says the Su-30 jets were on an agreed-upon mission in international airspace.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged that NATO F-15 jets had “approached” Su-30 fighter jets in two separate incidents – on November 23 and December 13 – near the Baltics, but said “the route of Russian fighter jets was agreed with the air logistics control units and was carried out in strict compliance with the international rules.” In both instances, F-15 fighters “approached at a safe distance, after which they changed course and flew away,” the statement added.
The clarification comes a day after the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) released a creatively-edited video illustrating “intercepts during Baltic Air Policing mission.”
RT
Finally, the military-industrial folks have gotten things just the way they want them. He could have simply said, "Mission accomplished."The US Air Force is renovating Cold War-era launch pads as it prepares to put its strategic bombers on constant 24-hour alert to engage in potential nuclear conflict for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
“The world is a dangerous place and we’ve got folks that are talking openly about use of nuclear weapons,” Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein told US military website Defense One. “It’s no longer a bipolar world where it’s just us and the Soviet Union. We’ve got other players out there who have nuclear capability. It’s never been more important to make sure that we get this mission right.”
RT
Are you fucking kidding me?! B-52s?! Is this Trump's idea of modernizing the military?Goldfein said that the order to return the B-52 bombers to high-readiness has not yet been issued, but showed journalists the ongoing construction work at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
Nine alert pads branching off from an 11,000-foot runway are being renovated, along with a nearby building that will house more than 100 crew members assigned to the B-52 bombers, which have been in service since the 1950s.
Despite their age, Goldfein believes that the bombers could play a role in a modern conflict – certain to be different from the mutually assured destruction of the Cold War.
And what in Sam Hell does that mean? He specifically said "North Korea" and "nuclear tests". What is the Air Force Chief of Staff smoking?Asked whether these measures were likely to be an effective deterrent against North Korea, which has backed up its stated intention to become a nuclear state with a series of successful tests, or other volatile actors, Goldfein seemed less sure.
“It depends on who, what kind of behavior are we talking about, and whether they’re paying attention to our readiness status,” he said.
"You should be outraged, not only as an airman, but as a human being. ... If you can't treat someone with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you can't treat someone with another gender ... with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you demean someone in any way, then you need to get out. And if you can't treat someone from another race or a different color skin with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. ... Get out your phones. I want you to videotape this so that you can use it. .... This is our institution, and if you need it and you need my words, then you keep these words. ... If you can't treat someone with dignity and respect, then get out."There's an investigation into the incident, and it's no doubt that whoever is found to have written the slurs will indeed get out. Get put out.
Air Force Maj. Gen. James F. Martin Jr. fainted at the rostrum during a media briefing when he was talking about the F-35 plane in Pentagon on Wednesday.
The high-ranking officer was delivering a report on the Air Force budget and in particular about the future of the ill-fated F-35 program when he experienced a dizzy spell.
Assistant Air Force Secretary Carolyn Gleason [...] grabbed him by the arm. “That's what the F-35 will do to ya,” Gleason was heard to say in a joke.
RT
Sensitive, doubtful. Frightening. Embarrassing, perhaps.Under the Air Force’s own regulations, Accident Investigation Board reports are supposed to be made public.
[...]
Errors by three airmen troubleshooting a nuclear missile in its launch silo in 2014 triggered a “mishap” that damaged the missile, prompting the Air Force to strip the airmen of their nuclear certification and quietly launch an accident investigation.
[...]
The Air Force’s brief summary of the Juliet-07 mishap said the Minuteman 3 missile “became non-operational” during a diagnostic test on the evening of 16 May, 2014. The next morning a “mishap crew” chief, who was not identified, “did not correctly adhere to technical guidance” during troubleshooting efforts, “subsequently damaging the missile.” No further details about the damage or errors were revealed.
[...]
The [...] mishap chief “lacked the necessary proficiency level” to anticipate the consequences of his actions during the troubleshooting.
[...]
The damaged missile was removed from its underground silo, which is designated Juliet-07 and placed among wheat fields and wind turbines about nine miles west of Peetz, Colorado.
[...]
In a statement, the Air Force declined to provide details of the incident or a copy of the report produced last November by the Accident Investigation Board, saying the information was classified and too sensitive to be made public.
Guardian
So, he wasn't up to snuff because his training was insufficient, but he still gets the blame?In seeming contradiction of that [...] point, the Air Force said in its separate statement to the AP that the mishap team chief was properly trained for the task he was performing. It said he and two other airmen on his team were immediately stripped of their certification to work with nuclear weapons. They remained decertified for “over a year,” until they were retrained and returned to nuclear duty.
[...]
To prevent a recurrence of their mistake and the accident it caused, the Air Force said it has “strengthened” technical guidance, modified training curriculum and shared information about the conditions that led to the mishap with other units that operate Minuteman 3 missiles.
Sigh.The most recent previous Air Force investigation of an accident at an ICBM launch silo was in 2008. That investigation, which was publicly released, found that a fire in a launcher equipment room went undetected for five days. It uncovered the remarkable fact that the Air Force was using duct tape on cables linked to the missile.
Hallelujah!An atheist U.S. airman who had been barred from re-enlisting over his refusal to utter a religious oath will now be able to serve again after the Air Force reversed course and said individuals may omit “so help me God” from their pledges if they wish.
alJazeera
No, not just "a" deity - the Christian diety. God.An airman stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, was prohibited from reenlisting in the U.S. military last month for omitting the words “so help me God” from a service oath he was required to recite, and for refusing to sign the oath containing the same words on his enlistment form, according to the American Humanist Association (AHA).
In a letter of complaint sent to the Air Force’s inspector general on Tuesday, Appignani Humanist Legal Center, the AHA’s legal wing, said the soldier – who is an atheist – “was told that his options were to say ‘so help me God’ or to leave the Air Force.’”
[...]
That was not always the case. Until October 2013, Air Force Instruction 36-2606, under which the enlistment oath falls, stipulated that “Airmen may omit the words ‘so help me God,’ if desired for personal reasons,” Air Force Times reported.
On Oct. 30, 2013, the Air Force appears to have quietly done away with that option. “The relevant section of that AFI now only lists the active-duty oath of enlistment, without giving airmen any option to choose not to swear an oath to a deity,” the Air Force Times said.
alJazeera
But we should have everyone who’s any threat taken out by unmanned drones before that could happen, shouldn’t we? Perhaps we don’t really need those trillion dollar planes. Perhaps that’s just another incidence of funneling a large percentage of our paychecks to the “defense” industry – in this case, Lockheed.Where once mighty American warplanes soared over all others, giving Washington a distinct strategic advantage against any foe, in coming decades the U.S. air arsenal will likely be totally outclassed on a plane-by-plane basis by any country possessing the latest Russian and Chinese models
Medium
Perhaps that’s what led to an investigation that has resulted in the sacking of nine nuke commanders there.In [last summer’s] drill the security team of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana was required to respond to a simulated capture of a Minuteman 3 nuclear missile silo. The guards had to recapture the seized nuclear weapon in the silo, but failed to do so, the report obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request indicated.
RT
Of course not. Too big to fail.The United States Air Force says it has taken unprecedented action by firing nine nuclear missile base commanders on Thursday amid an ongoing and exhaustive investigation surrounding allegations of cheating.
[...]
Dozens of additional employees described as junior officers at those bases will be disciplined as well
[...]
This past January, the Air Force said that 34 missile launch officers were implicated in the cheating scandal and stripped of their security clearances, though they may not have necessarily faked their way through their own exams. According to the AP’s latest however, upwards of 100 missile launch crew members from a single facility — the Malmstrom Air Force Base in the state of Montana — were at one point or another linked to the scandal.
[...]
Members of all three missile squadrons were implicated, he added, although no generals were formally punished.
RT
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.This week’s news is only the latest to stir up the Air Force’s nuke unit, which for months now has repeatedly come under fire due to a barrage of incidents. The Pentagon removed 17 of its officers from a base in North Dakota last year following a poor inspection rating, and last October it was reported that two US missile technicians assigned with launch keys were discovered repeatedly leaving a blast door open while sleeping on base.
Apparently each agency gets to decide on its own whether or not to do business with a contractor???The US Air Force has concluded that Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), the contractor that employed Edward Snowden prior to his becoming a whistleblower, is not responsible for the disclosure of the classified information.
[...]
The Air Force is so far the first government agency to clear BAH in the Snowden case.
RT
The Air Force suspended indefinitely Booz Allen Hamilton's San Antonio office from future federal contracts and has proposed its debarment.
A former Air Force officer working in a Booz Allen San Antonio office allegedly shared with company colleagues protected proprietary information obtained from the Air Force, including pricing data and labor rates, on an expiring contract held by the company NIC.
[...]
Retired Lt. Col. Joselito Meneses, who was hired last April as a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton's San Antonio office, allegedly shared non-public information with his co-workers about the contract, the memo states.
Federal Times
I wonder if the Air Force has a "Three Strikes" clause.April 13, 2012: Booz Allen Hamilton’s San Antonio office has been removed from the U.S. government’s Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) and has regained full eligibility to compete for new contracts with the U.S. federal government. This results from Booz Allen having entered into an Administrative Agreement with the U.S. Air Force.
[...]
Booz Allen’s discussions with the U.S. Air Force arose from the actions of a former government employee hired by the firm who inappropriately retained and shared sensitive information about a pending government procurement that occurred in the firm’s San Antonio office in 2011.
[...]
Booz Allen has agreed, among other things, to file quarterly reports with the U.S. Air Force regarding the firm’s implementation of the remedial measures and also adhere to a number of provisions relating to enhanced disclosure of employee misconduct or violations of the firm’s ethics and compliance program.
Booz Allen Hamilton
And worst of all, they can prove to the world how we're really conducting the “War on Terror”.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called on US troops to tighten up discipline and display “integrity” after a series of public relations disasters that he said could play into the hands of America’s enemies.
Panetta, echoing a message from Army and Marine Corps leaders, on Friday said the misconduct related only to a small percentage of the force but that digital technology magnified any incident, posing a threat to the military’s image.
“These days, it takes only seconds, seconds, for a picture, a photo to suddenly become an international headline,” he told hundreds of troops at Fort Benning, Georgia.
“And those headlines can impact the mission that we’re engaged in, they can put your fellow service members at risk, they can hurt morale, they can damage our standing in the world and they can cost lives.”
So I'm sure these guys are in the brig for failing to follow orders. No?Two F-22 pilots say they have stopped flying the US Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet because of safety fears over the aircraft’s oxygen system, according to a CBS television “60 Minutes” report.
The F-22 Raptor was grounded last year after a spate of incidents with pilots suffering dizzy spells and blackouts in the air. The plane was cleared for flying in September 2011 but engineers are still trying to solve what appears to be a problem with the jet’s oxygen supply.
The pilots, Major Jeremy Gordon and Captain Josh Wilson, told the “60 Minutes” program they stopped flying in January, citing safety concerns over a lack of oxygen.
Raw Story
They went to a Republican. A few years ago, that would have been astonishing, but considering the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers, it's completely understandable.The two pilots, who both served in the Iraq war, have sought legal protection as “whistleblowers” from a Republican lawmaker from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger.
