Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a Saturday news briefing with President Donald Trump that more than 150 aircraft took off from 20 locations on land and sea to support Maduro’s capture.

The airborne element of Operation Absolute Resolve, as the U.S. government dubbed the mission, included F-22 Raptors, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18 Hornets and B-1 Lancer bombers, Caine said. It also included E/A-18 Growlers, a Hornet variant that specializes in electronic warfare, E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and other helicopters and support aircraft, Caine said.

Caine also said the force included “numerous remotely piloted drones.” Aircraft from the Air Force, Air National Guard, Navy and Marine Corps took part in the operation, he said.

“This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do,” Caine said. “It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force, and the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission. An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get in an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.”

“Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America’s joint force,” Caine said. “Those in the air over Caracas last night were willing to give their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters.”

When asked what type of drones took part in the operation, the Air Force referred Defense News’ inquiries to the Pentagon’s press office, which declined to comment on its drone presence in the area, citing operation security concerns.

But soon after the operation, videos taken by aviation observers began appearing online showing the Air Force’s stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone returning to Puerto Rico.

The War Zone highlighted a pair of videos purportedly showing the RQ-170’s dawn return to base. Aviation Week editor Brian Everstine also noted, in a December social media post, that Air Forces Southern had posted — and soon took offline — a photograph of an airman wearing patches showing the RQ-170 and the insignia of the 432nd Wing, which flies the Sentinel, suggesting it may be operating in that area.

In Caine’s description of the operation’s airborne component, he made multiple references to drone aircraft and surveillance coverage that could have encompassed the Air Force’s RQ-170, a low-observable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone created by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, or Skunk Works. The drone was regularly flown over Afghanistan during the war there, where it earned the nickname the Beast of Kandahar.

Weather in the region had presented a challenge for the mission, Caine said, but on Friday night broke “just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through.”

Helicopters bearing the extraction force approached Venezuela from about 100 feet above sea level, Caine said, while aircraft overhead protected them. The airborne force struck and disabled multiple Venezuelan air defense systems to ensure the helicopters could safely proceed.

The extraction team took fire as they helicoptered in to Maduro’s Caracas compound — with one helicopter struck but remaining airborne — and the team moved to apprehend him and his wife, Caine said.

Fighter aircraft and drones overhead provided both suppressive fire, to allow the extraction force to withdraw, and intelligence updates. Caine said “there were multiple self-defense engagements” as the force withdrew, bringing Maduro and his wife to the USS Iwo Jima.

Iran downed an RQ-170 over its territory in 2011, allegedly using a cyberattack, and then reverse engineered the technology to produce its own knockoff variants of the drone.

We believe the American public, including those military families, have a right to know how and what their troops are doing and how the Pentagon is spending their tax dollars. Preventing journalists from speaking with these troops flouts the freedom of the press and falls short of President Biden’s promise of increased transparency. As a result, we call on the Pentagon and White House to immediately begin the process of allowing journalists to have access to troops arriving in Europe in response to Russian troop movements near Ukraine. This includes the standard practices of speaking directly with troops and embedding with units.

Despite numerous requests from media organizations, no journalist has yet been granted opportunities for traditional reporting with these troops in Europe so that we can bring their stories home. During his Monday Pentagon press briefing, spokesman John Kirby said the buck stops with him when it comes to allowing reporters access to these troops. Journalists, who collectively reach tens of millions of readers and viewers, join the Pentagon Press Association and Military Reporters and Editors Association in urging the Pentagon to offer improved access and transparency soon.

Sincerely,

• Howard Altman, Senior Managing Editor, Military Times
• Catalina Camia, Editor in Chief, CQ and Roll Call
• Helene Cooper, John Ismay, Eric Schmitt, New York Times
• Caitlin Doornbos, Pentagon Reporter, Robert H Reid, Senior Managing Editor, Stars and Stripes
• Brian Everstine, Pentagon Editor, Aviation Week
• Michael Fabey, Americas naval reporter, Daniel Wasserbly, Head of Americas news, Janes
• Zachary Fryer-Biggs, Managing Editor, Military.com
• W.J. Hennigan, National Security Correspondent Washington Bureau, TIME
• Wafaa Jibai, Pentagon’s correspondent, Alhurra
• James Gordon Meek, National Security Investigative Reporter, ABC News
• Russell Midori. President, Military Veterans in Journalism
• Sean D. Naylor, author and freelance national security reporter
• The National Press Club
• Paul Szoldra, Editor in Chief, Task & Purpose

Joseph Johnson, 30, was piloting the Cessna, and his father, Michael Johnson, 68, was his passenger, according to Bill Salisbury, coroner for Berkeley County, South Carolina, where the collision took place.

Both men were killed when their plane collided with an F-16C from Shaw Air Force Base. Officials gave no indication that the two victims have any relation to the F-16 pilot, Maj. Aaron Johnson. The Air Force pilot from Shaw’s 55th Fighter Squadron, Maj. Aaron Johnson, apparently no relation to the two victims, ejected safely and was taken to Joint Base Charleston for a health assessment.

The body of Michael Johnson was recovered Wednesday morning in the Cooper River near the collision site by a South Carolina Department of Natural Resources search and rescue boat, Salisbury said.

Authorities are still searching for the body of Joseph Johnson, though his wallet was found Tuesday.

“We are still actively searching for one body, we recovered one this morning,” Salisbury told reporters during a Wednesday news conference.

The two victims are believed to be residents of Moncks Corner — where the crash occurred — an area about 11 miles north of Charleston.

A representative for the National Transportation Safety Board said the investigation is focusing on two main crash sites: the Cessna wreckage in the Cooper River and the F-16 wreckage about 10 miles away in a wooded area.

Officials are asking local residents to stay away from Lewisfield Plantation, a historic mansion close to where the collision took place. Anyone who spots wreckage is asked to notify local authorities.

The Cessna took off from the local Berkeley County airport and was traveling to Myrtle Beach when the collision occurred, Salisbury said.

Col. Stephen Jost, commander of the 20^th Fighter Wing at Shaw, said the F-16 pilot was conducting a routine instrument training mission on approach to Joint Base Charleston.

Authorities said it appears both planes were in radio communication with air traffic control towers at the time of the collision.

The Cessna was not equipped with a flight or voice “black box” recorder, the NTSB representative said. But officials hope there may be other electronic devices that will provide some clue as to the flight path and cabin activity right before the crash.

The F-16 was equipped with a flight recorder, and authorities said they will review that data, as well as the two planes’ communications with traffic controllers, weather records, radar reports, and eye witness accounts.

The NTSB expects to publish a preliminary report into the cause of the accident within five to 10 days. Until then, officials said they will not speculate as to the cause of the collision.

Brian Everstine contributed to this story.

The fight against the Islamic State group. The Air Force has taken the lead in the five-month-long battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and that campaign will continue into 2015.

“It’s not over. It’s not going to be easy,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said earlier this month. “Our support from the air and now our support to [Iraq] in an advise-and-assist capacity and soon a training capacity will continue.”

As of Nov. 30, the combined coalition forces had flown 4,019 airstrikes, 1,622 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties and 1,292 airdrop sorties. The Air Force flew 60 percent of the airstrike missions and 90 percent of all other types of sorties, including more than 3,700 tanker sorties by Air Mobility Command airmen.

In addition to the refueling missions, AMC had delivered 9,200 tons of cargo and 2,200 passengers into and out of hostile environments in the fight against the Islamic State group, said Lt. Gen. Carlton Everhart II, commander of 18th Air Force at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

“Between Aug. 8 and Nov. 30 of 2014, we executed 11 airdrop missions, delivering 285 tons of supplies, and we flew approximately 400 airlift sorties transporting a little over 2,200 passengers and 18 million pounds of cargo — all in support of Inherent Resolve,” Everhart said.

“We’ve been huge in this fight,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. “With all due respect for … the important debate about ‘the boots on ground,’ I’m grateful that we have so many fine boots in the air, and an awful lot of those boots are United States Air Force.”

The main mission for early 2015 is to continue to go after Islamic State group fighters by targeting “their ability to find sanctuaries, safe haven, their ability to sustain themselves,” Kirby said.

“Without a doubt, if our nation calls, we are there,” Everhart said.

Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said Dec. 18 that U.S. and coalition airstrikes are increasing following a request for more help from Iraqi leaders.

Iraqis plan operations alongside coalition representatives, who provide the air assets to provide support. As these operations increase, so will U.S. Air Force flights.

“When Iraqi Security Forces plan operations and conduct those operations, we plan to support them in terms of delivering those precision fires,” Terry said. “We’re very conscious of any collateral damage and civilian casualties. We’ve been very effective in delivering those fires. I think we’ve got it just about right. The key here is building capability in the Iraqi Security Forces, building an offensive mindset and we will continue to strike.”

There has been “significant progress” since the first airstrikes in August, and Islamic State group fighters have been put on the defensive, Terry said.

The mission has grown to include all Air Force bases in southwest Asia, including some aircraft in Jordan. The aircraft involved in airstrikes have largely been fighters, bombers and remotely piloted drones. In November, the Air Force sent its main close-air support aircraft, the A-10, to join the fight.

Airstrikes are being conducted without Air Force joint tactical air controllers on the ground, meaning officials are using intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft in the air, along with information from the Iraqi Security Forces, to conduct the airstrikes, Terry said.

More rotations of airmen and aircraft will make their way through the Middle East in 2015 to keep the fight going against the Islamic State, leaders said.

“We’ve been hitting hard those oil refineries; we’ve been attacking their sources of income … and training,” James said. “But we’ve got to all get our heads around the fact that we’re in this for the long ballgame. This is not a short ballgame.”

Air Advisory mission in Afghanistan continues. More than 250 U.S. airmen will train, advise and assist the Afghan air force through 2015 and beyond, the top officer in charge said.

The U.S. air adviser mission in Afghanistan — to build a professional, capable Afghan air force — won’t change in post-2014, said Brig. Gen. Michael Rothstein, commanding general of NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan.

The Afghan air force currently has more than 100 military aircraft and more than 6,000 personnel, according to a fact sheet from the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing in Kabul.

The goal is to grow those numbers to 150 aircraft and more than 8,000 people by 2017.

“What they’re doing now is exactly the same thing they’ll be doing in 2015,” Rothstein said of the 271 U.S. air advisers and more than 300 contractors and coalition partners to remain in Afghanistan as part of the air advisory mission.

They are among the post-2014 force that could number more than 10,000.

The air advisers instruct Afghan airmen on everything from flying helicopters and loading cargo planes to using night vision goggles and building an air force budget, Rothstein said.

Senior U.S. airmen from a multitude of career fields will be needed to carry out the mission, he said. They’ll continue to train at the Air Advisor Academy at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, where they are schooled in language, culture and combat skills.

“I would say the Afghan air force is making great progress. Each year, each six months, they’re getting better and better,” Rothstein said. “They’re tracking in the right direction. Obviously, there are challenges ahead of them. It’s important we stay focused on this.”

Forward presence in Europe. The U.S. will continue a high op tempo in Europe — predominantly Eastern Europe — until Russia de-escalates its threats in Ukraine.

Events in 2014 — including the invasion and annexation of Crimea and the presumed shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine — kickstarted dozens of NATO and U.S. land, air and sea exercises in Russia’s nearest neighbors.

Many of the exercises were part of the Defense Department’s Operation Atlantic Resolve to demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO allies and European partners.

Atlantic Resolve and other exercises will increase more than 60 percent in 2015, with U.S. Air Forces in Europe members involved in 115 exercises in Eastern Europe, Lt. Gen. Tom Jones, USAFE vice commander said.

“We’ve put about $1.1 million against those engagements,” Jones said in a Dec. 11 interview with Air Force Times.

The increase in exercises indicates “we’re going to have an increase in the numbers of everything,” Jones said. More assets, including airmen and aircraft, will continue to rotate from the U.S.

“All of those engagements will not be done by assigned forces to USAFE,” Jones said. “So we will be rotating in other support from airlift to air refueling and fighter support as we conduct these engagements.”

The Baltics, Poland, Romania and other Eastern European countries will see heightened rotations in addition to air policing missions “more likely to be done because of the situation,” he said.

“We’ll be going to Amari Air Base in Estonia to conduct some fighter training. We’ll be going into Romania as they acquire and prepare to acquire some F-16s that they had purchased from Portugal. We’ll be working with them on preparing for the reception of those fighters there,” he said.

Live fly exercises with NATO partners are planned, as well as exercise Anatolian Eagle with Turkey involving Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft.

“We rely completely upon our host nations’ acceptance and permissions to use those air fields where we are based to overfly their nations to get the logistical support that we need,” Jones said.

In Africa, Ebola and beyond. While some troops who deployed to West Africa in response to the Ebola outbreak are on their way home, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa airmen will continue their work in support of the ebbing crisis — at least through early 2015.

Army Gen. David Rodriguez, chief of U.S. Africa Command, said this month the force level would probably peak around the month’s total of 2,900 troops.

That’s far fewer than the 4,000 military officials previously estimated.

But military and health officials have been careful not to declare victory over the unpredictable virus.

“We will continue to provide aircraft, we’ll continue to provide airmen, and we’ll continue to transport those military members … until we have decided there’s not going to be military involvement anymore,” said Jones, vice commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA.

Airmen have been integral in setting up expeditionary field hospitals and transporting hundreds of passengers and hundreds of tons of cargo, including fuel, food, water and medical supplies, Jones said. Airmen also established an air bridge into and out of Liberia.

“I see that mission enduring for awhile. The intensity I believe can and hopefully will come down, but I think we’re going to be doing it for some period of time,” Jones said.

Beyond the Ebola mission, U.S. airmen will take part in joint training exercises with African nations, respond to crises and combat violent extremism, the vice commander said.

In February, airmen from the U.S., Djibouti, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will gather in Djibouti for the African Partnership Flight, a program that began in 2012 to bolster communication and connections among the nations.

The African Air Chief Symposium with similar goals will follow in the fall in Mauritania.

Changes for Pacific, Air Combat Command. Two of the Air Force’s biggest major commands have new leaders, and their work is expected to have global implications in 2015.

Gen. Lori Robinson became the service’s first woman to lead an Air Force component major command in October, at a time when U.S. aircraft in the Pacific have a growing role in the Korean peninsula and face increased tension with China over that country’s establishment of an air defense zone.

Robinson has said one of her major jobs as the new commander of Pacific Air Forces and the air component commander for U.S. Pacific Command is to focus on increasing communication with China and other countries in the region.

“It will be these relationships that will be instrumental in our international endeavors,” Robinson said at her change of command ceremony on Oct. 16 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

Robinson traveled to China in November to talk about concerns over the air defense zone, and recent close encounters in the region.

“The dialogue is beginning,” Robinson told the Associated Press before the visit. “I think that’s very, very good for the region.”

Robinson took over PACAF from Gen. Hawk Carlisle, who has taken command of Air Combat Command and is tasked with leading a force still reeling from sequestration, while facing new combat in the Middle East.

“The demand for airpower will continue to rise,” Carlisle said at his change of command ceremony Nov. 4 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.

Kristin Davis, Brian Everstine and Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.

This first round of voluntary early retirements and separations is focused on Headquarters Air Force-assigned civilians, mostly in the National Capital Region. The service plans to cut 522 positions in this area, the most in one location. Employees at Air Force Materiel Command headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, are also urged to apply at this time. AFMC must reduce its staff by 372 personnel at Wright-Patterson.

Employees must apply by Aug. 1. Applicants approved must separate by Sept. 30, according to the Air Force.

The early retirement and separation incentives announced July 21 come one week after the service announced its headquarters reorganization plan, in which 3,459 positions will be cut in an effort to save $1.6 billion over the next five years. The move is part of an overall Defense Department mandate to cut headquarters staff by 20 percent.

After this round, similar voluntary early retirement and separation offers will follow at each remaining major command.

After that, there will be at least one more round of civilian workforce management, including involuntary separations, to achieve the required cutbacks.

The headquarters reorganization includes the creation of the Air Force Installation Mission and Support Center, which will consolidate installation support for Air Force bases. Previously, independent offices at each major command handled the support. The move is a way to reduce overhead and redundant staff across the service.

The new center will have a staff of about 350, at a location that has not yet been determined. Civilians can apply for positions in this new office, said Maj. Gen. Theresa Carter, special assistant to the commander of Air Force Materiel Command who oversaw the headquarters reorganization.

— Brian Everstine

On Friday morning, Pentagon officials said a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets had bombed artillery belonging to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISL). This was the first US strike against the group, and few expect it to be the last.

“We’re talking a very, very permissive operating environment, at least in the air,” said Mark Gunzinger, a former DoD official and now an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “We have to be concerned about low-altitude MANPADs, but it’s pretty permissive, so that does open up how they might posture forces in an actual concept of operations.”

The US Air Force has a variety of assets in the region, Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT), said in a statement provided by the Air Force Press Desk. That statement reflects standing information about AFCENT forces and was not newly drafted.

AFCENT has a wide area of responsibility, and can draw on any of its fighters (A-10, F-15E, F-16, F-22), bombers (B-1), surveillance craft (E-3, E-8, RC-135), support vehicles (C-17, C-130, KC-10, KC-135) and unmanned systems (MQ-1, MQ-9, RQ-4.)

“That steady-state force includes approximately 90 US Air Force fighters, bombers or other strike aircraft based in the AOR, including MQ-9 Reaper UAVs that can be more heavily armed,” Sholtis said in a statement. “There are approximately 190 other aircraft in that steady-state force supporting ISR (including MQ-1 Predator UAVs), command-and-control, tanker or airlift missions throughout the AOR.”

It is entirely possible that a sustained campaign would be launched from outside Iraq, relying on long-distance capabilities, Gunzinger noted.

“Since we don’t have a large footprint in country and we don’t have a lot of combat aircraft in country I think anything more than small strikes and raids, if it’s a more concerted effort, will rely heavily on longer-range capabilities,” he said. “This could be a very different kind of an air campaign than we’ve done in the past, depending on the size and duration.”

The mission in Iraq is now threefold. The first is gathering intelligence on the situation, which the US has been doing for some weeks now.

Speaking July 29, Gen. Mike Hostage, the head of Air Combat Command, said he has been using a mix of manned and unmanned systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in Iraq.

“It’s what we call nontraditional ISR,” Gen. Mike Hostage, the head of US Air Force Air Combat Command, said. “We’re using fighter aircraft that have ISR capacities, like targeting pods, and things that give us a lot of awareness on what’s going on, on the ground.”

Hostage did not elaborate on what fighters were doing what, but the F_15, F-16, F-22 and A-10 all have ISR capabilities in one form or another.

The second part of the mission is delivering supplies to Iraqi and Kurdish forces trying to fight back against the Islamic States.

A senior defense official told reporters that the first humanitarian drop came Thursday evening over Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. That included two C-130 and one C-17 cargo planes, which were escorted by two F/A-18 Super Hornets, the official said.

The third arm of the operation, and the one most likely to gather the headlines, is the air strike component.

The F-15E, F-16, F-22 and F/A-18 all have precision weaponry that can be targeted to take out enemy equipment, while still traveling at high altitude and fast speeds to stay clear of enemy fire. Another option is the B-1 bomber, which has also been used for precision strike over the last 13 years in Iraq.

Although considered less pinpoint than its fast-jet cousins, the A-10 could also play a role in what may be its last military campaign before the Air Force retires the plane. Proponents of the plane say its ability to get low to the ground could help prevent civilian casualties in a situation where the insurgent population may be mixing with non-combatants.

The unmanned MQ-9 Reaper is also a likely contributor. Its cousin, the MQ-1 Predator, is another system that may see its last combat operations, as it is slowly being phased out of the service.

Unmanned systems have the added benefit of keeping US airmen out of danger.

“Should we lose one or two of those unmanned systems, you don’t have a need of [combat search and rescue] forces to go in and extract pilots,” Gunzinger noted.

During the Libyan campaign in March 2011, both B-1Bs and B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were sent on long-distance sorties to attack targets instead of being forward deployed.

Three B-2s from the 509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., flew 25 hours nonstop from their home base to drop 45 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions to destroy military aircraft and facilities at Ghardabiya, Libya.

Also, two B-1B Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., left their home base to assist in enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya, returning three days later after hitting almost 100 targets in North Africa.

_____

Brian Everstine and Andrew Tilghman contributed to this report.

Secretary Deborah Lee James

The first year of Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James’ tenure was packed with controversies and large-scale changes to the service.

Less than one month after her confirmation in December 2013, James came forward to announce the service’s biggest scandal: that dozens of nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, had been implicated for cheating on exams. She promised a transparent response.

Since then, James has steered the service to address morale issues in the nuclear community, the drawdown in Afghanistan, the new bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria, and large force structure changes expected to shift airmen and aircraft to the reserve forces.

“We have fewer people and fewer aircraft. The aircraft we have are getting older and older … while our ops tempo has literally gone through the roof,” James said during a Dec. 16 town hall. “There’s the latest serious fight with the Air Force in the lead against [the Islamic State group], humanitarian airdrops in the Pacific, the fight against Ebola in Western Africa. You name it, the U.S. Air Force is leading the way and in the forefront.”

James has been the public face of the service. She has done several high-profile interviews and taken the lead on Capitol Hill where a rocky relationship between the service and lawmakers dates back to the fiscal 2013 budget debate, when lawmakers and governors objected to the service’s plan to downsize the Air National Guard. While Capitol Hill battles have continued, mainly about the service’s attempt to retire the A-10, lawmakers and experts have said the relationship has improved.

One ongoing plea to Congress is to make sure that sequestration does not return. If it does, there will be more cuts and a large drop in readiness, James has said.

“Please Congress, lift sequestration in [fiscal] ’16,” James said at the State of the Air Force briefing last summer. “Because if these difficult choices in FY 15 were troublesome, hold on to your hats, because it is going to get worse and even more difficult in FY 16.”

Lt. Gen. Sam Cox

In his first year as the Air Force’s personnel chief, Lt. Gen. Sam Cox had the unwanted and unpleasant task of overseeing a massive force management program that led to the separation or retirement of nearly 20,000 active-duty airmen.

But throughout 2014, Cox also left his stamp on the Air Force in other ways that will have profound impacts on airmen’s lives and careers. Under his watch, the Air Force began rolling out the most significant changes in decades to how enlisted airmen are evaluated and promoted.

And the Air Force began experimenting with a sabbatical program, called the Career Intermission Pilot Program, that will allow up to 40 airmen next year to take up to three years off from the Air Force.

For better or for worse, Cox was the face of the 2014 force management program that ended up selecting 19,833 airmen to retire or separate, voluntarily and involuntarily.

There were bumps along the way, which sometimes led airmen to vent their frustrations online at the Air Force and Cox. A “pause” in processing some voluntary retirement and separation applications in March confused some. Fewer than 20 airmen were mistakenly told their Temporary Early Retirement Authority applications had been approved, and then were revoked, before the Air Force reversed itself again and said it would honor those airmen’s approvals.

And more than 1,000 airmen who were approved for voluntary separation pay were mistakenly told they would receive transitional health care benefits — some even received cards and started using those benefits — before the Air Force revoked those benefits. The Air Force eventually approved those Transition Assistance Management Program benefits for all 4,529 airmen approved for voluntary separation pay.

But Cox and his team also adjusted their force shaping plan as the year progressed to take into account developments such as the nuclear missile cheating and drug use scandal. That scandal led the Air Force to remove nuclear jobs from the list of cuts in June.

And as more airmen accepted voluntary separation and retirement offers, Cox’s team significantly reduced the scope of the involuntary programs. A planned retention board to cut chief master sergeants was canceled, and other retention boards were shrunk. In the end, 6,129 airmen — less than one-third of all cuts — were involuntarily separated by the Air Force. Cox and other Air Force leaders repeatedly said that they hoped to achieve as many cuts as possible through voluntary measures before resorting to involuntary cuts.

In a November interview, Cox stressed that the cuts were the last thing the Air Force wanted to do.

“From the very outset, none of us wanted to do any of these reductions,” Cox said. “But because of the budgetary issues, that’s what we had to do. It’s what we could afford to have.”

The A-10

The Air Force budget debate on Capitol Hill was dominated by one issue: the future of the A-10.

The Air Force said budget restrictions were pushing it to retire the venerable close-air support jet. Retiring the 343-aircraft fleet would save $3.5 billion over five years.

The recommendation met immediate opposition in Congress. “I’ve been fighting so hard for the A-10, and there’s only one reason for that,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said in November. “I believe when we send our men and women to fight on our behalf, that they deserve the very best and we have a responsibility to ensure we can do everything we can to bring them home.”

Ayotte leads the movement to block the A-10 retirement. She is joined by powerful lawmakers such as incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.; and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

“The Air Force spent most of this year fighting Congress on retiring the A-10,” McCain said Nov. 13. “Why they weren’t focused on more important issues, I don’t know.”

In November, as the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act was being finalized, the A-10 supporters brought in an important group: the Tactical Air Control Party Association, the largest group of current and retired Air Force TACP airmen.

“This is the first time we’ve spoken publicly about this issue,” said retired Master Sgt. Charlie Keebaugh, president of the TACP Association. “We are compelled to take action at this point. Knowing the status of the world and our brothers, and our friends who are being sent downrange, they deserve to have the support that they need to do the mission.”

The opposition worked. The final version of the NDAA, which President Obama signed into law Dec. 17, includes $331.1 million to block the retirement. It allows the Air Force to move 36 of the jets to backup status, meaning they would not regularly be flown but would remain with their units.

The F-22 showed its combat capability in airstrikes over Syria.

Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Jared Becker/Air Force

The F-22

The opening night of Operation Inherent Resolve on Sept. 22 gave the military the opportunity to unveil the combat capability of its newest operational fighter, the F-22.

Two F-22s dropped bombs that night in Syria, destroying a building belonging to the Islamic State group. Officials decided to employ the Raptors because of their stealth capability and advanced avionics that helped improve the situational awareness of other aircraft on the mission.

“Planners are taking a look at the specifics of each mission, determining if they need them or not,” said Maj. Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the Air Force assistant chief of staff of operations, plans and requirements. “It depends on the targets, where they are, and the environment … those types of things to determine if it is necessary to fly the F-22 package at night.”

Syria’s air defenses were “passive” during the initial bombing runs, Harrigian said.

U.S. and coalition fighter, bomber, attack and remotely piloted aircraft have been involved in the mission, according to Central Command. The Air Force, however, has flown the most airstrikes of Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria and Iraq. It is responsible for 60 percent of the bombing runs and 90 percent of the mobility flights. The service has not been specific about which jets are flying bombing runs since the F-22’s flights on the first night.

Airmen lift their right hand as they repeat the oath of enlistment.

Photo Credit: Staff Sgt Vernon Young Jr./Air Force

‘So help me God’

His fight to not compromise his atheist beliefs sparked a constitutional debate across the Air Force and led to a major change affecting thousands of atheist and agnostic airmen.

And most of the Air Force doesn’t even know his name.

On Aug. 25, the anonymous, atheist enlisted airman, stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, was told the Air Force would not accept his reenlistment contract because he had crossed out the phrase “so help me God.” He had two options, he was told: Sign the contract without alteration and recite an oath concluding with “so help me God;” or leave the Air Force.

He reached out to the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, which threatened to sue if the airman was not allowed to reenlist without having to swear to a deity. AHA attorney Monica Miller said requiring that portion of the oath would violate Article VI of the Constitution, which prohibits requiring religious tests to hold an office or public trust.

The Air Force used to allow airmen to omit that phrase for personal reasons, but in a quiet update to Air Force Instruction 36-2606 in October 2013, dropped that option.

The Air Force first said its hands were tied because the reenlistment oath law as passed by Congress didn’t allow airmen to opt out of the religious clause.

But the Air Force stood alone. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps each confirmed that they do not require their troops to say “so help me God” if they choose not to, and a Pentagon official said there was no legal requirement to say those words.

On Sept. 9, five days after the AHA announced it was representing the airman, the Air Force asked the Defense Department’s general counsel for a legal review of the rule. On Sept. 17 — nearly two weeks after the issue became public — the Air Force announced that it would no longer require any airmen who take the oath of enlistment and officer appointment to swear an oath to God.

Today, the airman is still anonymous. In written responses to questions submitted to his lawyer, the airman said he reenlisted after the Air Force reversed itself.

He said his fellow airmen — both religious and agnostics — were supportive of his efforts, and that he didn’t suffer any blowback from standing his ground.

“The experience was stressful, but I’m glad I stood up for my rights,” he said. “I was surprised by the praise I’ve received from believers and nonbelievers who just wanted to thank me and congratulate me for taking a stand against religious discrimination. Even people who disagree with me about the existence of a god agree that the Air Force should not be forcing religion on anyone.”

Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, shown here as a colonel, inspired Mustache March.

Photo Credit: Air Force

Mustache March

When Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh announced the Air Force-wide “Mustache March,” airmen were at the ready on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages posting photos of family, friends and unit members displaying their best sculpted facial hair.

But some airmen were less enthusiastic. Maj. Jennifer Holmes, a senior trial counsel stationed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, wrote an opinion piece, “In Mustache March, I lose,” in Air Force Times’ March 24 issue. Her intent, she said, was to start a dialogue on the “boys club” tradition.

Holmes’ opinion got more than 12,000 page views on the Air Force Times Facebook page and it got mixed reviews in 145 comments. But Holmes had at least one ally, retired Navy Cmdr. Sara Zak, who sent a complaint to the Air Force inspector general’s office.

Even if Mustache March was intended to boost morale, Zak told Air Force Times her main issue with the event was that it crippled any progress against military sexual assault because she sees the mustache challenge as a sexist act.

“I think Mustache March is a sign of how casually [military leadership] is approaching a solution. Everyone [in the Defense Department] at this point is tasked to not tolerate, condone or ignore anything and everything that has to do with sexual assault or harassment. And then General Welsh ordered this Mustache March challenge, which I see as insubordinate,” Zak said.

“I would love to at least think that General Welsh wouldn’t do this again, but my guess is … since it has existed for quite a long time, units will continue to do it,” she said.

Lt. Col. Allen Herritage recently told Air Force Times that there has been no decision on a Mustache March in 2015.

Driver

Photo Credit: Unknown

Former Staff Sgt. Aaron Driver

Staff Sgt. Aaron Driver didn’t intend to become the most hated man in the Air Force. But when the radar technician wrote a letter to Air Force Times spelling out “Why I won’t re-enlist,” hundreds of airmen around the country piled on.

In Driver’s April letter, he spelled out the strain that repeated deployments placed on his marriage, the frustration he felt about threatened cuts to his benefits, and the nitpicking, rules-obsessed attitude displayed by his leaders.

The final straw came when his first sergeant read him the riot act over his out-of-regulation mustache – during Mustache March, a forcewide event heavily promoted by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Welsh and celebrating a famed fighter pilot who proudly flaunted grooming regulations.

Some readers thought Driver was a long-awaited truth teller. But many called him everything from a selfish whiner to a cancer on the Air Force.

“It doesn’t have to be miserable,” Driver, a Savannah, Georgia, native said in May during a deployment to Southwest Asia. “But to point that out is apparently taboo.”

In a Dec. 15 interview, Driver said he did indeed leave the Air Force officially in August and returned to Georgia, where he got a job in landscaping. Driver used his GI Bill benefits to enroll in Chattahoochee Technical College and study horticulture. He plans to graduate next year, and eventually hopes to start his own landscaping business, possibly focusing on organic gardening.

But after he returned from his final deployment in May and before he went on terminal leave, Driver found he was persona non grata to many of his fellow airmen. He’s called a few airmen he knew since leaving, but hasn’t heard back from them.

“By the time I got home, it was as if I barely existed anymore,” Driver said. “I could definitely feel everyone waiting for me to slide away. I’ve kind of let that part of my old life go, as sad as that is, because I knew so many of those people for so long.”

And in what he took as a final slight from the Air Force, he wasn’t presented his achievement medal in person at his final drill or other gathering. He only found out he had been awarded that medal when he received his personnel files in November. Included in the file, without explanation, was a certificate for his achievement medal. The actual medal was not included.

“I could definitely feel the cold shoulder there,” Driver said.

He doesn’t regret writing his letter, and he’s glad the conversation he hoped to start appears to be continuing in the Air Force. Col. Donald Grannan, the commander of the 88th Communications Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio published a column in November that said a lack of support and encouragement from superiors led a talented young airman to leave.

“My first thought was that not only was it a fantastic piece, but it made me feel a little justified to see an individual in his position to kind of acknowledge a lot of the same issues that I was attempting to bring light to,” Driver said. “It seems like other people are noticing and it’s not just something that disappeared after I did.”

But the reaction to Grannan’s column was far different. Instead of being labeled a “cancer” by other airmen, Grannan’s commentary went viral and prompted thousands of comments, mostly supportive.

“He’s a colonel, and individuals still in the service have more respect for an individual who has that rank,” Driver said when asked why he thought people had a different reaction to Grannan’s commentary. “I was an easy target. Instead of dealing with the issue, it was easy to write me off as the whiner, the guy that couldn’t take it, wanted to complain instead of actually doing something. And the nature of my article was much more personal, compared to his where he shared the story of another person. It makes it easier to look at the person instead of what they’re saying.”

Driver still has the infamous mustache that raised his first sergeant’s ire, and once he went on terminal leave he began growing a beard to match it.

“The great thing about the line of work I’ve chosen is, it does have to be groomed, but I can have it,” Driver said. “They looked at me very odd when I asked them about their grooming standards.”

Col. Donald Grannan

Photo Credit: Air Force

Col. Donald Grannan

As for Grannan, he is still amazed at the reaction his November commentary continues to draw.

Grannan’s column, “How did we lose this young Airman?” related the story of a bright, talented and driven airman he knew who chose not to reenlist because “in her words, the Air Force had made it clear it didn’t want her.” He pointed the finger at failures in the service’s leadership culture.

The column went viral, and many airmen who commented on it applauded Grannan for speaking out.

“My email kind of blew up,” Grannan said. “I was getting emails from all over the Air Force, from folks that I know and a lot of folks I didn’t know.”

Grannan said he sees the conversation continuing, both in public and in private. As one example, he pointed to a Dec. 8 column from Lt. Col. Barry Little, the 90th Operation Support Squadron commander at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, which concluded, “We need to better equip our airmen for the mission and the future by developing them as thinkers and leaders.”

“I’ve gotten emails and phone calls from chief master sergeants telling me they’re definitely discussing it at their level, which I thought was outstanding,” Grannan said. “Discussing the issue of being engaged leaders. I’ve heard of [Airman Leadership School] students and others that have brought up the issue with base and wing leadership panels and Q and A sessions. I’ve heard of at least one ALS instructor from another base who sent me an email saying he wanted to include it in his class discussion.”

Grannan said he thinks other midlevel Air Force leaders feel, as he does, that with the Air Force shrinking to its smallest level since the 1940s, units have much less room to absorb the loss of superstar airmen. To prevent those losses, leaders need to engage with their airmen, Grannan said.

Grannan said he saw some criticize his column as supporting leaders turning a blind eye to slipping standards on things like fitness in the Air Force. He thinks those critics missed the point. Leaders do have to focus on standards, he said, but shouldn’t be myopic or arbitrary and capricious in their enforcement of rules, and understand that sometimes, case-by-case judgments need to be made.

“The way to guard against that is through engagement and knowing your troops,” Grannan said. “We’re the greatest Air Force on the planet because we can have these discussions. These discussions are healthy.”

He said the Pentagon’s top brass hasn’t reached out to him about ways to improve leadership in the Air Force, and he isn’t planning to take part in any official panels or events on leadership. That would be presumptuous, he said. But he does hope airmen keep talking about these issues throughout 2015.

“I don’t have all the answers, and I know that other colonels, chiefs, first sergeants, squadron commanders, they don’t have all the answers either,” Grannan said. “But I think that if we discuss this and we keep it in the forefront, we can identify these issues when they come up and fix them. I plan to keep the conversation going.”

Staff Sgt. James Seegel

An airman who saved 50 airmen’s jobs that would have been lost because of a computer error will transition in January into his new career as an Air Force reservist.

Staff Sgt. James Seegel alerted his chain of command and the Air Force Personnel Center in August that five of his class members were removed from Enlisted Retention Board eligibility when they should have met the board. As a result of his finding, officials gave 50 airmen who were told that they must separate by Jan. 31 the option of remaining on active duty. Seegel, however, was still told he must separate.

Seegel’s gesture got attention beyond his chain of command — Seegel recently told Air Force Times he received an email from Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Cody but he did not specify what Cody said.

Seegel has investigations pending with the offices of Congressman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.. He has not heard back from the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, and the congressional investigations are on hold until the Air Force responds to their queries.

Security Forces Museum

The sudden closure in August of the decades-old Security Forces Museum at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland incited a social media firestorm. Dozens of former and current members of the Air Force’s largest career field openly lamented the decision while imploring Air Education and Training Command — via a Facebook page and a White House petition — to rethink it.

Air Force officials have.

The Security Forces Museum and the Airman Heritage Museum, which was also closed last summer, will both reopen in the spring under the consolidated name Airman Heritage Museum and Enlisted Character Development Center, Air Education and Training Command historian Gary Boyd wrote in an email.

Fundraising efforts are underway to construct an 85,000-square-foot facility to house the new center, which is planned for the north end of Lackland’s parade field. The $50 million privately funded facility could open as early as 2017.

In the meantime, the museums, beginning in the spring, will reopen in their current locations. Ideally, officials would like to find a single, interim facility because operating the museums separately will require splitting limited resources and paying for the upkeep of two buildings, Boyd said.

New staff “will begin to flow into the Museum in January 2015, and we’ll be able to open for regular hours in Spring, as we prepare to meet the new mission of [Basic Military Training] Capstone Week and public visits,” Boyd said. “We will have three enlisted and three civilian positions, plus one intern.”

A chief master sergeant will oversee the effort. “Our goal is to build pride and heritage knowledge in our newest Air Force members,” Boyd said.

Former Tech. Sgt. Greg Autry, creator of the “Save the Air Force Security Forces Museum” Facebook page that grew to include more than 5,000 members, said in an email he understands budget constraints have forced the Air Force to combine the two museums into one.

Autry remains hopeful the new plans will maintain much of the present-day Security Forces Museum.

“Obviously, there will be some give and take in order to include the other exhibits,” he said.

Lt. Col. Craig Perry

Nine months after his controversial removal from command of a basic training support squadron, Lt. Col. Craig Perry has settled into his new job as an analyst for Joint Information Operations Warfare Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Perry said he enjoys having a job to do after months spent in limbo over a commander-directed investigation that ultimately led to his upending.

The inquiry concluded that, as commander of the 737th Training Support Squadron, Perry carried on unprofessional relationships with noncommissioned officers in his unit and that interactions with subordinates undermined wing leadership. The CDI also found Perry made comments critical of his boss and allowed favoritism to affect how he treated a subordinate.

In addition to being relieved of command March 27, Perry was issued a career-ending referral officer performance report and a letter of reprimand, the latter of which was filed in his officer selection record. He was also reassigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, although he is able to stay in San Antonio under an Exceptional Family Member Program deferment due to his wife’s health.

Perry maintains he was the victim of toxic leadership, leaders whom he says grossly mischaracterized squadron outreach efforts by him and his wife, Caroline, who revived a languishing Key Spouse Program within the squadron.

Dozens of readers agreed with that assessment after a May 30 Air Force Times story went viral. Those readers said Perry was unjustifiably punished for doing what the military demands of its best leaders.

A Naval War College professor who took it upon himself to review the CDI report said that the investigator made conflicting statements and drew contradictory conclusions — and that the evidence failed to support Perry’s removal.

Since his relief from duty, Perry has filed congressional inquiries and an Article 138 against his former commander, retired Col. Deborah Liddick. He said he also filed a complaint with the Air Force Inspector General five months ago but has yet to hear back.

Perry said he next plans to file a complaint with the Defense Department IG.

Before the CDI, Perry was on track for promotion to colonel in 2014.

“I was in the top 15 percent of my peers,” he said.

But the LOR in his records — combined with a recent “do not promote” recommendation to the colonel central selection board — guaranteed he would be passed over, Perry said. “If I am passed over again next year, I will be forced to retire.”

WWII POW Medal awardees

Seventy years after their capture, eight surviving veterans who were imprisoned in a notorious internment camp in Switzerland in World War II were awarded the POW Medal.

More than 140 airmen were held at Wauwilermoos for trying to escape the neutral country after their planes went down inside its borders. But they were ineligible for the POW Medal, which recognized only service members held by enemies in declared armed conflicts.

An amendment broadening the terms of the award was finally passed in October 2013, thanks in large part to Army Maj. Dwight Mears, who for years pleaded for the recognition. Mears’ grandfather, who died before he was born, was one of the 143 prisoners.

In an April 30 ceremony at the Pentagon, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh presented the POW Medal to the eight surviving men: Lt. Col. James Misuraca, Maj. James Moran, 1st Lts. Paul Gambaiana and James Mahon, Tech. Sgt. Alva Moss, Staff Sgt. John Fox and Sgts. William Blackburn and George Thursby.

Senior Airman Charles Wilson

The Air Force announced in October it would seek the death penalty in the case against Senior Airman Charles Wilson III of Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, accused of killing his fiancee, Tameda Ferguson, and their unborn child.

Wilson was already charged with arson and murder in connection with an October 2011 fire and with communicating a threat in the alleged attack on a female technical sergeant in July 2012.

Air Force prosecutors want to try Wilson on all the charges at once, while the defense team argued at a motion hearing in December to sever the charges into three separate trials. Defense attorneys are also attempting to toss out evidence seized during the search of Wilson’s home, Robins spokesman Roland Leach told Air Force Times Dec. 10.

Wilson, a support team member with the 461st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, was arrested in August and charged with killing Ferguson who was found shot to death at her home in Dawson, Georgia, about 100 miles south of Robins. She was 8½ months pregnant.

Senior defense counsel Maj. Will Babor told Air Force Times in June that he is concerned he is “not a qualified death penalty lawyer. [Defense co-counsel] Capt. Adam Newsome and I are not qualified death penalty lawyers. To be frank, there’s no lawyer in the Air Force who’s qualified to defend airman Wilson.”

Chief Trial Judge of the Air Force Col. Vance Spath — who is presiding over the motion hearings and will oversee the court-martial — will announce rulings on the December motions this month, Leach said. Motion hearings will continue through May; the earliest anticipated date for Wilson’s court-martial is June, Leach said.

While Wilson faces the death penalty if convicted, most death sentences are overturned on appeal — the last military execution occurred more than 50 years ago. The Air Force last carried out the death penalty in 1954.

Colleen Boland

The 7¹/₂ days airman-turned-activist Colleen Boland spent in jail in November were reminiscent of boot camp — austere living quarters, blazing florescent lights and loud voices echoing through sleepless nights.

“If I can make it through basic training in that kind of environment,” the retired senior master sergeant told herself, she could endure a week behind bars.

Boland opted to go to jail Nov. 19 instead of paying a fine after she pleaded guilty to trespassing during an October protest of a Schuyler County energy company that plans to expand natural gas storage near the largest of New York’s Finger Lakes.

Boland and fellow activists who call themselves Seneca Lake Defenders — more than 80 of whom had been arrested as of mid-December — said they oppose the project because of the potential environmental impacts. The company, Crestwood, maintains the project is safe.

An administration specialist who retired from the Air Force in 1995, Boland joined the environmental cause a few years ago after watching the 2010 documentary “Gasland” on the dangers of drilling for natural gas. She said she chose to highlight her military experience during the protest “to dispel the notion that the only people standing up … are tree-hugging hippies or out-of-touch dreamers.”

Just as on the day of her arrest, Boland wore her Air Force fleece jacket as she was led away from court in handcuffs following her Nov. 19 sentence.

“From my perspective, I was not the trespasser. This company is the trespasser. They are trespassing on the shores of this lake. It is toxic trespassing. The idea that legally I was charged with trespassing, how in good conscious could I pay a fine for that? It was a moral and ethical decision to me,” she said of electing to go to jail. “It didn’t make any sense that I’ll just pay my way out of this, give my money to this county.”

Her confinement was, as she expected, uncomfortable, Boland said. “When I hit the 3¹/₂-day point [of the sentence], I thought, ‘Oh gosh, I’m not even halfway through. This is going to be very long.’ But I had the privilege of knowing I was going to get out.”

She was released just after midnight on Thanksgiving, which allowed her to spend the holiday with family and friends. And the experience did not deter her from future activism, Boland said. She has already been back to the protest site since her release, although she was not among those who trespassed.

“If it is deemed there is a value in me trespassing again, my decision is the same,” she said. “I would do it again.”

Staff Sgt. Jessica Field

The first female airman to become a certified martial arts instructor through the Marine Corps Martial Arts Center of Excellence at Quantico, Virginia, is making progress to certify more airmen herself.

Staff Sgt. Jessica Field graduated from the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructor course July 18 and returned to her station at Fort Meade, Maryland, where she instructs three airmen and a handful of Navy and Marine Corps members in her own MMA class.

Field said the three airmen should graduate her course in the next few weeks to become tan-belt certified. The students, who take her class twice a week, log their hours so Field can eventually grant their official certification on behalf of the Marine Corps.

“I’ve had awesome support from Air Force leadership from all the way up,” Field told Air Force Times Dec. 16. Field, who has her green belt enhanced with the tan instructor-certified tab, has not been able to wear her belt with her uniform; however, her leadership is helping to gain that authorization.

Field is also working toward teaching more students at a higher level of MCMAP. “Hopefully in the spring, I’ll … go for my brown belt, which is the next level in the MCMAP belt process,” Field said.

Kristin Davis, Brian Everstine, Stephen Losey and Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.