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All Perished in Bomber Crash
All Perished in Bomber Crash: The Air Force yesterday announced it had formally declared that all six airmen had died in the B-52 crash off the northwest coast of Guam on July 21. Search and rescue crews found the bodies of two airmen on July 21, and by July 23 they shifted from round-the-clock rescue operations to recovery mode. Five of the six airmen on board had deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, La. The sixth was a flight surgeon assigned to the 36th Medical Group at Andersen. The Barksdale airmen were: Maj. Christopher M. Cooper, 33, aircraft commander; Maj. Brent D. Williams, 37, navigator; Capt. Michael K. Dodson, 31, co-pilot; 1st Lt. Joshua D. Shepherd, 26, navigator; and 1st Lt. Robert D. Gerren, 32, electronic warfare officer. From Andersen was Col. George Martin, 36th MDG deputy commander. The massive rescue operations covered a 7,000-square mile area and included Air Force, Coast Guard, and Navy search teams and Guam emergency services personnel. "Losing this bomber crew has been a tragedy felt by everyone here and across the Air Force," said Brig. Gen. Douglas Owens, 36th Wing commander, and added, "I extend our sincerest gratitude to the men and women involved with this [rescue and recovery] effort." The 2nd Bomb Wing commander, Col. Robert Wheeler, said in a subsequent release, "We appreciate the military and civilian organizations who are continuing recovery efforts to bring our airmen home."
7/24/2008
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Verbatim
Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010. |
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Verbatim
Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.
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