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Enola Gay Controversy

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The Air Force's new "United States Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047" foretells an airpower future dominated—and perhaps solely occupied—by pilotless drones of varying sizes and capabilities. This MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle, being armed by SrA. Jason Atwell (foreground) and SSgt. Stephanie Hughes and SrA. Gale Passe with an AGM-114 Hellfire II air-to-ground missile, is just the tip of the iceberg. These airmen were undergoing training at Creech AFB, Nev., April 22, 2009.

US Air Force photo by SrA. Nadine Y. Barclay

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.

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.