Busy Year
"We've been to China twice to offer the helping hand of humanitarian aid, and we've delivered supplies to Burma following their devastating hit from Cyclone Nargis. We've provided medical care to the furthest reaches of this theater, and we've rescued countless injured civilians from the waters of the Pacific to the ice sheets of Antarctica. We've trained with international partners at Red Flag-Alaska and during multiple bi-lateral exercises, and our senior officers and senior NCOs alike have engaged with their Chinese military counterparts as we seek to better understand each other. It's been a year of building bridges while maintaining responsive combat airpower. We've done all this with a focus on precision and reliability. That's what our nation expects—anything less would be unacceptable. It's remarkable how our airmen step up time and time again to prove that we are indeed the finest Air Force in the world."
—Gen. Howie Chandler, commander of Pacific Air Forces, in a holiday message to his command, Dec. 29, 2008.

The Key
"The smaller the size of the [nuclear] stockpile, the more important it will be to have confidence in its reliability."
—The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States Interim Report, in which it advocates support to address the aging-out of nuclear weapons and loss of technological expertise, Dec. 15, 2008.