One Million and Counting

April 29, 2008—The Air Force on April 19 surpassed the historic mark of flying its one millionth operational sortie in the global war on terror. The 1,335 sorties flown on that day in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in protecting the US homeland, brought USAF’s tally to 1,000,393 total flights since Sept. 11, 2001.

AMC = Air Mobility Command
OIF = Operation Iraqi Freedom
OEF = Operation Enduring Freedom
ONE = Operation Noble Eagle

Verbatim

Fifth-Generation Apples and Oranges
“I think the notion of the F-22 as being common and similar to the F-35, we need to get rid of that. The F-35 is a very different airplane. It has similar characteristics but it’s a different airplane. ... It complements the F-22, but the F-22 is clearly an air superiority and air dominance weapon. The F-35 is a multinational, multirole, ground-to-air versatile airplane.”
—Michael Wynne, speaking to reporters on his final day in office as Air Force Secretary, June 20, 2008.

Verbatim

Call for Accountability
“The GAO’s decision in the tanker protest reveals serious errors in the Air Force’s handling of this critically important competition. We now need not only a new full, fair, and open competition in compliance with the GAO recommendations, but also a thorough review of—and accountability for—the process that produced such a flawed result.”
—Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on GAO’s decision to uphold a protest by Boeing in the Air Force KC-X tanker competition, June 18, 2008.