Flying Noble Eagle

June 12, 2008—The Air Force and its Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol, flew some 345 sorties over the continental US during the month of May, according to figures released this week by the Air National Guard-led 1st Air Force/Air Forces Northern, headquartered at Tyndall AFB, Fla. The sorties flown by CAP more than tripled from the previous month. And, Air Guard and Air Force Reserve forces flew five times the number of sorties flown by their active duty counterparts. The CONUS portion of Operation Noble Eagle has flown more than 49,000 sorties since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

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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.