Category: US Air Force

This would be a big change to military culture if family days are eliminated:

The Air Force is scrutinizing the extra day given to troops that turn federal holidays into four-day weekends as the U.S. government hunts for ways to streamline operations. At many bases, service members receive an automatic “family day,” typically scheduled alongside a Friday or Monday holiday. In the coming weeks, the Air Force “will evaluate Family Days to ensure they align with our ability to support warfighter readiness,” Gwendolyn DeFilippi, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, wrote in a Feb. 11 memo.

The review comes as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, drives cost-cutting and efficiency measures across the executive branch of the federal government.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if this is something coming from the new Secretary of Defense or something the Chief of Staff of the Air Force had previously planned to announce?:

Career field identifier patches and 57 colors of nail polish are out, gig lines and short hair are in, according to an Air Force order that reverses dress and appearance regulations loosened just one year ago. “I expect compliance with these updates as the military duty of the total Air Force,” Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin wrote in a memo Friday.

A copy was posted Wednesday on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page, where it quickly accumulated more than 700 comments. Allvin banned without comment the career field identifier patches worn on airmen’s camouflage-pattern utility uniforms. He also reduced the permitted colors of nail polish from 60 to three; now only “clear, or French or American Manicure” are allowed. He also clarified that hair may not touch the ears and all male airmen not on a waiver must be clean shaven at the start of each duty day.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Air Force is finally releasing their new PT uniform, but they are still struggling to design a long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt:

After a two-year delay, the Air Force anticipates the new gender-specific uniform for physical training to be available on a limited basis in November. The PT uniform — short-sleeve shirt, running shorts, all-purpose shorts and warm-up suit — was originally scheduled for release in 2022, Air Force spokeswoman Ciara Travis told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday.

The uniform is now expected in November at select Army and Air Force Exchange Service locations in the continental United States, she said. When the Air Force announced the new uniform back in 2021, it planned on a four-year transition before it became mandatory wear.

Travis did not say when the new workout clothing would be available at bases overseas. Some optional items, including a long-sleeve shirt and sweatshirt, are in development and will be available later, she said. “That process took longer than expected,” she said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but why is it a multi-year effort to design a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt? How much money is going into this?

Any Air Force types want to comment if it really makes a difference having nine F-16’s stationed on Osan AB instead of Kunsan AB? It is not like that is a very far distance:

Air Force fighter jets are temporarily moving closer to North Korea to “optimize combat capability and increase readiness” on the Korean Peninsula. Nine F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, roughly 115 miles southwest of Seoul, will be assigned for a yearlong trial to the 36th Fighter Squadron at Osan Air Base, about 30 miles south of the capital, according to an Air Force news release Thursday. The F-16s began arriving at Osan earlier this month, 7th Air Force spokesman Maj. Rachel Buitrago told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. Two fighter squadrons of F-16s and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs are permanently stationed at the base.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest show of force towards North Korea:

The United States flew nuclear-capable bombers to the Korean Peninsula on Friday in its latest show of force against North Korea, days after the North staged massive anti-U.S. rallies in its capital.

The long-range B-52 bombers took part in joint aerial drills with other U.S. and South Korean fighter jets over the peninsula, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The bombers’ flyover is the latest in a series of temporary U.S. deployments of strategic assets in South Korea in response to North Korea’s push to expand its nuclear arsenal.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Flying bomber jets with South Korean fighters is one of the typical U.S. responses to North Korean provocations. What makes this one different is that the Japanese joined in to make it a trilateral deterrence drill:

U.S. B-52 bombers flew with Japanese and South Korean fighter jets Friday in separate exercises as a show of unity intended to deter would-be adversaries, the Defense Department said Friday.

The joint aerial training comes amid elevated tensions with North Korea and China.

North Korea has stepped up its pace of missile testing, including the launch Thursday of what it called a “new type” of solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The new frontline on the war on woke has not shifted to the U.S. Air Force Academy:

Academy officials say such diversity training is long overdue and will build better leaders, while critics worry about what appears to be a changing culture and focus in the military and its institutions that will be to the detriment of the nation’s defenses.

One slide presented as part of the training program bore language that encouraged cadets to “recognize diverse family formation” by using broad terminology that avoided gendered references. The academy said the slide was taken out of context; cadets aren’t prohibited from using the terms “mom” and “dad,” as some news reports claimed, and the information presented as part of the training was “not intended to stand alone.”

But the academy’s response has only served to fuel ongoing controversy about so-called wokeism in the military, a debate that was re-stirred after images of the AFA training slides were shared beyond the campus north of Colorado Springs last month, reported on by Fox News Digital and then a slew of other outlets.

The slides , visual aids used in a moderated presentation at the academy — and the only elements of the presentation subsequently leaked to the media — made their points in a series of bullet points. One slide encouraged cadets to use “person-centered” and “inclusive language” that doesn’t imply presumptions about others’ situations, preferred pronouns or family life.

So, “parents/caregivers/guardians” instead of “mom and dad.”

And “ya’ll/team/squaddies/everyone/folks,” instead of “you guys.”

It also discouraged cadets from using terms such as “colorblind.”

A second slide explained that diversity and inclusion are key to developing warfighters who are prepared to lead the Air Force and Space Force “with character.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Academy is pretty much just producing the standard diversity training that is going on in most colleges in the U.S.

This feeds right into the narrative critics have launched for years that the military would be forced for political reasons to drop standards to allow more females into combat arms and special operations career fields:

The Air Force Special Operations Command’s handling of news that a female special warfare candidate received preferential treatment in the training pipeline has sparked a fierce backlash and proven accurate the warnings of a 2016 report that called for transparency in the military’s integration of women into special operations forces.

Last week, a letter written by an anonymous special tactics airman emerged detailing how a female special tactics officer candidate quit the challenging selection process and training pipeline multiple times, only to be reinstated by the leadership of AFSOC and the 24th Special Operations Wing. (……..)

Since then, details have emerged that cast more doubt on AFSOC’s handling of the situation. On Thursday, Air Force Times reported that the trainee herself protested the training standards being lowered for her.

Task and Purpose

You can read more at the link, but I am all for women in special forces, but it shouldn’t be because of special treatment. This just devalues the accomplishments of the women who do eventually make the cut.

Airmen have a few more weeks to get their new uniforms:

The Air Force has delayed its switch to new color schemes for uniform boots, under garments and flag patches until September, citing “unnecessary stress” on its service members due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Airmen, including Space Force service members, by Sept. 1 must wear coyote brown boots and T-shirts and spice brown U.S. flag patches with their two-piece flight uniforms and utility uniforms in the operational camouflage pattern, better known as OCPs, according to a notice on the Air Force website. The original deadline was June 1.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if all these accommodations has led to any increased recruitment from people of these faiths?:

Airmen will be allowed to wear up to 2-inch beards under a new Air Force guidance that outlines grooming standards for religious accommodations.

The updated grooming policy, published Friday, also allows members of the Sikh faith to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs.

Airmen must have religious or medical exemptions to grow beards, the policy says.

The guidance for beards grown under a shaving waiver remains unchanged: Such whiskers must not be trimmed to give a sculpted appearance and cannot exceed a quarter-inch in length, the updated policy states.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.