The temporary closure of a runway in Moses Lake will mean more Air Force jets flying the night skies of Pierce County.

Contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin working Monday on Grant County International Airport’s "assault strip" – called such because it is reinforced to handle C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets landing at a steep angle.

Crews from McChord Air Force Base and other installations use the runway for nighttime landings. But with the runway’s monthlong closure, some of those training flights will land at McChord. Other Air Force bases across the Western United States will accept some of the flights as well.

The actual number of extra flights coming into the base hasn’t yet been determined, a spokesman for the 62nd Airlift Wing said Wednesday.

"We’re looking at other options," Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson said. "We’re looking at sending some of these flights as far away as Wyoming. So we don’t have a number right now."

=> Read more!

The 62nd Airlift Wing won the top award at this year’s Air Mobility Rodeo skills competition at McChord Air Force Base.

The wing, the largest active-duty unit at McChord, received the award for best air mobility team during the closing ceremonies Friday evening. The Rodeo is a biennial competition drawing more than 100 teams from the U.S. Air Force and foreign militaries, which compete in more than 50 on-the-ground and in-the-air events.

Judges also honored the 62nd Airlift Wing for having the best C-17 Globemaster III team and the best airdrop team. It also won the aerial port challenge team course, joint inspection team, low-level airdrop crew, overall C-17 aircrew and C-17 post-flight team competitions.

The security forces team from the 446th Airlift Wing, the main Reserve unit at McChord, also won first place. The wing was finished first in the fit-to-fight and C-17 maintenance competitions.

And the 92nd Air Refueling Wing from Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane won the best security forces combat weapons team competition.

In the woods outside McChord Air Force Base, a four-man security forces team critiqued their response to a mock sniper attack. High overhead, cargo jets airdropped pallets onto a target.

And on a grassy field packed with tents dubbed Rainier Ranch, airmen from Turkey and the United States struck up an impromptu push-up contest. Members of the Israeli air force presented a McChord reservist with gifts Wednesday, six days after he had 18 of them to his Mercer Island home for a Sabbath dinner. A South Korean soldier bummed a cigarette from a Malaysian colleague.

It’s all part of the Air Mobility Rodeo, a biennial competition, training session and party at McChord this week that drew more than 2,500 airmen from around the world.

The Rodeo, which holds more than 50 events like aerial refueling, fitness competitions and medical evacuation drills, concludes today.

The competitions get serious; the margin of victory can be as little as a few seconds or a few feet, and teams practice for weeks before. But have no doubt: Rainier Ranch is party central.

=> Read more!

The Air Force’s acquisition strategy to replace its aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers will be "bulletproof" from contractor protests, its secretary said Wednesday.

Michael B. Donley told several hundred airmen gathered at the Air Mobility Command Rodeo competition at McChord Air Force Base that the service wants to avoid the turmoil that derailed last year’s selection process, when the military awarded the $35 billion contract to Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.

The Boeing Co. protested the decision, and the issue quickly turned political. The contract was thrown out, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates put off a final decision so the new administration could make the final choice.

Donley, who has been in the Air Force’s top civilian job since October 2008, said the service remains committed to replacing the Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotanker.

"We had lots of opportunities to bypass the tanker program, to skip over it, to say, ‘Too hard to get it done,’" he said at a town-hall-style meeting. "We’ve tried over the past five or six years to get that program done. And we have failed in that mission, and we still have work to do."

"We’re going to get the United States Air Force a new tanker," he said over the sound of cheers. "We’re going to get it done."

=> Read more!

More than 2,500 airmen from 25 countries and almost every airlift unit in the Air Force are at McChord Air Force Base this week for the Air Mobility Command Rodeo.

The event offers 52 competitions, ranging from security-forces scenario drills to airdrop competitions. McChord also played host in 2007 to the most recent Rodeo.

"The coordination for Rodeo 2009 really started almost the day after Rodeo 2007 was completed," said Maj. Gen. Brooks Bash, the Rodeo commander, in a press release. "McChord Air Force Base, with the 62nd Airlift Wing and the 446th Airlift Wing as well as the local community, have been planning this event for that long."

It can be a pretty cool experience. The teams all set up hospitality tents in a grassy field not too far from one of the flight lines. Each tent has its own feel to it, often playing up the regional specialties. In 2007, the United Arab Emirates tent had big cushions on which to sit, and the hosts handed out dates. The guys from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii were whipping up mai-tais, and the airmen from Altus Air Force Base in Okalahoma had barbecue and beer.

The Rodeo is considered a training exercise and isn’t open to the public, but we’ll be there this week for at least one story.

Sometimes a worthy story slips through the cracks at any media outlet. That’s especially true when a beat writer heads on vacation – like I have been for the past three weeks.

My coworkers did a really nice job hitting all the big stories while I was gone, but there’s something a couple weeks old now that I still want to get on the blog: A McChord reservist was named Air Force Outstanding Airman of the Year Award earlier this month.

Staff Sgt. Channel Bolton-School, a crew chief with the 446th Maintenance Squadron, becomes the first member of the 446th Airlift Wing to win the award. But the Eugene, Ore., native must wait to celebrate with friends and family – she’s deployed to Kuwait right now.

Here’s the press release:

=> Read more!

The 7th Airlift Squadron will return to McChord Air Force Base tonight after one day delay due to a "change in charter aircraft availability."

The 150 airmen be on hand for the 9:45 p.m. homecoming ceremony.

From the folks at McChord:

The 7th AS Airmen deployed as the 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron flying missions throughout the combat zone and Europe. While deployed, Airmen flew more than 3,200 sorties transporting more than 131,000 passengers and 112 million pounds of cargo to sustain U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also transported 10 critical patients from theater to advanced medical care in Germany on two emergency aeromedical evacuation missions.

The Airmen flew combat airdrop missions delivering more than 1,587 bundles of resupply material to 67 remote forward operating bases in Afghanistan. Combat airdrops improve force protection by eliminating some resupply convoys to forward locations.

News Tribune reporter Adam Lynn files this story after interviewing the new top airman in the Puget Sound area Friday:
------------------------------------

The new commander of McChord Air Force Base will have his hands full as the Obama administration moves to draw down troops in Iraq and increase operations in Afghanistan.

McChord and its 4,600 military and civilian personnel and 43 C-17 cargo jets certainly will play a central role “if a decision is made to shift forces anywhere in the world,” Col. Kevin J. Kilb said Friday.

“Obviously, we’re focused on doing our part to win today’s fight,” Kilb said after being installed as commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing during festivities at the base south of Tacoma. “The continuous support of the war fighter is what we’re focused on.”

He replaces Col. Jeffrey Stephenson, who has been appointed as chief of staff of the Air Force Chair at the National War College in Washington, D.C.

Local concerns also will occupy Kilb, a 20-year Air Force veteran who has commanded units across the world.

Kilb, 43, told The News Tribune that one of his top priorities will be ensuring that McChord’s merger with Fort Lewis goes as smoothly as possible. Wing commander assignments usually last 20 to 24 months.

The two Pierce County military installations are scheduled to become a single base by October 2010. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission ordered the consolidation in 2005.

“Making sure we get that right” while “taking care of our airmen and their families” will require a concerted effort over the next year or so, Kilb said.

“We want to become the model joint base in the Department of Defense,” he said.

Kilb comes to McChord from Air Force headquarters in the nation’s capital, where he served as chief of the Global Mobility Division and chair of the Global Mobility Panel, Directorate of Programs, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs.

He is a command pilot with more than 3,600 hours of flight time in aircraft including the C-17A, C-130E/H Hercules and UH-1N Huey helicopter.

Kilb’s duty stations included a deployment to Iraq in 2006, where he commanded the 407th Air Expeditionary Group at Ali Air Base near the ancient city of Ur.

He and his wife, Stacey, have three daughters, ages 6, 5 and 5 months.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com

The Air Mobility Command Rodeo returns to Fort Lewis next month. From the public affairs office:

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. - More than 100 teams and 2,500 people from the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, as well as allied nations, are expected to participate in Rodeo 2009, Air Mobility Command's premier mobility competition, set to take place July 19 - 25, 2009 here.

"This year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of this competition with our international partners," said Lt. Col. Philip Kase, Rodeo 2009 McChord director. "We are excited to continue this important friendship and look forward to an unforgettable Rodeo."

The international competition focuses on readiness, and features airdrops, aerial refueling and other events which showcase the unique and wide-ranging capabilities of military security forces, and aerial port, maintenance and aeromedical evacuation personnel.

=> Read more!

Local troops in the news today:

3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:
4th Brigade Combat Team welcomes new commander during ceremony at Fort Polk (Alexandria Town Talk)

14th Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade:
1st Cavalry's 4th Brigade Combat team honors FALLEN at memorial (Killeen Daily Herald)

Navy:
Band to salute Navy vet (The Olympian)

62nd Security Forces Squadron
On the Way to the Market (DVIDS)

Lt. Gen. Raymond Johns, a former commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord Air Force Base, has been nominated for his fourth star.

From Air Force Times:

Still unclear is where the promotion will take Johns. Unlike the standard practice, the promotion announcement did not say where Johns’ next assignment will be.

Only one Air Force major command is due to be vacant soon — Pacific Air Forces. The current commander of PacAF, Gen. Carrol "Howie" Chandler, is moving to the Pentagon to become vice chief of staff, and his successor has not been named.

The middle-of-the-night phone calls from deployed parents, a new school almost every year and making friends at the parent's new duty station can be difficult for the children of service members.

Multiple deployments don't make the sting of a missing parent any easier, and counselors at some schools just can't understand what military kids are going through, a panel of 10 children told a gathering of about 200 health-care professionals Thursday.

The discussion was part of the Military Child and Adolescent Summit, a three-day meeting at Tacoma's Hotel Murano of military and civilian health-care officials whose care focuses on children of service members.

The children, ranging from 5 to 16 years old, spoke about life with a parent in the service. Here are some selected questions and answers from the hourlong discussion:

Q: What's it like to be a kid when a parent deploys?

Tiana Douglas, an 11-year-old Navy daughter from Spanaway: "It's hard and it's not cool. I don't like it because (others) don't really understand what it's like to have your parents go."

Bria White, a 15-year-old Army daughter from Puyallup: "You get really sad and start missing your parents. It's hard just talking to them on the phone and not being able to see them or hug them."

=> Read more!