Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for April 29, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine, Tobias Naegele and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

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Interview: Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg
By Tobias Naegele and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg took time out from leading the
Air Force’s medical response to the COVID-19 pandemic to speak with Air Force
Magazine about supply shortages, hotspots, and future changes that could be
wrought by lessons from this experience.

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DOD’s End Strength Takes Hit Because of Coronavirus
By Brian W. Everstine

The services will likely fall short of their end-strength goals this year
because of the impacts of the new coronavirus outbreak, though positive trends
in recruitment have remained, the Pentagon’s head of personnel said April 28.
Matt Donovan, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the
restriction on movement has caused a drop in the number of people coming into
basic training, an effect that will be felt for years. The Air Force, for
example, has reduced its basic military training class size by almost 50
percent. This “leaves us a gap if people are retiring and separating at the
same level,” Donovan said during an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace
Studies virtual event. But because of the uncertainty in the U.S. economy due to
the virus, the services are “making up for the gap now with folks deciding to
stay longer … They look [to the economy] and think, 'I’ve got a pretty good
job now, I want to stay.'”

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Empowering Disaster Response and Recovery From Space
When a natural disaster or emergency occur, an immediate and seamless response is necessary to
save lives. Operational and situational awareness becomes increasingly important to responders.
If critical infrastructure is down in the disaster zone, then the systems and networks required for
powering the relief efforts are compromised. Ground operations must look to space to solve their
communication needs. Read the full story.
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Space Force Helps Hospital Ships During Pandemic
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Defense Department’s coronavirus response is giving the fledgling Space
Force a chance to show its skills and shaping how Airmen manage military
satellite communications along the way. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said March
17 the Pentagon had given the Navy orders to start preparing the USNS Mercy and
Comfort hospital ships to dock in cities hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic so
that military medical workers could ease some of the burden on regional
hospitals. That decision set off a speedy domino effect to not only deploy the
ships—sending the Mercy to Los Angeles and the Comfort to New York City—but
also to equip them with the connectivity they needed to treat patients within
weeks. That responsibility fell to the 4th Space Operations Squadron at
Schriever Air Force Base, Colo.

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Thunderbirds, Blue Angels Kick Off ‘America Strong’ Tour with Tri-State Area Flyovers
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy Blue Angels soared over New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania on April 28 in two sky-high salutes to the first
responders and U.S. troops on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well
as essential employees keeping the nation going during the new coronavirus
crisis. The flyovers marked the beginning of the so-called “America Strong”
tour, for which the military service’s premiere demonstration teams are
criss-crossing the country to honor these everyday heroes.

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Improperly Installed Parts Caused F-16 to Crash into Warehouse in May 2019
By Brian W. Everstine

The improper installation of two parts caused an F-16's hydraulic system to
fail, making the pilot lose control and crash into a warehouse in May 2019 while
flying back to March Air Reserve Base, Calif., Air Force investigators found.
The F-16 pilot successfully ejected before the Viper crashed into the civilian
building. The aircraft was destroyed at a loss of $24.99 million, and caused
about $3.9 million in damage to the warehouse, according to an Air Combat
Command Accident Investigation Board report. Investigators discovered that two
months before the crash, maintainers improperly installed two check valves in
the aircraft’s right flaperon hydraulic control system, which ultimately
failed and caused the F-16 to lose control. The F-16 from the South Dakota Air
National Guard was assigned to and being flown by the California Air National
Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing.

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DOD Reviewing Purple Hearts for Troops Injured in Al-Asad Attack
By Brian W. Everstine

Airmen and other service members who sustained traumatic brain injuries in the
January missile attack on al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, are expected to receive Purple
Hearts in the near future. More than 100 service members reportedly sustained
the brain injuries as Iranian missiles rained down on the base on Jan. 8, a move
Tehran said was in response to the U.S. killing of Quds Force Commander Qassem
Soleimani in a drone strike. “The Purple Heart submissions remain under review
and are being processed in accordance with Defense Department and Military
Service regulations,” Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell said. “Upon
completion, Service members entitled to receive the Purple Heart will be
notified by their leadership."

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Red Cross Launches Virtual COVID-19 Resiliency Training for Troops, Vets, Families
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The American Red Cross is offering virtual resilience workshops to help military
service members, veterans, and their families better deal with the new
coronavirus crisis. In the past, the nonprofit has taught in-person,
small-group-style resiliency classes that tackled issues such as communication
problems, depression, and stress, Lynn Crabb, the organization’s senior
director of services to the Armed Forces, said during an April 28 virtual town
hall presented by the COVID-19 Military Support Initiative. However, these new
online modules specifically take on challenges presented by the new coronavirus
pandemic and are being tailored to the defense community.

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Radar Sweep

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Snapshot: DOD and COVID-19

Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding
to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses American Deaths from the Vietnam War

The U.S. National Archives says that 58,220 American soldiers died in the
Vietnam conflict, which began in 1955 and ended in 1975. COVID-19 has now
claimed more lives in the U.S. since it officially arrived in the country in
January, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

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The Controversial Experiments and Wuhan Lab Suspected of Starting the Coronavirus Pandemic

Just one day after the U.S. surpassed China to become the country with the
highest number of COVID-19 cases, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency updated
its assessment of the origin of the novel coronavirus to reflect that it may
have been accidentally released from an infectious diseases lab, Newsweek has
learned.

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House Democrats' Bill Would Waive Prescription Copays for Military Personnel, Families

Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) on April 28
introduced a bill that would waive prescription copays for military personnel
and their families amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bill would “give the
Secretary of Defense the authority to waive TRICARE copays on prescription drugs
during a public health emergency or national emergency,” Luria said in a
statement, referring to the military healthcare system managed by the Defense
Department.

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OPINION: America’s Bomber Force is Facing a Crisis

“The nation faces a bomber crisis, and it is time to openly acknowledge the
scale and scope of the problem,” write retired USAF Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem,
director of research at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and
Doug Birkey, the think tank’s executive director.

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U.S. Planning New Taxiway at Erbil Air Base

The U.S. military is looking for contractors that can design and build an
alternative taxiway at Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, according to a market
research notice published on the U.S. government's System of Awards Management
website on April 26.

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Studies Tackle Who Joins the Military and Why, but Their Findings Aren’t What Many Assume

Ever since the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force, a preconception has
existed among many Americans that those who choose to join the armed services do
so because they have no other options. That is the hypothesis of two studies
released this year. Both debunk that stereotype, finding that the military is
much more diverse—and troops have much more varied reasons for signing
up—than some have assumed.

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Carrier Nimitz Crew Was Quarantined for 27 Days Before Departure

The Navy appears to be taking extra precautions to ensure the next aircraft
carrier crew getting underway doesn't see a repeat of the health crisis playing
out on another ship in the Pacific.

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AFA National Teacher of the Year and STEM Educator Named Einstein Fellow

The Air Force Association’s 2019 National Teacher of the Year Michael Vargas
of Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Ariz., has been named a 2020-2021 Albert
Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. Vargas will join 14 other K-12 science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers selected from across the U.S.
to spend 11 months serving in a federal agency or Congressional office in
Washington engaged in national STEM education policy.

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One More Thing...
Navy Declassifies Its Notorious 'UFO Sighting' Videos

The U.S. Navy has officially acknowledged three incidents reported by F/A-18
Hornet fighter pilots of "unidentified aerial phenomena"—what most refer to as
UFOs—and released video of the encounters.

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