“Prior to 2008...the cremated remains were…turned over to a contractor for incineration, as was the industry standard. If there was any residual matter, it was handled in accordance with the processes at the time…we did not direct the contractor to put any residual material in the landfill.”
Air Force
$7,980,912
Super Committee Failure Hits Military Hard
Politicians can shrug off the congressional Super Committee’s failure to agree on meaningful deficit reduction. To them, it’s just another budget gimmick that didn’t pan out. But for the U.S. military, the Super Committee …
War Prize: Iraq Orders Its F-16s
Three weeks before all U.S. troops are out of Iraq, the U.S. Air Force has just awarded – on behalf of Baghdad – an $835 million contract to Lockheed Martin for 18 F-16 jet fighters. Even before the deal was inked, Iraqi …
Photo Op: Picking Up the Pieces
Time on Target: The Sound of Freedom
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1a4xK4P6Eo]
Chances are, if you read Battleland, you’ve seen pictures or videos of paratroopers jumping out of the back of an aircraft. But have you ever considered the small miracle it takes to arrive at that particular point in space at that exact planned time? In combat, there is little to …
All Forklifted Up
The best thing about the military is the way young men and women in uniform get things done. What they get done, of course, isn’t always their choice. Take the airdrop mission flown last week by the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron out of the main U.S. base in Afghanistan at Bagram: the troops air-dropped a six-ton forklift to …
Air Force: Pagan Worshippers
You’ve got to feel a little bit sorry for the U.S. Air Force. First of all, their taxpayer-funded academy, out in Colorado Springs, Colo., gets rapped for being a hive of evangelical Christianity. The Air Force then earnestly tries to deal with – and encourage – religious diversity, and they get stung by stories like this in …
Controlled Blast, Uncontrolled Death
After we reported last March on the stupidity behind the death of Air Force Senior Airman James Hansen in Iraq, we spoke to his father. Like any Dad who sends his son off to war, he expressed something – let’s call it disillusionment and sorrow, more than anger – that no one had yet been held accountable for his 25-year old son’s …
Friday Evening’s Furtive F-22 Fix
They say big agencies in Washington, ranging from the White House to the Pentagon, like to dump things they’d rather not have see the light of day late on a Friday. That way, they only appear as a blip in the thin Saturday morning papers, and by Sunday, we’re on to new news. That strikes me as way too cynical…until something like …
A Revealing Peek at the Chinese Military
Pretty balanced look at Beijing’s military in the latest Aviation Week, which notes:
Before viewing a static display of the Chengdu J-10 fighter, Brig. Gen. Yan Feng, commander of the 24th airborne, said that over the next decade he would like aircraft “with the capacity to do what the pilot wants.”
OK….something may have …
Photo Op: Thirty Seconds Nearly Over Tokyo
The Air Force’s $2.6 Million Defender Fender-Bender
Ever yawn while at the wheel, maybe slumber a little bit at a stop sign – and tap the car in front of you? I’m sure it has happened to a lot of us. Just be thankful you weren’t at the controls of an F-16 when it happened. Back in July, one U.S. F-16 ran into the other at South Korea’s Kusan air base. Thankfully, both were on …