-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! 001695. Two Misawa Air Base F-16s crash MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) -- Two Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft crashed Nov. 13 over the Sea of Japan. The aircraft, assigned to 35th Fighter Wing, here, were on a routine training mission. One person was aboard each aircraft. One pilot, Col. Michael Lepper, 35th Operations Group commander, has returned to Misawa and is currently in stable condition at the 35th FW hospital. A rescue team is continuing to search for the remaining pilot. A board of officers will investigate the accident. Additional details will be provided as soon as they become available. 001696. DOD uses new incentives to recruit the best civilians by Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- An expanded college loan repayment program and a modified retirement savings system are two new recruiting tools at the Defense Department's disposal because of legislation recently signed by President Clinton, said DOD's senior civilian personnel official. Diane Disney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for civilian personnel policy, said the two popular recruitment tools are widely used in the private sector. She said they will help DOD attract "the best and the brightest" civilian employees. "This is an extremely tight labor market," Disney said. "We now have 77 percent fewer people in their 20s (in DOD) than we did a decade ago, and many people are coming up on retirement eligibility. We need to take definite steps to improve our recruitment of college graduates." DOD's civilian work force requirements are rapidly changing due to information technology advances, Disney said. Older "baby-boomer" employees -- most at the mid- to senior-grade level, she noted -- are expected to start retiring this year. People with experience in information technology and other technical fields are needed to replace them, Disney said, even while the healthy economy makes it hard to compete with private-sector employers for young, or older, college-educated employees. The enhanced college loan repayment program would pay up to $6,000 per calendar year, up to a total of $40,000, Disney said. It will take effect in mid-2001 and its cost will be borne by the agencies involved. "Previous authority to pay off student loans was limited to professional, administrative and technical positions only. The new legislation removes those limitations so that any occupation might be eligible," she said. The program, however, is not retroactive. Disney said the federal civilian college loan repayment program shouldn't dissuade people from joining the military, which offers up to $65,000 for college tuition. "Right now, if somebody wants to come work for the Department of Defense, but doesn't necessarily want to be in uniform, there really isn't an obvious enticement. This provides an enticement to the civil service within DOD, the kind of approach the military has found so effective," she said. Recently approved legislation affecting the government's 401(k)-like Thrift Savings Plan gives newly hired federal employees the opportunity to start saving immediately, Disney said. Previously people couldn't invest in the plan until the second TSP open season after they began working for the federal government. The enhanced TSP program is "a really great incentive, particularly for bringing in mid-level and senior people," she said. The older people become the more concerned they are about their retirement system. Currently, about 75 percent of eligible DOD civilians participate in at least one of the three TSP investment funds: government securities, corporate bonds and stocks, she said. Money put into TSP comes from pre-tax dollars and reduces taxable income; the investments and earnings aren't taxed until they are withdrawn. "If we have a retirement system that denies people the opportunity to participate in retirement savings for maybe as long as a year, we're not going to look like a very attractive employer," Disney said. "This issue arises when we try to recruit faculty members for our institutions, or when we try to bring in scientists and engineers for three-four years. The old system was a real disincentive because retirement earnings are so important." Disney said new employees would also be allowed to contribute "rollover" distributions from previous retirement plans. "That helps to simplify a person's life," she said. A person who joins the government and who already has a 401k account with a past employer might not want to handle two, and now doesn't have to. "You can now roll those two into one," Disney said. The newly available recruiting tools should make federal employment much more appealing than it was before, she said. "We're hitting both ends of the experience spectrum. The student loan repayment program is useful at all ages, but it is particularly useful for people in their '20s," Disney said. "The TSP program is of value to people of all ages, but is particularly important to those in their middle and later years." For more information about the federal Thrift Savings Plan, visit the TSP Web site at www.tsp.gov. 001697. Shuttle recovery team waits behind the scenes by Staff Sgt. Stacee McCausland Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- When the space shuttle lands here, everyone's attention is focused on the astronauts inside the vehicle. However, there is another group -- unknown to most -- that plays an important part in getting the shuttle down safely. Called the Shuttle Recovery Team, they were on high-alert status recently as the Space Shuttle Discovery made a safe landing here Oct. 24, completing the program's 100th mission. The shuttle was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Oct. 22, but high winds forced NASA to delay the landing. After a second attempt the following day, the Discovery was diverted to Edwards AFB. "Our team is the emergency response force that ensures the astronauts are safe," said Col. Harry Talbot, Shuttle Recovery Team commander. "(The Oct. 24) mission was a flawless normal operation, which is what we wanted. "It's a (NASA and Department of Defense) team effort until something happens on the runway, then it belongs to the Department of Defense and Edwards until the situation is downgraded and turned back over to NASA," Talbot said. The team consists of military and civilian members from NASA; the 95th Security Forces Squadron; the 95th Civil Engineer Group Fire Protection Division; the 95th Medical Group Flight Surgeon's Office and bioenvironmental engineering services; the control tower; the 95th Communications Squadron; airfield management; the command post; the Space Positioning Optical Radar Control Facility for air traffic control; and members from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. and Fort Irwin, Calif. "We support the shuttle landings by helping the senior Edwards representative manage the Shuttle Recovery Team and provide the mobile command post to the command and control to the NASA command vehicle," said David Bookrum, 95th Civil Engineer Group's readiness division chief. People from Vandenberg AFB also work together with Edwards AFB and NASA by providing a helicopter security team who watch for people or vehicles that might encroach on the runway. Additionally, people from China Lake provide a helicopter photography team that provides real time data, which can be patched in to the battle staff during an exercise or actual shuttle landing. Edwards Fire Protection Division is one of the few organizations that gives the shuttle 24-hour standby support from the time it lands until its return to Kennedy Space Center," said Matthew Guggemos, 95th CEG fire protection trainer. Also adding support, the 95th SFS provides security command and control for the spacecraft once it lands. Medical personnel also play a key role in supporting the shuttle mission and its astronauts. Various forms of the Shuttle Recovery Team have been in place at Edwards AFB for more than 25 years. The base is the prime contingency landing site for the orbiter. If the shuttle aborts on launch and can't get to one of the sites in Africa or Spain, then the next safe location is here. Additionally, if the shuttle makes it to orbit and then has an emergency, it also might have to land here. "This means something happened that they can't stay in orbit," Talbot said. An example would be if the astronauts couldn't get the cargo bay doors open, which would mean they can't properly manage orbiter thermal control. "We really needed to prepare for the unthinkable, just in case something goes wrong," Talbot said. "That is what our team prepares for all year round." "Every time the orbiter takes off we're on standby," Talbot said. (Courtesy of Air Force Material Command News Service) 001694. Last EC-135E ARIA retired to Air Force Museum by Ray Johnson Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- The sole remaining EC-135E Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft flew her last flight Nov. 2. An aircrew from the Air Force Flight Test Center here delivered ARIA No. 374 -- nicknamed "Bird of Prey" -- to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, after a four-hour flight from Edwards AFB. Also on board were a handful of airmen who once operated and maintained the small, unique program of airborne telemetry platforms that is being retired due to costs of the program and improved satellite technology. Making the final flight were Lt. Gen. Robert Raggio, commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, and Maj. Gen. Dick Reynolds, Air Force Flight Test Center commander. During the late1980s, both men commanded Wright-Patterson ARIA units that traveled worldwide to gather data during spacecraft launches and missile tests. In fact, Raggio and Reynolds flew No. 374, which, like all ARIA birds, is easily recognizable by its bulbous nose which houses a seven-foot dish antenna. Raggio said participating in 374's homecoming was a bittersweet experience. "Of course, we are all sad that the aircraft will not be used anymore," Raggio said. "However, the close-knit ARIA community is very pleased that (No. 374) rests at the museum for all for us to visit and reminisce of missions past." Reynolds called the aircraft's retirement the end of a long history of important developmental and operational test efforts that were vital to the United States and its allies. "The ARIA belongs in the Air Force Museum," Reynolds said, "because of the crucial role it played in advancing aerospace technology." Originally named Apollo Range Instrumentation Aircraft, the ARIA program was developed by NASA and the Department of Defense in the 1960s to track lunar missions, along with unmanned orbital and ballistic re-entry programs. The first of eight, then EC-135N, aircraft became operational in 1968 as the program stood up at Patrick AFB, Fla. Seven years later, ARIA, redesignated as Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft, transferred to the 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB. Reynolds commanded the 4952nd Test Squadron from 1987 to 1989, and during that time aircrews made ARIA deployments to the far corners of the globe. It was during a trip to Barbados that Reynolds remembers his favorite mission. Supporting a Trident submarine test, the general recalls flying out over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a moonless night when 10 missile re-entry vehicles rained in ahead of his aircraft. "It was a spectacular light show -- picture perfect," he said. In 1994 the ARIA program, which now included EC-18B aircraft and more than 200 airmen, relocated to Edwards AFB. Gradually, taskings dwindled and planes were declared excess and transferred to other programs such as J-STARS. Today, only about 75 people directly and indirectly support the existing mission. With No. 374 now sitting at Wright-Patterson AFB, only two active EC-18Bs, which are being used primarily by the Navy for pilot training, are left to represent ARIA's 30-year history. However, that will change next May when No. 374 will be officially displayed at the Air Force Museum during a ceremony that also will honor 21 ARIA crewmembers killed in an 1981 accident. Expected to be present are hundreds of the plane's crewmembers who flew many of the approximately 300 missions the Bird of Prey made to support launches for high-profile programs as such the space shuttle, deep space probes and Mars Path Finder. 001693. Andersen a part of O'Shea's Big Adventure by Tech. Sgt. Bob Pullen 36th Air Base Wing Public Affairs ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- There have been numerous local and regional news stories about the Brown Tree Snake, and the harm it has caused to Guam's ecological balance. Some of those stories have been misleading and some have been sensationalized, but a film crew from the Discovery Channel program, O'Shea's Big Adventure, hopes to set the record straight on the snake, and dispel some of the myths about it. "People around the world seem to think these snakes are hanging from every tree in Guam," said Mark O'Shea, a herpetologist and star of the show. "That simply is not true. Yes, there is a problem with the snake here, but they are not that easy to find." The film crew spent more than a week on Guam, mostly shooting at Andersen Air Force Base. Filming took place in some of the remote jungle areas of the base, in the munitions storage area and even in the belly of a C-5 Galaxy that made a stopover here. The finished product will appear in a 13-part series broadcast to be determined in 2001. "We want to show how the different agencies work together at Andersen, and across Guam, to control the spread of the snake," said Robert Pendlebury, associate producer for O'Shea's Big Adventure. "We understand that other programs in the past have sensationalized the snakes' presence in Guam, but we want to show the scientific aspect of the snake and what people are doing to control it." The production required the assistance of many agencies on island, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the U.S. Geological Survey. "We have been working with barrier systems, like the fencing being used at Area 50 on Andersen, to keep the snake out of controlled areas," said Fiona Qualls, a herpetologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Brown Tree Snake project. "Being able to prevent the snakes from re-entering an area after they have been removed will help in the process of re-introducing some of the species of birds that are now extinct on Guam. I appreciate having a show like this come in to highlight the efforts of everyone working on this project, because it helps set the record straight about the snake." Setting the record straight is very important to the crew and the star of the program. "The one thing about this program is that we won't stage anything for the camera," O'Shea said. "Being a herpetologist myself, I want to make sure that what we are broadcasting is the truth, because my reputation is at stake." The show's crew got the chance to see the USDA snake detection dogs working inside a C-5. One of the dog handlers, Victor Quichocho, took his dog, Sarah, through the paces of searching cargo pallets for snakes. The training exercise took place with two snakes enclosed in training cages planted inside the cargo. USDA officials placed different false baits in the cargo to tempt Sarah, including dried fish, beef jerky and O'Shea's old socks, just to see if she would fall for them. With the cameras rolling, Sarah performed exactly as she was trained to do -- locate the snakes and only the snakes. She even survived the two-day old socks. After an afternoon of filming inside the C-5, the crew was off with the USDA team to conduct a night search of the Andersen fence line. After finding a few small specimens crawling their way up the fences, the crew and the USDA team were in for a surprise. They came across a 6-ft. Brown Tree Snake on top of the perimeter fence, with a fresh chicken egg inside. "This is not a typical-size snake that you would find on Guam," O'Shea said. "You can see why this one is so big. He's got a steady diet of chicken eggs from the other side of the fence somewhere." O'Shea was impressed with the large snake they found on the fence, but he was also impressed with the cooperation between the various agencies involved in controlling the snake on Guam. "The efforts being done to control the snake here are truly amazing," O'Shea said. "The cooperation between the Air Force and the other agencies is remarkable, in that they are keeping the snake here and keeping it from causing damage to other places, the way it has here." Being a "snake-person," it's difficult for O'Shea to agree with the efforts to completely eradicate the Brown Tree Snake from Guam, but at the same time he does see the problem. "At first, I was appalled at the thought of completely exterminating the snake from Guam," O'Shea said. "But it has caused a catastrophe in the ecological balance here. The bad part is it shouldn't even be here. Man caused the problem with the Brown Tree Snake on Guam, and now it's up to man to fix it." (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces News Service) 001692. New atmospheric dryer reduces testing time, costs by Danette Duncan Arnold Engineering Development Center Public Affairs ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. (AFPN) -- A new atmospheric dryer here should save the Air Force between $1 million to $2 million annually and provide center propulsion wind tunnel test facility customers with an unlimited supply of dry air for testing. The new $10.9 million dryer doubles the Arnold Engineering Development Center 's dry air producing capability, making air available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, said Kevin Sipe, project engineer. The dryers remove moisture from air in the wind tunnels used to simulate actual flight conditions which makes the test data more accurate. Lt. Col. Steve McQueen, AEDC aerodynamic testing director, said the propulsion wind tunnel, or PWT, facility's two-dryer capability will reduce the customer's wind tunnel occupancy time, providing immediate savings for customers who use the center's 4-foot and 16-foot transonic wind tunnels. "This capability will really pay dividends to our test customers," McQueen said. "Not only will it save on the overall cost of testing, it makes for greater test availability, (which is) very important to meeting their sometimes tight schedules." Sipe said the existing atmospheric dryer in wind tunnel was always too small to provide all the dry air that was needed. "During a test if the desiccant beds could no longer meet the tunnel moisture criteria, we either had to shut down testing to reactivate the dryer or buy more expensive dry air from the engine test facility," he said. Both atmospheric dryers have desiccant (a bead-like silica gel drying agent) beds. The desiccant absorbs moisture from the air channeled through the dryer to create dry air for wind tunnel testing. Because the desiccant can only hold so much of the extracted moisture, it must undergo a process called reactivation when the desiccant cannot take any more moisture. Reactivation time can range from 8-12 hours. Air Force Materiel Command funded the new dryer's design and construction as part of AEDC's PWT sustainment program said Sipe. The program is a four-phase program to automate four main areas in the test facility. The program is scheduled to be completed in fiscal 2004 with an approximate total cost of $80 million. Devoted to aerodynamic and propulsion integration testing of large-scale aircraft models, PWT provides AEDC customers with complete testing and analysis support. In some cases, the propulsion systems and inlets are tested simultaneously to make sure they are aerodynamically designed to provide adequate airflow to the engines. Some of the systems recently tested in PWT include the Navy's F/A-18C/D Hornet and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the Air Force's new F-22 Raptor, the Boeing and Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighters, the B-1B bomber and the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle. Arnold Engineering Development Center is the nation's largest complex of flight simulation test facilities. This complex has some 58 aerospace test facilities and the center's remote operating location Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 in White Oak, MD. The test facilities simulate flight from subsonic to hypersonic speeds at altitudes from sea-level to space. Virtually every high performance flight system in use by the Department of Defense today and all NASA manned spacecraft have been tested in AEDC's facilities. (Courtesy of Air Force Material Command News Service) *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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