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Aerospace World By Marc V. Schanz, Associate Editor Airman Dies in Basic Training A 19-year-old boot camp trainee at Lackland AFB, Tex., died Aug. 7, after USAF photo apparently contracting a respiratory virus. Amn. Paige Renee Villers of Norton, Ohio, died at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio. A recruit had not died in basic training since 2002. Citing family privacy, the Air Force declined to provide an official statement about Villers’ death. Villers was initially admitted to Wilford Hall in the spring. Confined to a wheelchair and on a ventilator, Villers nevertheless graduated from basic training in July. Although she experienced a short period of recovery, she soon relapsed, according to Air Edu- cation and Training Command officials. A memorial service at Lackland took place on Aug. 9 and was attended by Air Force leadership, including CMSAF An F-15 takes off from Nellis AFB, Nev., in September during Joint Forces Com- Rodney J. McKinley. mand’s Bold Quest exercise. The two-week exercise assessed combat identifica- tion technologies, with the aim of improving combat effectiveness and reducing USAF To Cut 5,400 This Year fratricide. The Air Force plans to reduce to an end strength of 328,500 airmen in Fis- 30, 2008. The Air Force doesn’t plan to Last 60 F-22s on Contract cal 2008, down 5,400 from this year, hold selective early retirement boards The Air Force awarded Lockheed the service said in announcing its latest as it did in January or order a reduc- Martin $5 billion in late July for three round of “force shaping” in August. tion in force. lots of F-22 Raptors. The award brings The goal is to get down to 316,000 However, in March of next year, a force the total multiyear contract value to $7.3 active duty personnel by the end of shaping board will meet to consider cut- billion and means the production line will Fiscal 2009. ting 130 officers from the 2005 year group. operate through 2011. The effort will begin with offers of The majority of the reductions will come The Pentagon previously awarded voluntary separation pay to about 200 from normal attrition and retirements, $2.3 billion of the contract to buy long- officers, with 12 to 15 years of service, said Col. Chuck Armentrout, the chief of lead parts and to maintain manufactur- in career fields where there is a surplus military force management policy. ing flow. After a protracted debate with of people. Those approved for VSP will The ultimate end strength goal of Congress over the proposed multiyear get a lump sum equal to three times 316,000 could be raised by about 1,000 funding, the plan was approved after the standard involuntary separation people, depending on how the Army and a RAND report concluded that the Air pay rate, but must depart before June Marine Corps increase their ranks. Force would save at least $50 million on the deal. Lockheed Martin had completed final assembly on 105 Raptors and formally Vietnam MIA Airmen Identified delivered the 100th aircraft by late Three airmen missing in action since the Vietnam War were identified in August by the August. Pentagon’s POW/Missing Personnel Office. The first of the MYP aircraft will come The remains of Lt. Col. James H. Ayres of Pampa, Tex.; Lt. Col. Charles W. Stratton of off the Marietta, Ga., production line in Dallas; and Lt. Col. Alton C. Rockett Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., were identified through DNA 2008. Thereafter, the last three F-22 lots analysis of remains collected in Southeast Asia between 1989 and 2005. The remains now under contract will be built at a rate were returned to the airmen’s families. of 20 per year. Ayres was buried Aug. 10 in Pampa and Rockett was buried Aug. 20 in Arlington National Cemetery. Stratton is to be buried in October at Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery. Ayres and Stratton were lost in 1971, when the men were flying a night mission over Raptor Flies at Elmendorf Laos in their F-4E Phantom II. Investigation of the area around the suspected crash site F-22s began operating from Elmen- turned up remains during recovery expeditions between 2001 and 2005. dorf AFB, Alaska, on Aug. 8, making Rockett was lost in 1967, while flying an F-4C on an armed reconnaissance mission the far north installation the first of two over North Vietnam. Unidentified remains that had been repatriated by Vietnam in 1989 Pacific bases that will eventually host were tested and found to be those of Rockett. the advanced fighter. The F-22 went operational with the 3rd 16 AIR FORCE Magazine / October 2007 Wing at Elmendorf. Later this year, the 477th Fighter Group will stand up at the base as a Reserve associate to the 3rd Wing, becoming the first Reserve unit to operate and maintain the fighter. By the end of 2009, Elmendorf will have 40 F-22s. Prior to the Raptor’s arrival in Alaska, F-22 pilots and crew chiefs trained at the USAF photo TSgt.by Shane CuomoA. 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., to develop their skills under a program called “Ready Elmendorf.” The F-22 has been operational at Langley since 2005. A designated F-22 maintenance trainer aircraft was also deployed to Elmendorf to get technicians up to speed. At a ceremony marking the stand-up of the F-22 at Elmendorf, Pacific Air Forces chief Gen. Paul V. Hester said the aircraft will provide unrivaled air supremacy in the Pacific and the most “lopsided and unfair advantages ever During a medical evacuation from Antarctica in August, a patient is helped aboard seen in the airpower age.” a C-17. The airlifter was from the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, McChord AFB, Wash. CSAR-X Delays Mount The Air Force’s new combat search The decision raised the possibility “We need to inject these skills across and rescue helicopter program likely that the Air Force might scrap the results the entire force,” said Chief of Staff Gen. won’t get under way by the end of 2007, outright and begin a new competition. T. Michael Moseley. Speaking to service mostly because of an unfavorable late GAO said the service should terminate leaders at a meeting in August, he said August ruling by the Government Ac- its contract with Boeing if further evalu- all airmen now face threats, overseas countability Office. ation shows the HH-47 is not the best or even in the US, and must have the The GAO upheld a second protest by value after all. knowledge to deal with and survive such Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky regarding Sue C. Payton, USAF acquisition situations. the $10 billion CSAR-X contract to Boe- chief, said USAF is reviewing the deci- SERE training is currently conducted ing, dashing USAF hopes of resolving sion and developing a plan to address on three levels: All airmen get entry-level the protests promptly and leaving the the findings. training, while a second level is provided service unsure of how to proceed. to those with a moderate risk of capture, The protest, lodged in June, is the All Airmen To Get SERE and a third is reserved for those with a second sustained by the GAO since Survival training used to be reserved high risk of capture. the Air Force selected Boeing’s HH-47 for pilots and special operators who Second and third level training is Chinook variant in November 2006 as might find themselves cut off from sup- normally provided to aircrew members the best value solution. The GAO agreed port and awaiting rescue in some hostile and those in high-risk fields such as with Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky that environment. That’s going to change, battlefield airmen, combat control, para- they could offer updated information on however. rescue, combat weather, and tactical the support costs of their entries, the The Air Force leadership decided in air control. US101 and HH-92, respectively. The Air August to broaden the focus of survival, Force had rejected updated bids because evasion, resistance, and escape train- Maintainers Back to Squadrons? both companies offered data developed ing and incorporate it at all levels of Flying squadrons could get their main- after the initial award date. the service. tainers back if no problems are found with the idea, said Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley in August. Moseley wants to undo a five-year-old John C. Stetson, 1920-2007 shift that took maintainers out of flying squadrons and segregated them into John C. Stetson, the 12th Secretary of the Air Force, died Aug. 2 at his home in Lake Forest, Ill. He served from 1977 to 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. their own maintenance units—a move During Stetson’s tenure as civilian leader of the Air Force, the service began fielding that put more distance between crew the F-15 in large numbers and introduced the F-16 in squadron service. The Air Force chiefs and pilots who work with the also began developing modern stealth technology during his term in the office. same aircraft. Stetson was born in Chicago and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of He believes that squadrons of all types Technology in 1943, later studying at the Northwestern University Business School in should mirror the structure of deployed the late 1940s. flying units as much as possible. Most He worked as an engineer for Douglas Aircraft before being commissioned in the Navy as a communications officer in World War II.

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