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March 2013/$5 High-Altitude ISR The Syria Question Vets Courts Iraqi Freedom March 2013, Vol. 96, No. 3 Publisher Craig R. McKinley Editor in Chief Adam J. Hebert Editorial [email protected] Editor Suzann Chapman Executive Editors Michael C. Sirak John A. Tirpak Senior Editors Amy McCullough Marc V. Schanz Associate Editor Aaron M. U. Church Contributors Walter J. Boyne, John T. Correll, Robert 38 S. Dudney, Rebecca Grant, Peter Grier, Otto Kreisher, Anna Mulrine FEATURES Production [email protected] 4 Editorial: Leaving No One Behind Managing Editor By Adam J. Hebert Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Identifying Keller and Meroney was extraordinary—and typical. Assistant Managing Editor Frances McKenney 26 The Syria Question By John A. Tirpak Editorial Associate June Lee 46 An air war would likely be tougher than what the US saw in Serbia or Senior Designer Libya. Heather Lewis 32 Spy Eyes in the Sky Designer By Marc V. Schanz Darcy N. Lewis The long-term futures for the U-2 and Global Hawk are uncertain, but for Photo Editor now their unique capabilities remain Zaur Eylanbekov in high demand. Production Manager 38 Iraqi Freedom and the Air Force Eric Chang Lee By Rebecca Grant The Iraq War changed the Air Force Media Research Editor in ways large and small. Chequita Wood 46 Strike Eagle Rescue Advertising [email protected] By Otto Kreisher The airmen were on the ground Director of Advertising in Libya, somewhere between the William Turner warring loyalists and the friendly 1501 Lee Highway resistance. Arlington, Va. 22209-1198 Tel: 703/247-5820 52 Remote and Ready at Kunsan Telefax: 703/247-5855 Photography by Jim Haseltine About the cover: U-2 instructor pilots at North Korea is but a short flight away. Beale AFB, Calif. See “Spy Eyes in the Sky,” p. 32. 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Copyright 2013 by Air Force Association. Business Publication Audit 2 AIR FORCE Magazine / March 2013 UNCONVENTIONAL. UNDETECTABLE. UNDENIABLE. The F-35A Lightning II delivers the 21st century capabilities U.S. and THE F-35 LIGHTNING II TEAM allied forces need. An innovative combination of stealth, speed, NORTHROP GRUMMAN F-35 BAE SYSTEMS LIGHTNING II and cutting-edge sensors allows it to fly through or slip past advanced air defenses, virtually undetected. Superior battlespace PRATT & WHITNEY awareness leaves the enemy nowhere to hide. And that gives LOCKHEED MARTIN pilots unprecedented power to engage the target and return home. The F-35A Lightning II. Rising to the challenges of the 21st century. See it in action – F35.com. Editorial By Adam J. Hebert, Editor in Chief Leaving No One Behind AST year, two airmen killed in the There are 166 sites awaiting excava- human remains awaiting identification at LVietnam War were identified and tion in Southeast Asia alone. JPAC’s Central Identification Lab. Not all buried with full military honors, 43 Host-nation support is critical. The cases are solvable, McKeague noted. years after they died. These sorts aid JPAC receives from Vietnam and Still, technical advances allow for new of announcements come from the North Korea highlights the differences. identifications. DNA testing came along Defense Department dozens of times The US is completely shut out of after dental records. per year, but it would be a mistake to North Korea, where the remains of More recently, scientists added the consider any of them routine. more than 5,000 American troops still ability to restore and compare Korean On March 1, 1969, Maj. Wendell lie. This was not always true: Teams War-era chest radiographs to the col- Keller and 1st Lt. Virgil Meroney were had access from 1996 to 2005, but larbones of disinterred troops. in an F-4 hit by enemy fire during a were then kicked out. Plans to bring Many Korean War remains relocated mission over Laos. “No parachutes the teams back fell apart last year. from Japan were preserved with form- were seen after the aircraft was hit,” aldehyde. This damaged their DNA the DOD announcement read. “Heavy Identifying Keller and sequences, said JPAC forensic anthro- enemy presence in the area prevented pologist Joseph Hefner. Investigators recovery efforts.” Meroney was have a “good idea” who some unknown That could have been the end of the extraordinary—and typical. soldiers might be, but have until now story. Fortunately it was not. lacked the ability to prove it, he said. The United States attempts to find Vietnam views the mission as a hu- If clavicles match the radiographs and and identify its fallen troops so they manitarian effort and supports the US. the histories match up, these IDs can can be returned to their families and be JPAC has a permanent detachment go relatively quickly. properly buried. The Honolulu-based in Hanoi, and Vietnamese support More than 800 Korean War troops Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has allowed the US to scale back the are still buried in “unknown” graves in (JPAC) leads these search, recovery, American presence at some exca- the National Memorial Cemetery of the and identification efforts. Over the vations—allowing JPAC to increase Pacific at Punchbowl. past decade, it has had hundreds of the number of sites it investigates in McKeague also noted the potential successes. Vietnam. to begin identifying unknowns among The Keller and Meroney case was With access, the next step is to deploy some 400 from USS Oklahoma, killed extraordinary, which is typical. For 18 an excavation team. Recovery mis- in the attack on Pearl Harbor. They are years, from 1994 to 2012, JPAC and sions take a month or two, meticulously interred at Punchbowl. Laotian teams investigated the case. searching and sifting through the area So what to do about the backlog? The They studied more than 40 eyewitness with likely remains. 2010 defense authorization act directed accounts, conducted several crash site The easier cases have been solved, JPAC to dramatically expand its capacity. excavations, and found and evaluated and IDs are getting “harder and harder The command is to grow from an ability a fragment of a military ID card, aircraft in Southeast Asia,” noted Air Force Maj. to perform 85 identifications per year to wreckage, dental remains, and other Gen. Kelly McKeague, JPAC command- 200. A new headquarters and labora- evidence. er. The soil around Vietnam is acidic, the tory is under construction at JB Pearl This relentless determination hon- landscape mountainous, the rains can Harbor-Hickam, and JPAC will open an ors the sacrifices of the fallen, and be fierce, and the majority of the missing annex at Offutt AFB, Neb.