The Nineteenth Air Force is an active Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force. During the Cold War it was a component of Tactical Air Command, with a mission of command and control over deployed USAF forces in support of United States foreign policy initiatives. The command was reactivated in 1993 under Air Education and Training Command with a mission of conducting AETC's flying training.
The Lockheed HC-130 is an extended-range, search and rescue (SAR)/combat search and rescue (CSAR) version of the C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, with two different versions operated by two separate services in the U.S. armed forces.
Merrill Anthony McPeak is a retired 4-star general in the United States Air Force whose final assignment before retirement was as the 14th Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1990 to 1994.
David Charles Jones was a United States Air Force general and the ninth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this capacity, Jones served as the highest-ranking uniformed officer of the United States Armed Forces. He previously served as the ninth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force and fifteenth commander of the United States Air Forces in Europe.
Scott Francis O'Grady is a former United States Air Force fighter pilot. On June 2, 1995, he was shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina by a 2K12 Kub mobile SAM launcher and forced to eject from his F-16C into hostile territory. US Marines from heavy-helicopter squadron HMH-464 and the 24 MEU(SOC) on AC number 21 eventually rescued O'Grady after nearly a week of his evading the Bosnian Serbs. He was previously involved in the Banja Luka incident where he fired upon six enemy aircraft. The 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines is loosely based upon his experiences.
The Air Education and Training Command (AETC) is one of the nine Major Commands (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF), reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force. It was established 1 July 1993, with the realignment of Air Training Command and Air University.
Joe Madison Jackson served as a career officer in the United States Air Force and received the Medal of Honor for heroism above and beyond the call of duty during the Vietnam War. On 12 May 1968, he volunteered for a dangerous impromptu rescue of three remaining Air Force members trapped at an overrun Army Special Forces camp. While the camp was still under heavy enemy fire from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, he skillfully piloted his C-123 cargo plane and rescued the three men.
Norton Allan Schwartz is a retired United States Air Force general who served as the 19th Chief of Staff of the Air Force from August 12, 2008, until his retirement in 2012. He previously served as commander, United States Transportation Command from September 2005 to August 2008. He is currently the president and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses, serving since January 2, 2020.
Ralph Edward "Ed" Eberhart is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF). He served as the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. He was in charge of NORAD during the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Thud Ridge is a 1969 memoir by Jack Broughton about flying the F-105 "Thud" for the United States Air Force in the Vietnam War during Operation Rolling Thunder. The title Thud Ridge derives from the nickname given by F-105 pilots to the Tam Dao range, which was both a waypoint during air attacks in the vicinity of Hanoi, North Vietnam, and a terrain masking feature for ingressing fighters.
The United States Air Force became a separate military service on 18 September 1947 with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947. The Act created the National Military Establishment, later renamed the United States Department of Defense, which was composed of four of the five branches, the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and a newly created Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was divided between the Army for land-based operations and the Navy and Marine Corps for sea-based operations from aircraft carrier and amphibious aircraft. The Army created the first antecedent of the Air Force on 1 August 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual separation 40 years later. The predecessor organizations leading up to today's U.S. Air Force are:
General William J. Begert is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF). He served as commander, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Component Commander for the Commander, United States Pacific Command, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. As commander, he had responsibility for USAF activities spread over half the globe in a command that supports 55,500 airmen serving principally in Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
General Laurence Sherman Kuter was a Cold War-era four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF) and former commander of North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). Kuter was born in Rockford, Illinois in 1905, and graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York on June 14, 1927.
The United States Taiwan Defense Command was a sub-unified command of the United States Armed Forces operating in Taiwan from December 1954 to April 1979.
The Johnson-McConnell agreement of 1966 was an agreement between United States Army Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson and United States Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. McConnell on 6 April 1966. The U.S. Army agreed to give up its fixed-wing tactical airlift aircraft, while the U.S. Air Force relinquished its claim to most forms of rotary wing aircraft. The most immediate effect was the transfer of Army DHC-4 Caribou aircraft to the Air Force.
Robert Lynn Rutherford was a general in the United States Air Force who served as commander of the United States Transportation Command and of Pacific Air Forces. He was born in Luling, Texas.
Thomas Martin Ryan Jr. is a retired United States Air Force general who served as the commander of Air Training Command (COMATC) from 1981 to 1983 and as Commander in Chief of the Military Airlift Command (CINCMAC) from 1983 to 1985.
Duane Harlan Cassidy was a general in the United States Air Force and the former commander of the Military Airlift Command and United States Transportation Command.
Tactical Air Support, Inc. is an American defense contractor headquartered in Reno, Nevada at Reno-Stead Airport. Some of its employees are former fighter weapons school and operational commanders, instructors, and/or test pilots that specialize in advanced tactical air support. Tactical Air provides consulting and commercial air services to U.S. and allied forces in a manner similar to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) and the USAF Weapons School. TacAir Global, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tactical Air Support, Inc., focuses on international training. In 2013, Tactical Air began providing F-5 refresher training to the Botswana Defence Force.
David Lee Goldfein is a retired United States Air Force four-star general who last served as the 21st Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. He previously served as the vice chief of staff of the Air Force and, prior to that, he served as the director of the Joint Staff, a position within the Joint Chiefs of Staff who assists the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Goldfein retired from the Air Force on October 1, 2020, after over 37 years of service.
