Warrior Games, a spirited competition that pits wounded , ill or injured service members and veterans against their representative services continues into its fourth year as teams converge on Colorado Springs, Colo., beginning May 11.

This year, 50 Airmen or former Airmen will compete in individual and team sports that include archery, cycling, shooting, swimming, track and field, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball.
Over the next two weeks you'll get a close-up look at these warriors and the long road they've travelled from, in some cases death's door, to becoming some of the premier wounded athletes in the country.
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This week's photos feature Airmen around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

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Beginning May 1, Airmen can submit their cost-reducing ideas via the Airmen Powered by Innovation websites while at home, the office or on their smartphones.

With budgets shrinking, Air Force leaders are calling on Airmen to share their best money-saving ideas through the "Every Dollar Counts" campaign.

In the wake of sequestration, the initiative marks a cultural shift that empowers Airmen to find and recommend areas for savings that may be used to support readiness needs, said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer.
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After slipping by each other the narrow aisle of an E-8C Joint STARS aircraft, more than a dozen Airmen settle into their seats and begin to flip switches and work through checklists. Their olive-green headsets block out the roar of the jet engines and replace it with busy radio chatter as the crew prepares for the mission ahead.

Computer screens in front of them come to life, as their aircraft's radar returns a black and white image of lines, bumps and craters. Additional radar sweeps fill the screen with yellow dots. The clutters they form begin to trace the path of roads and highways.
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The Senate confirmed the nomination of Eric Fanning to become the next under secretary of the Air Force April 18 and he began his transition into the office after being sworn in April 29.

"On behalf of the more than 690,000 men and women of the U.S. Air Force, I want to welcome Eric to our Air Force family," said Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley. "He will be a tremendous asset to our Air Force and our leadership team. His diverse background in national security matters, coupled with this communications and congressional experience, will enable him to be a champion for our Airmen and their families during this challenging time in the Department of Defense."
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Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley has announced his plan to step down June 21 as the Air Force's top civilian after serving for nearly five years.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve with our Air Force's great Airmen," Donley said. "Their accomplishments have been nothing short of impressive and I'm humbled to be a part of this team. The Air Force has been a way of life for so much of my career, I know it will be bittersweet to say farewell."

Donley was confirmed as the 22nd secretary of the Air Force Oct. 2, 2008. He served as the acting secretary since June of that year, as well as for seven months in 1993, making him the longest serving secretary in the history of the Air Force. He also served as the service's top financial officer from 1989 to 1993.
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This week's photos feature Airmen around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force. View the slideshow.
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(This feature is part of the "Through Airmen's Eyes" series on AF.mil. These stories focus on a single Airman, highlighting their Air Force story.)

There's a saying -- "a journey begins with a single step."

For a flight engineer assigned to the 8th Special Operations Squadron here, even a single step seemed like a lofty goal at one time.

After Tech. Sgt. Christofer Curtis' CV-22 Osprey crashed during a mission in Afghanistan in April 2010, he was left with numerous serious injuries and uncertainty surrounding whether he would walk again.
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This week's photos feature Airmen participating in the joint service, multinational, interagency combat search and rescue exercise, Angel Thunder.  Angel Thunder 2013 is a personnel recovery exercise designed to provide training for participants using a variety of scenarios to simulate deployment conditions and contingencies.

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Eric Fanning will be the next Air Force under secretary, according to a Senate confirmation vote April 18.

Fanning provided testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 28, before the full Senate voted on his confirmation. Now the president must appoint him before he can assume his new position.

"I have been immensely proud to serve these last four years with the men and women of the Navy and the Marine Corps. I very much look forward to becoming part of the Air Force family," he said during his confirmation hearing. "It would be my honor to play a role in making sure that the best men and women our country has to offer get all the support they need in undertaking the mission of defending our country, a mission for which they freely volunteer."
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The top leaders from Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force Reserve and National Guard were on Capitol Hill here April 17 to provide statements and answer questions regarding their FY14 budget proposals.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., the chairwoman of the full U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense, and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the subcommittee's ranking member, led discussions and listened to testimony from Reserve and National Guard leaders.
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In a continuing effort to meet the Department of Defense funding targets in the FY12 President's Budget and re-balance the civilian workforce, approximately 60 Air Force installations will implement civilian Reduction in Force authorities effective through about Aug. 23, to assist in the placement of employees not assigned against funded positions (termed "surplus employees").

These actions started in FY12 and are not related to the current sequestration actions.

To meet the funding targets in the FY12 President's Budget, the Air Force was required to reduce more than 16,000 civilian positions. The Air Force was able to successfully reduce approximately 15,000 positions minimizing adverse impact to civilian personnel, but now needs to use RIF authorities, which will provide options to help place most of the remaining civilians on unfunded positions.
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A few months after the D-Day invasion in June 1944, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower surveyed the Normandy beaches with his son. "You'd never get away with this if you didn't have air supremacy," then 2nd Lt. John Eisenhower told his father. "Without air supremacy," the elder Eisenhower replied, "I wouldn't be here."

The United States won air superiority in Europe by 1944 and the Pacific by the fall, won it in Korea in 1950 and hasn't lost control of the skies since. No American service members on the ground have died from enemy air attacks since three were killed during the Korean War more than 60 years ago.
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With budgets shrinking, Air Force leaders are calling on Airmen to share their best money-saving ideas through the Every Dollar Counts campaign.

In the wake of sequestration, the initiative marks a cultural shift that empowers Airmen to find and recommend areas for savings that may be used to support readiness needs, said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Spencer.

Beginning May 1, Airmen can submit their cost-reducing ideas via the Airmen Powered by Innovation websites while at home, the office or on their smartphone. Links to those sites will be released soon.
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The Air Force's $114.1 billion fiscal 2014 budget request will provide for the most capable airpower arm possible, the Air Force chief of staff said here today.

Testifying with Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, Gen. Mark A. Welsh III told the House Armed Services Committee his service's portion of DOD's fiscal 2014 budget proposal will support what he believes will be a continuing demand for American airpower.

"America's foreign policy choices reflect the conscious reliance on its Air Force to help realize success," Welsh said. This, he said, currently involves managing the airlift requirements for a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan, addressing increasingly vocal international actors in the Asia-Pacific region, and satisfying the growing national reliance on space-based capabilities, he said.
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This week's photos feature Airmen around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This weekly feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

View the slideshow.

more...

The Air Force's top civilian leader today presented his service's fiscal 2014 $114.1 billion baseline budget request to Congress and shared some of the fiscal challenges the Air Force has faced.

"As with all budgets, our FY (2014) request represents a snapshot in time," Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley told the House Armed Services Committee. "(It's) our best analysis of Air Force needs based on available information."

Donley, who was accompanied at the House hearing by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, said the Air Force's priorities remain aligned with the Defense Department's strategic guidance.
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The Afghan security transition, the Arab Spring and the U.S.-Russia relationship were among the command priorities discussed this morning during the Senate Armed Services Committee's confirmation hearing for President Barack Obama's choice to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe.

If confirmed, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove -- now commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, U.S. Air Forces Africa and the NATO Allied Air Command, will succeed Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, who has served as commander of EUCOM and as supreme allied commander for Europe since 2009.
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Upon release of the Air Force Fiscal Year 2014 budget here April 10, the services' senior leaders said the shadow of sequestration in 2013 and on-going fiscal uncertainty will affect critical programs and objectives for years to come.

While Air Force officials have scrambled to minimize impacts on readiness and people, the bow-wave of reductions, deferments, and cancellations will challenge the strategic choices made in the FY14 budget submission, said Maj. Gen. Edward L. Bolton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget.
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The Air Force has officially restarted military tuition assistance, effective immediately.

The service restarted the program as a result of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, where Congress called for the MTA program to continue in the current fiscal year.

As a result of the restart, the program will resume the same benefits as before. Airmen are eligible for up to $4,500 per fiscal year and a maximum of $250 per semester hour or quarter hour equivalent to cover tuition and allowable fees. Military tuition assistance is not available retroactively to cover courses taken and paid for using any other funding source during the suspension of military tuition assistance.
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