Edited by:  Don Shepperd  Reviewer:  Col. Francis L. Kapp, USAF (Ret.)  This rather unusual book, loaned to me by our National Commander, Maj. Gen. Jerry Allen, that’s well worth your time to read.  The book is subtitled “Life Lessons from Old Pilots”,...

by David Laszcz via Modern War Institute Image credit: Cpl. Matthew Teutsch, US Marine Corps The newest US maritime strategy, Advantage at Sea, fails to include the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) as a viable operational component for competition in the gray...

by Rebecca Kheel via The Hill The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday advanced a $706 billion Pentagon spending bill on a party-line vote. The panel voted 33-23 to approve the fiscal year 2022 defense spending bill, setting the stage for a fight on the House...

by Jen Judson via DefenseNews Lockheed Martin and Boeing unveiled their offering to the U.S. Army’s future long-range assault aircraft competition on Jan. 25, 2021, calling it Defiant X. (Artist rendering courtesy of Lockheed Martin and Boeing) The U.S. Army has...

by Mackenzie Eaglen via 1945 An F-15E flies watch over the skies of Afghanistan July 30. The F-15 and crew are deployed to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. “Divest to invest” is a slogan the Joint Chiefs use when touting their...

by Col. Richard “Clem” Clement, USAF (Ret.) Sometime in 1963, President Kennedy needed to fly to South America. The date, though it needs to be confirmed, as the trip slipped a day, was about March 18, 1963. President...

Commentary by Leland Cowie, Todd Graff, Craig Cude, and Brad Dewees via War on the Rocks The crowd favorite in the Korean War section of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is a B-29 Superfortress known as Command Decision. Named after a 1948 movie that...

by Dan Goure via Real Clear Defense Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has a well-deserved reputation for innovative, one-off, and rapid acquisition programs. It has also pioneered the repurposing of commercial platforms and systems to get an 80 percent solution out...

by Gen. David Allvin, U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff via Defense One In the season finale of the Marvel series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new Captain America, a former Air Force pararescueman, uses the fusion of perfect communications, flawless...

Amigos del Ciel: The cover picture of a C-6 powered Curtiss Oriole on the September Daedalus Flyer was very nostalgic. (Incidentally, never before had I seen sleeve loops on a trench coat.) My first contact with this post WWI aircraft was at Rockewell Field, North...

by Col. John L. Wagner, USAF (Ret.) Perhaps the idea to bring the Thai Air Force into the jet age came from someone in the American Embassy, the Thai Government, Far East Air Forces Headquarters, or the Pentagon. In any case, the overall concept of strengthening our...

Maj. Larry Sabourin, USAF (Ret.), Daedalian Life Member #5519 and 77th Flight Adjutant May birthdays, left to right: Larry Sabourin, Tom Webb, Jim Kendrick – 102, Tom Hinkel, Ev Hatch.  On 20 May Flight 77, (Elliott White Springs -Myrtle Beach) held its monthly...

23rd Flight Daedalian Brigadier General William H. “Bill” Lawson recently officiated at Joshua High School’s Annual Military Signing Ceremony.  At the request of LTC Jim Davidson, General Lawson spoke on the meaning of the U.S....

It happened in WWI during the last days of the conflict in Europe. A DH-4, powered by a Liberty 400 HP engine and fitted with four 150 lb. bombs, left our La Fresne field in Pas de Calais for a bombing raid on the German U-Boat depot at Bruges, Belgium....

by Lt.Col. Sandy Miarecki, USAF (Ret.), Daedalian Life Member #6294 On 13 April 2021, 11th Flight paid a visit to the United States Air Force Academy. In the Arnold Ballroom, Daedalians met with USAFA graduating seniors to tell their war...

by William J. Moran, Jr., Colonel, USAF (Ret.), Granite State 53rd Flight In February 1992, shortly after Desert Storm, we received word from the Pentagon that the Air Force Chief of Staff wanted to set aviation world records. We believed the B-1B could set or break...

Paper by Robin Dickey via Aerospace Corporation; Published 20 July 2021 There appears to be a rising consensus among U.S. policymakers and space experts that norms of some kind are necessary to protect the safety, stability, security, and sustainability of the space...

Policy Paper by Mark Gunzinger, Luka Autenried, and Bryan Clark via the Mitchell Institute There is broad consensus on the need to increase the U.S. military’s long-range strike capacity. There is also significant debate over which investments would result in the...

Report GAO-21-505T published by the Government Accountability Office DOD plans to acquire nearly 2,500 F-35 aircraft for about $400 billion. It projects spending another $1.27 trillion to operate and sustain them—an estimate that has steadily increased since 2012. We...

Maury Hartle made his final “take-off” from his home at Manzano del Sol in Albuquerque on Monday, May 10th, 2021 surrounded by his loving family. He was born November 20, 1920 in Drifting, Pennsylvania, the son of Orvis and Regina Hartle. He was the oldest and last...

By Peter D. Lennon, Federal Gov’t (Ret.), Granite Flight #53 February 1, 2021, marked the one-year anniversary of the passing, at age ninety-five, of one of only two World War II veterans left in Granite State Flight #53, Lt.Col. John J. Kane USAF, (Ret).  John...

Colonel Thomas J. Tredici, USAF (Ret.): August 27, 1922 to April 28, 2021 by Lt.Col. Bill Ercoline, USAF (Ret.) Colonel (Doctor) Tredici in front ot a B-17 in 1987 Thomas J. Tredici was born in 1922 in the small steel producing town of Monessen. The town is located in...

by Jessica Gresko, the Associated Press via Air Force Times In this June 19, 1969, file photo, Apollo 11 command module pilot astronaut Michael Collins takes a break during training for the moon mission, in Cape Kennedy, Fla. (AP) Apollo 11 astronaut Michael...