OCR Text |
Show Hilltop TIMES Weekly Since 1948 AFB, Utah 84056-5824 www.hilltoptimes.com hilltoptimes@stanglarcl.net Vol. 67 No. 42/pcigg Legislation to require solid rocket industry report debated IN THE KNOW Funeral planned A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19 in the Hill AFB Chapel in honor of Master Sgt. David Wheeler, who died of a terminal illness on Oct. 13. Wheeler spent more than 11 total combined years stationed at HAFB. For more information, call Tech. Sgt. Mark Woodring at 777-5492. Hatch amendment in committee would mandate a yearly review Clinic hours change The Hill Air Force Base clinic hours have been changed to 7 am. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 9 am. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. The change has been made for training. BY TOM BUSSELBERG Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau tbusselberg@standard.net Salt Lake salute SALT LAKE CITY —Maj. Gen. Kathleen D. Close is the keynote speaker for the Salt Lake Military Salute at the Little America Hotel, 500 S. Main, 6-9:30 p.m. Saturday. The event is sponsored by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committee and will honor Utah's Guard and Reserve. 'A recent letter to the editor lamented that some of the support people used to express for our military has dried up," said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. "Utah's outstanding citizen/warriors deserve better. They need to know business appreciates and celebrates their efforts and sacrifices." Utah citizen/soldiers to be honored include: Capt. Charity Coe and Sgt. Gregory Lee Annis, Utah Army National Guard; U. Col. Richard A. Lamb and 1 st Sgt. Robert B. Breck, U.S. Army Reserve; Lance Cpl. Frederick D. NahrwokJ and Lance Cpl. Scott D. Vargas, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve; Lt. j.g. Carl A. Wager and 1st SC Gene S. Maguire, U.S. Navy Reserve; Capt. Gene "Chris" Buckner and Senior Master Sgt. William G. Westfall, Utah Air National Guard; Lt. Col. Mark Pantone and Senior Master Sgt. Craig Fowler, U.S. Air Force Reserve. Individual seats are $70, $50 for military. Black tie/mess dress is encouraged. RSVP online at saftlakechamber. org or email military® saltiakechamber.org or call 328-5066. Change at Dannelly WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Air Force will create an active association at Dannelly Reid Air Guard Station, Ala., with the 187th Fighter Wing, which includes the newly re-designated 100th Fighter Squadron. Gen. T Michael Moselay said the Air Force would continue the active association at the 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C., and announced the establishment of active associations with the 482nd Rghter Wing at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., and the 301 st Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base in Texas. TECH SGT LARRY A. SIMMONS/US. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Matt Bennato inspects an F-16 Fighting Falcon's engine generators and brake right landing gear Oct. 10 prior to a flight at Hill Air Force Base. Bennato is an Air Reserve technician crew chief. Hill excels at Total Force Integration BY STAFF SGT. MATTHEW ROSINE Air Force Print News H ILL AIR FORCE BASE — Being the Air Force's first Total Force Integration fighter association gives the phrase "one team, one fight" a whole new meaning for Hill Air Force Base's 388th and 419th fighter wings. As of July this year, the wings entered Phase III of TFI. Now the 419th FW, a Reserve wing, no longer flies and maintains its own aircraft. Thanks to the integration, these Reserve airmen now fly and maintain their F-16 Fighting Falcons side by side with their active duty partners in the 388th FW. "It is a tremendous mixing bowl," said Col. Buck Sams, vice commander of the 419th FW. "There are a lot of gains that are coming out of TFI that no one ever expected." The overall objective of TFI is to enhance war-fighting capability in everything from peacetime steady-state operations to wartime surge operations. "We reservists bring the older, more grizzled experience into the flight, but what active duty brings is the youth and excitement ahd the invigoration that for us old guys sometimes tends to wane from time to time," said Sams, who is from Sylvester, Ga., and has 15 years of active duty experience. "It is a very interesting dynamic to grab their youthfulness and their excitement and mix in our experience. It really brings a certain element to the fight that a non-TFI unit would not be able to experience." Of course, during the infancy of the TFI association between the 388th and the 419th FWs there was a degree of nervous excitement. "I think like everybody, the reservists were a little See HILL I page 10 "It is a very interesting dynamic to grab their youthfulness and their excitement and mix in our experience. It really brings a certain element to the fight that a non-TFI unit would not be able to experience." COL BUCK SAMS, vice commander of the 419th Fighter Wing on the integration W ASHINGTON, D.C. — An amendment sponsored by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch mandating a report on the Minuteman III solid rocket motor industrial base is currently in conference committee in an effort to reconcile Senate and House versions. Acting Hatch press secretary Jared Whitley said it's envisioned that over the next two years, ATK will complete its contract modernizing the nation's Minuteman III ICBM fleet. "Once this work is completed there is a real question as to how the Hatch U.S. will maintain its solid rocket motor industrial base," he said. "Uncertainty also surrounds the approximately 1,675 individuals that ATK employs at Promontory and Bacchus, Utah, who work on solid rocket motors." Because of that, Hatch arranged for an amendment to be included into the Defense Authorization Bill which requires the DoD to author "an assessment of the adequacy of current and anticipated programs to support an industrial base that would be needed to support a range of future requirements." Conclusions of the report could be used, if necessary, as the basis for future legislation to maintain the industrial base, Whitley said. The report would be required not later than 190 days after the date of the act's enactment. The Secretary of Defense would be required to submit a report to the congressional defense committees on the status, capability, viability and capacity of the solid rocket motor industrial base in the U.S. That would include assessments of the ability to maintain the Minuteman III ICBM and Trident II D-5 submarine launched ballistic missile through their See AMENDMENT I page 5 Spouses dub brings comfort, support to military families BY TOM BUSSELBEHG Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau tbusselberg@standard.net H ILL AIR FORCE BASE — "The first meeting I went to last year after we moved back from Georgia, there was a young lady whose husband was deployed, they had just moved into their house (here), were still in boxes, and she had just had a baby. "She came, and there were women who put their arms around her, knew what it's like to be in a strange place. You have your Air Force family," said Deb Tanzi. Tanzi is a "member at large" on the board of directors of the Hill Officers' Spouses' Club. It is one of several such organizations on base, intended as a way to bring community to spouses from near and far. The group of about 75 is distinguished by the fact that its president is not a. wife (the old name was Wives' Club), but a "house husband" who holds a law degree, Fields Watson. He is often joined at meetings by a rather wellSee CLUB I page 9 Look inside this week's Hilltop Times for... Base Theater Free Movies Friday, 7 p.m. - "Live Free orDie Hard" (PG-13) Saturday, noon "Garfield" (PG) Saturday, 7 p.m. "Waitress" (PG-13) For review see page 11 Care packages Focused faculty Paws place Remembering the deployed troops Hill Field Elementary School up to the challenge Ribbon cutting for new dog park on the base See page 11 See page 5 See page 13 |