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Show HILLTOP TIMES TIMES May 8, 2008 13 RYAN MCGEENEY/Standard-Examiner The captain and ground crew for the Viper West demonstration team stand at the ready before a recent demonstration flight at Hill Air Force Base. Acrobatic maneuvers in the sky across the U.S. boost recruiting, Air Force officials say. Viper West exhibits aerial wizardry Demonstrating excellence just part of mission for crew based at BY MITCH SHAW Standard-Examiner staff mishaw@standard.net H ILL AIR FORCE BASE — Hill may not be hosting an air show this year, but that doesn't mean the base has abandoned aerial wizardry altogether. In fact, the base has its very own team dedicated to acrobatic maneuvers in the sky. Viper West is the F-16 demonstration team for the entire West Coast and travels all over the globe, showcasing the Fighting Falcon and what Air Force pilots can do with it. The Viper West team is part of the base's 388th Fighter Wing and consists of three Block 40 F-16s and one demonstration pilot, four pilotsafety observers and nine maintenance personnel. The 14-man team spends most of the spring, summer and fall on the road, performing about 30 shows a year across the United States and even sometimes overseas. "We spend a lot of time away from home," said Master Sgt. David Sullins, Viper West superintendent. "It's good because we get to see a of what the Air Force does best. "We try to bring a face to the Air Force," Piggott said after a recent demonstration at Hill for a group of ill children. "We want to interact with people on a personal level and show them what we do." Putting a face on the Air Force, as Piggott described, is part of a three-pronged mission that represents the overall goal of Viper West. "Part of our mission obviously includes demonstrating the capabilities of our aircraft," Sullins said. "But we also want to demonstrate the excellence of our Air Force personnel and get out in the community and have a positive effect on retention and recruiting." Sullins said putting on a spectacular show in the sky is the best Capt. Russ T. Piggott signs autographs after a recent demonstration for recruiting tool the Air Force has to the Make-A-Wish Foundation at Hill. offer. lot of different places, but we also Most members serve years of "There is no better recruiting tool spend a lot of time away from fam- duty before joining. than showing what these jets can ily and friends." "A lot of people try out, and not do," he said. "I mean, after people So far this year, the team has everybody makes it," said Staff Sgt. see one of our shows, the common performed in Arizona, California, Ryan Douglass, lead crew chief of reaction is, 'Where do I sign up?' " Kentucky, Texas and the Dominican Viper West. "For maintainers, this is Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Anderson, who Republic. basically as good as it gets." serves as assistant team superintenLater in the year, Viper West will A typical Viper West demonstra- dent for Viper West, said air shows hit venues on the East Coast, the tion consists of Capt. Russell Piggott and air demonstrations he attended Midwest, the deep South and Cana- performing maneuvers in his F-16 as a child were the biggest motida. while members of the maintenance vation behind his joining the Air crew narrate. Force. "We try to go places where we think we can really make a differPiggott performs a variety of "This is why I am in the service," ence," Sullins-said. "Obviously, we high-G movements, demonstrathe said. "And I think that might be think there are quite a few places ing exactly what the jet can do in the case for a lot of people. It's exwhere we can do that, so we're combat. citing to think that you could actupretty much all over the map." Executing tricks, sometimes only ally be a part of this." Membership on the Viper West a few hundred feet above onlookers' For more information on the Viteam is something of a coveted posi- heads, quite literally gives spectaper West team, go to viperwest.hill. tion in the Air Force community. tors an up-close and personal view af.mil. Officials offer tips in response to rise in e-mail spam By Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs W RIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — While theatergoers are flocking to performances of Monty Python's musical comedy "Spamalot" as it tours across America, "a lot of spam" within e-mail inboxes is proving to be no laughing matter for Air Force and government employees. Spam is unsolicited and generally undesired bulk e-mail messages. Senders use spam for reasons ranging from advertising new products or services, to scams that bilk people of their finances. Increasingly, spam is used to download software to personal computers for malicious reasons. At Air Force Materiel Command bases, the number of spam e-mails has been increasing for months. Currently, 90 percent of all inbound e-mail messages are spam. For AFMC that means more than 100 million spam messages a month, a 400 percent increase over the past six months. Within AFMC, special filtering software deletes more than 98 percent of all spam. In some cases only suspicious attachments are removed. According to Lt. Col. Robert Henning, with Headquarters AFMC's Communications, Installations, and Mission Support Directorate, most spam reaching AFMC recipients is addressed to AFMC Distribution Lists. "This helps explain the recent widespread delivery, so we are exploring ways to tighten the use of distribution lists to help reduce external spam," Col. Henning said. The potential damage from spam e-mails is the introduction of harmful attachments and Denial of Service Attacks. Col. Hen- ning said that a common tactic of recent spam e-mails is to get users to click on a Web link of a nonthreatening Web site that has already been compromised. "From there, the spammer attempts to install malicious code and gain access to our desktops and laptops, bypassing our network boundary defenses," he said. "This is now a serious security threat." The colonel added that it's important for workers to know what to do with spam e-mails when they appear. "Recipients should send spam, as an attachment in anew e-mail, to their base/site network control center spam mailbox for analysis," Col. Henning said. "Users at each AFMC base can obtain that e-mail address by contacting their client support administrator." Those assigned to Headquar. ters AFMC should send them to SPAM@wpafb.af.mil. Attache duty opens up Air Force Print News R ANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — Air Force officials here are accepting applications until June 13 from senior captains, majors and lieutenant colonels to fill 19 air attache positions with in-country reporting dates from June 2010 to February 2011. Officers selected for attache duty will attend training during the period of January to August 2009. An operations background, foreign language skills and experience in the region are all highly desired for attache candidates. Eligible applicants must: • Be released from their functional manager to compete for an assignment, • Take or have taken the Defense Language Aptitude Battery Test, and • Be a U.S. citizen with all immediate family members (parents, siblings, spouse and children) all U.S. citizens as well. Officers selected for an interview will be notified by July 31. For more information on attache assignments, or to request an application, contact Air Force Personnel Center International Affairs Assignments at DSN 6654071 or (210) 5654071. |