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Show HILLTOP TIMES MES 5 October 8, 2009 A good retirement for MWD Bad Luncheon part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month events Above, newly retired military working clog Bad, at his adoption ceremony at Hill Air Force Base waits for his new owners, Oct. 1. At left, Majs. Robert Filbey and Patricia Pankey pet the retired military working dog, Bad. Filbey and Pankey adopted the 9-year-old dog after a complex screening process. BY LEE ANNE HENSLEY Hilltop Times staff T he University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Austin, Texas, predicts that breast cancer will kill more than 40,000 U.S. women this year, while 192,000 more will be diagnosed with the disease. With early detection, however, nearly 90 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer will live at least five years. Early detection tips and survivor accounts will be given at Hill Air Force Base's annual Breast Cancer Awareness Luncheon to be held at Club Hill on Oct. 20 from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. A licensed genetics counselor, Amanda Gammon, will also give a talk about the link between breast cancer and genetics and how it relates to each woman. The breast cancer awareness luncheons are hosted annually by the 75th Air Base Wing Airman and Family Readiness Center, 75th Medical Group and the 75th Force Support Squadron Health and Wellness Center in acknowledgement of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month. In addition to the survi^' • vor accounts and medical information provided during the speaking portion of the event, a lunch will also be provided. Ticket charges for the luncheon cover costs of food. Tickets are $10.30 for Club Hill members and $12.30 for non-members. To reserve tickets, contact AFRC Director Carole Beasley at (801) 775-5487 or Staff Sgt. Sherril Erickson at (801) 624-0699. Milli. NICHOLAS DRANEY Standard-Examiner Military working dog now helps mind herd on 2 horses, 2 dogs and a cat, with new owners BY LEE ANNE HENSLEY Hilltop Times staff L ife is good for Bad. After nine years of active duty service with the U.S. Air Force and the 75th Security Forces Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, including five deployments to different war zones, a military working dog named Bad got to retire to greener pastures Oct. 1 after his adoption became official through a national MWD adoption program. Although his previous handlers guess that he may have been a rambunctious puppy to deserve the name Bad, the nine-year-old German shepherd showed no signs of bad behavior when his leash was officially turned over to his adoptive family. Majs. Robert Filbey and Patricia Pankey, a married couple stationed here, welcomed Bad into their family, which consists of their two-yearold daughter, two older Labrador dogs, "The application process was more two horses and a cat. rigorous than medical school," said "I don't think he's ever seen a horse before," Pankey said. "So he might have Pankey, who is a flight medicine physia little culture shock. But we are thrilled cian with the 75th Medical Group. to have him as a part of our family." According to the MWD page of the Lackland AFB, Texas, Web site, the Col. Tony Maisonet, 75th SFS comadoption law gives priority first to civilmander, said that although Bad was ian law enforcement agencies, then to trained to detect explosive ordnance and provide defensive countermeasures prior dog handlers and finally to the general public. against perpetrators, he was recently given a professional psychological evalu- Dogs are put up for adoption if they ation to ensure an easy assimilation into no longer meet military working dog a multiple-member, multiple-species standards or have completed their desigfamily. Maisonet pointed out to the group nated time in service. Due to his age and assembled at the adoption ceremony that increasing medical conditions, Bad was Bad remained prone and calmly chewed retired from military service last year on a dog toy while the group gathered and was spending his days at the MWD around him during the event. kennels here, waiting while his adoption became finalized. "If Bad were still an attack dog, he would not have let anyone near me or his For more information on how to adopt handler," he said. a military working dog, visit www.lackPanke and Filbey also went through a land.af.mil/units/341stmwd/index.asp. Mitch Shaw, Standard Examiner staff, screening process and completed a comcontributed material to this article. prehensive application. 649th CLSS stands down; mission taken up by 573rd AMXS BY BILL ORNDORFF 309th Maintenance Wing W ith the furling of its unit guidon, the 649th Combat Logistics Support Squadron on Hill Air Force Base was formally inactivated Oct. 1. ~- The squadron, which started as the 2952nd CLSS in 1967, provided aircraft battle damage repair and crash damage repair, and sent depot field teams worldwide to support F-16, A-10 and F-22 aircraft, nhe mission and the 56 remaining squadron members will become part £>f the Expeditionary Depot Maintenance Flight under the 573rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 309th J\ircraft Maintenance Group. *-• "Over the last four decades, the ^2952nd and 649th have made their ^presence known all over the globe," %aid Col. Steve LaVoye, 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group comtaander, in his ceremony remarks. 5'They've been involved in maintenance actions on U.S. Air Force and •foreign military sales fighter air3praft spanning five continents. % "They have been tasked to assist jpn week- or month-long and up to Jmulti-year projects to reconstruct Aircraft from the ground up. Workgng these tasks not only return airjeraft to services sometimes 'better Jhan new,1 but also allow the mainSainers to hone their technical skills to enhance expeditionary maintenance readiness," LaVoye said. Maj. Tom Ruiz, 649th commander since June 2007, noted that in his first production briefing, the unit had 54 out of 200 members on the road in eight different locations around the world. As it draws down, the 649th now has 10 people on the road in four locations, and 56 members. He recalled how he and many others hoped the news of the unit closing would "just go away." "Despite the bad news, I challenged my team to continue to provide the first class professionalism, incredible work ethic, and "can do" enthusiasm our customers had come to expect," Ruiz said. "I am proud to report that they rose to the challenge in.every case. "From some of the first 'official' Depot Field Teams in Vietnam modifying F-4 aircraft ejection seats, escorting missiles on railcars throughout the U.S., forward deploying in support of Operation Desert Storm, repairing and replacing cracked landing gear bulkheads on F-16s, to leading the A-10 wing crack repairs on forward deployed combat aircraft, the men and women assigned to the 2952nd and 649th CLSS throughout the past 42 years have embodied the traditions of professionalism and excellence," said Ruiz. The inactivation ceremony was BILL ORNDORFF/U.S. Air Force Among the present and former members of the 2952nd Combat Logistics Squadron and 649th CLSS attending the inactivation ceremony Oct. 1, were Bob Binder (left) and Eric Roberts. Both men were members of the 2952nd when it was activated on Dec. 1, 1967 at Hill Air Force Base. also a reunion of sorts as present and former squadron members and commanders, were reunited. Among them were two men — Bob Binder of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Eric Roberts, a 416th Supply Chain Management Squadron employee at Hill AFB — who were unit members when the 2952 CLSS was activated on Dec. 1, 1967. The 649th held an inactivation dinner later on Oct. 1, with Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Owen as guest speaker. He is a former commander of both the 2952nd and 649th CLSS and is now commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. |