OCR Text |
Show Hilltop IM ES Weekly Since 1948 U.S. AIR FOI__--al- L= Hill AFB, Utah 84056-5824 IN THE KNOW Armed Forces Day concert A free Armed Forces Day will be from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on May 17 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Music Director Sterling Poulson conducts an evening honoring our men and women in the Armed Forces. The concert includes a variety of music, including the great patriotic favorites you love to hear and ends with a spectacular fireworks display as the band plays John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. There will be plenty of food fun and Support Service Booths to visit. Band schedule: • 4:30 p.m. — Donner Pass • 5:30 p.m. — Gary Stoddard and the Usual Suspects • 6:30 p.m. — Steel Drum Line from West High School • 7:30 p.m. —The Choral Arts Society of Utah and the Utah National Guard 23rd Army Band www.hilltoptimes.com hilltoptimes@standard.net Vol. 73 No. 1, May 1, 2014 AF secretary reports on total force balance BY AMAANI LYLE American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON — Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James outlined Wednesday the service's progress in leveraging the talent and capabilities of the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve within the total force concept. James, along with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. A tiger team of three generals from each reserve component conducted a comprehensive review of mission requirements, recommended ideas for improving collaboration and sought avenues to balance total force capabilities, James told the senators. "We laid in force structure changes to take advantage of the Guard and Reserve's strength," James said. "For example, in the area of (intelli- gence, surveillance and reconnaissance), we've increased reserve components' presence in the MQ-1 (Predator) and (MQ-9 Reaper) fleets of remotely piloted aircraft, so we're going from 17 percent to 24 percent representation in that arena." In the cyber arena, James said, three new Air Force Reserve units will reflect an increase in that capability in fiscal year 2016. Meanwhile, James said the Air Force will decrease its ac- TOTAL FORCE TRAINING Lane closure outside South Gate Traffic leaving through the South Gate and turning west onto SR-193 will face lane restrictions beginning May 9. The restrictions are expected to last three days, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The restrictions are because of maintenance on one of the Air Force's groundwater extraction wells, part of a groundwater cleanup system. The restrictions are necessary to accommodate a safe work zone for crews performing the maintenance. The right-turn lane will be available, but traffic will be diverted around the work zone and allowed to enter the turn lane closer to the intersection than normal. The disruption is expected to be minimal. Hiring Our Heroes job, benefits fair A Hiring Our Heroes job fair will be held May 15 at the Davis Conference Center, 1651 N. 700 West, Layton. This free event benefits unemployed and underemployed Guardsmen, Reservists, veterans and their spouses. For more information, call Kim Watts at 801-432-4492, Mark Harrison at 801-4324536 or Chuck Rackham at 801-432-4242. Walk-in service ends at TI icare The 75th Medical Group TRICARE Service Center closed April 1. Walk-in service will no longer be provided CONUS impacting 200 TRICARE Service Centers stateside. This change is an effort by the Department of Defense to manage costs and is estimated to save $254 million See KNOW I Page 11 71 tive component end-strength by 17 percent while decreasing the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard end-strength by 3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, by fiscal 2015. "In the future, we hope to garner enough savings by moving capability and capacity to the reserve component so that future end-strength cuts may not be necessary," she said. See BALANCE I Page 8 Bicyclist at TEDx urges perpetual motion BY MITCH SHAW Hilltop Times staff CRYSTAL CHARRIERE/U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Allison Tolar, 419th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief (left), greets Capt. Mike Casey, 466th Fighter Squadron pilot, as he arrives for his training flight. Casey and other pilots from Hill Air Force Base were able to fly their F- 16s side-by-side with the F-35 Lightning II for the first time on Thursday. The 419th Fighter Wing is on its annual training at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Hill's F-16s take first flights alongside F-35s BY STAFF SGT. CHRISTINA JUDD 419th Fighter Wing Public Affairs E GLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots from Hill Air Force Base's 419th and 388th Fighter Wings took to the skies the morning of April 24 for their first training missions alongside the STAFF SGT. CHRISTINA JUDD/U.S. Air Force An F-16 Fighting Falcon takes off while two F-35 Lightning Ils taxi during a training mission on April 24 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. F-16s from the 419th and 388th Fighter Wings from Hill Air Force Base, conducted their first training missions alongside the Air Force's newest fighter aircraft. F-35A Lightning II, the Air Force's newest fighter aircraft. Hill's F-16s flew air-to-air combat training missions with F-35As assigned to Egfin's 33rd Fighter Wing. "This was a great op- HILL AIR FORCE BASE — Daniel Burton says he is not a super athlete and, in fact, was frequently picked last on the playground sports scene as a child — but that didn't stop him from completing an athletic feat no none had ever done before. Burton was a featured speaker at a Friday afternoon TEDx event at Hill Air Force Base. In January, the Saratoga Springs resident became the first person on record to travel across Antarctica to the South Pole by bicycle. Burton's expedition began at the edge of the Antarctic continent and traveled about 750 miles south to the South Pole. Aside from the mental exhaustion one would expect to encounter biking across Earth's most unforgiving continent, Burton also had to battle prevailing headwinds, extreme cold, crevasses and sharp, irregular grooves and ridges that formed on the arctic snow surface while climbing from sea level to over 9,000 feet. Burton's 51-day trip to the 9,300-foot South Pole Summit was all uphill, with temperatures as cold as 35 degrees below zero, with a headwind. Burton's early calculations during the expedition told him he wouldn't have enough time to reach the South Pole by a deadline he needed to meet for when the last plane left Antarctica for a while. But weather changes hardened the snow he was traveling on, allowing Burton to start accruing miles in a rapid fashion. See TEDX I Page 5 See TRAINING I Page 8 Look inside this week's Hilltop Times for • • • Base Theater Free Movies Saturday, Noon — The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (PG) Saturday, 3 p.m. — Labor Day (PG-13) Saturday, 6 p.m. — Lone Survivor (R) For review see page 9 earth Day Wheels of 2014 Wonder Medication Take Back Conserve today — secure tomorrow Military vehicles showcased Turn in expired medicine See page 2 See page 7 See page 9 |