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  • MacDill ALS: Ready, flexible, innovative

    Although many of the Air Force’s education and training courses have been put on hold, the 6th Force Support Squadron’s Airman Leadership School instructor team remains diligent. Their ultimate goal is to ensure that their students will be given the same high quality training they need to join the

  • Back to the basics: finding work-life balance during a pandemic

    Though the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced changes to the normal operating environment, the Airmen of the 6th Air Refueling Wing have stepped up, as they always do, to ensure that the mission of delivering unmatched air refueling support carries on.For Tech. Sgt. Shawna Wise, a 6th

  • Delivering excellence: MacDill boom operators train for perfection

    There’s a saying in the Air Force about refueling aircraft, something along the lines of nothing accomplishes mission success without tanker aircraft gas. This saying rings true in Tampa. Refueling aircraft such as MacDill Air Force Base’s KC-135 Stratotanker are vital to mission success and keeping

  • Are You Okay?

    It’s 2010 and Airman 1st Class Leonard James’ phone vibrates silently in his pocket; he quickly reaches down and sends the call to voicemail.“I was in class and we weren’t supposed to have our phones,” the now staff sergeant recalls.James was at Port Hueneme Naval Base, California, a technical

  • The Rise of a Loadmaster: An A1C Watt Story

    The powerful vibrations of four engines propelling a 282,400 pound aircraft several miles above the ground hum across the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster III on its way to drop off much needed cargo.Two pilots sit upstairs in the flight deck guiding the C-17 through the sky while another two rest

  • 6th AMXS: On the grind to make them fly

    For the Airmen of the 6th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, hard work is a common theme echoed throughout the squadron. The AMXS Airmen are dedicated to their craft, and they constantly ensure that MacDill’s aircraft are ready to take the fight to the enemy at any

  • Humble, approachable, credible: 509th Weapons Squadron

    While all KC-135 pilots train for air refueling, some get the chance to go above and beyond the basics by learning advance tactics and skills in the 509th Weapons Squadron, which produces 24 boom operators, pilots and navigators every year that are fully trained in providing advanced air refueling

  • Programmed depot maintenance modernizes KC-135s

    With eight buildings, nearly 3,000 workers, and 26 KC-135 Stratotankers, the 564th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the largest squadron in the U.S. Air Force, dedicated to providing programmed depot maintenance and upgrades to all U.S. Air Force KC-135s. Through

  • Cramped spaces and fuel vapors: MacDill “Tank Divers”

    Tucked away behind U.S. Central Command and MacDill Air Force Base, Florida’s traditional hangars lies a hangar originally built to house fighter jets. On a given day, peeking out of that hangar will sit a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft seemingly out of place in the considerably smaller maintenance