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RESERVATIONS ARE NOW OPEN. The next luncheon will be on 6 April 2010 at the Army Navy Country Club, Arlington, VA beginning with Social Time at 11:15 AM and lunch at 12:00. Our speaker is Brig. Gen. Charles K. Shugg, Vice Commander, 24th Air Force, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. As the Air Force's newest numbered air force, 24th Air Force provides combatant commanders with trained and ready cyber forces which plan and conduct cyberspace operations. Twenty-Fourth Air Force personnel extend, maintain and defend the Air Force portion of the Department of Defense global network. General Shugg assists the commander in directing the activities of three wings, two located at Lackland AFB, and one located at Robins AFB, Ga.  BIOGRAPHY

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2010 United States Air Force Posture Statement. LINK Source: AFA 3/6/10)

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SPRING UPDATE AND GOLF: 11, 12, & 13 May, with SAF/XC & AFC4A Golf Tournament in the afternoon of the 12th at Andrews AFB. (012210)

Paralleling Space: Orlando, Feb. 18, 2010—Air Force Space Command has "pretty well solidified" its plan of action for developing USAF's cadre of cyber professionals, said Gen. Robert Kehler, the command's boss. That plan is an outgrowth of the template AFSPC crafted for the development of space professionals following the Rumsfeld Space Commission report to Congress back in 2001. "We intend to follow exactly the same course," he said. Out of this will emerge cyber warriors with the "education, training, experience, and certification" to perform this vital mission, added Kehler, noting that the first undergraduate cyber training course will begin this June at Keesler AFB, Miss. He later told reporters that the class would include about 15 to 20 individuals of various academic backgrounds, but the vast of majority of them will be technical specialists in some field. (AFSPC took cyber operations under its umbrella last summer with activation of its 24th Air Force.) (Source: AFA 021910)

New Keesler BX and commissary opens---Bigger and better. See Link: BX/Commissary

Ready for Action: Twenty-fourth Air Force, USAF's new cyber operations arm, has been cleared to commence initial operations, Air Force Space Command announced Monday. Gen. Robert Kehler, AFSPC boss, made the decision on Jan. 22 by certifying that the organization had achieved initial operational capability. This means that 24th AF, headquartered at Lackland AFB, Tex., is deemed capable of performing critical elements of its mission to operate and protect the Air Force's portion of the US military's cyber network and provide full-spectrum cyber capabilities to the joint force. "This is a big day for the United States Air Force," said Kehler. Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, 24th AF commander, said "cyber mission assurance is a top priority of the Air Force" and his airmen are "well underway" toward that goal. As a prelude this milestone, the AFSPC inspector general evaluated 24th AF in December and rated it "ready" for the mission. (Source: AFA 012610)

Helping a Warrior Heal: A wounded airman was part of history on Thanksgiving Day, becoming the first patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., to undergo a procedure that allows his liver to produce insulin in place of his pancreas. SrA. Tre Porfirio, a 21-year-old communications technician from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, was shot three times in the back by an insurgent Nov. 21 in Afghanistan. His wounds were so severe that he required 11 surgeries to reconstruct his abdomen and he lost his pancreas. Doctors at Walter Reed collaborated with specialists at the University of Miami to perform a pancreas islet cell transplant. Essentially, insulin-producing cells were harvested from Porfirio's damaged pancreas and then successfully injected into his liver. So far, these cells are functioning well in the liver and Porfirio may be spared life-threatening and lifestyle-limiting diabetes, said his doctors. (AFPS report by Kristin Ellis)(122809) 

We regret to inform the membership of two recent deaths from our community:

Terri D. Gonderman, Lt Col (Sel), Ret'd - Link

Norma Janzen (Wife of Colonel Bob Janzen, USAF, Ret'd) - Link

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Keesler Engages Cyber Course: After a year's effort by a training development team, officials at Keesler AFB, Miss., earlier this month began the first block of a new cyber transport course that combines training in three formerly separate specialty fields, according to a Nov. 18 release. "We took elements from computer maintenance, network integrations, and voice network systems courses to create the new cyber transport course," said Ann Owens, cyber transport flight chief with Keesler's 388th Training Squadron. Just this summer, the Air Force announced plans to put cyber warfare training at the Mississippi Gulf Coast base, which already had been working on combining curriculums for airmen who provide long-haul communications support. The first of Keesler's new cyber course comprises only 11 students, but officials expect the student load for Fiscal 2010 to be about 680 students. (Includes Keesler report by Angela Cutrer) (Source: AFA 112309)

Hello, Cyber Warriors: The Air Force's new family of career specialty codes for cyberspace support (3DXXX) that took effect Nov. 1 supplants the three former career fields of communications-electronics (2EXXX), knowledge operations management (3AXXX), and communications-computer systems (3CXXX). About 43,000 active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve personnel from former communications career fields now fall under the 11 new cyberspace support specialty codes as do more than 8.800 civilian-equivalent positions. This conversion process had been underway for more than a year and a half as part of USAF's drive to bolster its cyberforce. Airmen in this field will receive a new occupational badge that will become mandatory wear by next June. (SAF/PA report, including full list of cyber support specialty codes)(AFA 110509)

SECDEF Memo regarding U.S. cyber command: MEMO

Keesler Gains Cyber Training Role: The Air Force has decided to host cyber warfare training at Keesler AFB, Miss., dashing hopes of at least two other Air Education and Training Command bases—Goodfellow and Sheppard in Texas—that felt they were good candidates for the new mission once USAF announced Lackland AFB, Tex., as its preferred location for 24th Air Force, the new cyberspace operations numbered air force. According to a report by the Standard-Times, the Goodfellow community believes the base may still have a cyber role. "We're still optimistic here that we'll get a significant slice of the cyber training mission, whatever that is, when things settle down in probably ... six months or a year," retired Col. Charlie Powell, a member of the Goodfellow Air Force Base Coordinating Group, told the newspaper. And, the Times Record News reports that Sen. Kaye Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) still believes both Goodfellow and Sheppard are candidates for future cyber roles, saying she would be "making that case to the Pentagon as it plans for Fiscal Year 2011 and beyond." Meanwhile, Keesler will be transforming its current communications and information program to incorporate cyber training and plans to finalize the curriculum during a meeting early next month with representatives from the Air Staff, AETC, Air Force Space Command, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. (Keesler report by Susan Griggs) (AFA)-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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