South Portland cyber unit part of weekend air show
It could be called the new space race: the challenge of keeping up with cyber security and high-tech communications. And one of the hubs for its military application is Unit 265 of the Air National Guard in South Portland.
The squadron will participate in the "Rise to the Challenge" Air National Guard outreach effort at the Great State of Maine Air Show & Business Aviation Expo, starting today at 4 p.m. and running through Sunday at the new Brunswick Executive Airport at Brunswick Landing.
Recruitment is up for the 265th Combat Communications Squadron, said MSgt Ted Brissette, a unit recruiter. A stagnant economy accounts for some of this interest in the unit's high-tech programs, he said, but there's also the fact that cutting-edge technology in the military can translate into lucrative careers in a civilian industry, the squadron notes on its web page (www.101arw.ang.af.mil/units/index.asp).
"The jobs that we do down in South Portland are high tech, satellite communication, fiber optics, meteorological and navigational guidance systems, and we're part of the new Air Force Space Command," a military-focused space and cyberspace "joint warfighting team" based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, Brissette said.
Economic legacies of 9/11 loom large in St. Louis
Each day at Scott Air Force Base, 12,300 people report for duty. On a typical day, they'll control 900 airlift flights carrying people and cargo around the world, 97 airborne refueling missions, seven medical evacuation flights.
They track 35 cargo ships under way and 100 railcar shipments. The base pumps $1.6 billion into the St. Louis economy — and all that might have gone away.
Local officials were on pins and needles in 2005 as the Pentagon went through a periodic round of base closings. But the transport needs generated by two wars placed a premium on the skills at Scott, home of the U.S. Transportation Command.
And the memory of 9/11 weighed in that decision. Following the attack on the Pentagon, top brass worried about having too much of the military's command structure around Washington. The cornfields around Scott looked safer, says Jim Pennekamp, who was director of the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois during the civic campaign to save Scott. The air base and Metro East came out a winner, picking up the headquarters of the Army's transport command and about 1,000 jobs from bases in Virginia. "Scott is bigger and stronger than it's ever been," said Pennekamp.
Aerial refueling takes place between two high-speed aircraft, and a small mistake could lead to a big accident. In the first round of exercise last Friday, the KC-135 and F-15K flew at a speed of about 700 km/h with a refueling boom stuck in the and more »
By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff One of Maine's 101st Air Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotankers (lower left) flies with other military craft it refueled above Manhattan shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During a recent interview with and more »
to be an inflight refuel specialist, also called a boom operator. After survival school and four months of technical training Radtke was stationed at Altus Air Force base in his home state of Oklahoma. He was in the 11 th Air Refueling Squadron.
