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A baby Heart to heart: Air Force steps up to help Airman’s family
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.— Five days after their baby was born in 2011, they realized something was wrong. When they took her back to the hospital, they found out they were in for a long, rough road ahead.“They quickly rushed us over to the neonatal intensive care unit, and we met with a cardiologist who said that my daughter has hypoplastic
 0 11/30
2017
Family posing for photo Family reunites after four years apart
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan.— Four years — that’s how long he waited.Airman 1st Class Messan Atayi, 22nd Logistics Readiness Squadron Individual Protective Equipment journeyman, moved to the United States from Togolese Republic, Africa, in 2013, leaving behind his pregnant wife. He met his daughter for the first time and was reunited with his
 0 8/30
2017
Capt. Chrystina Jones, left, 350th Air Refueling Squadron pilot, and Maj. Matt Jones, 349th ARS pilot, pose with their son, Dec. 2015, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. They both “refuel the fight” as KC-135 Stratotanker pilots, an aircraft that first took flight for the first time 60 years ago. (Courtesy photo) The couple that flies together
Love and life can take two people on incredible adventures and to feelings of new heights while forging a heritage with one another, especially when the two are pilots.For Maj. Matthew Jones and Capt. Chrystina Jones, love found them as C-130 Hercules pilots and, over the years, gave them a different set of wings as KC-135 Stratotanker pilots and
 0 8/31
2016
Senior Airman Tomorian Montgomery, a KC-135 Stratotanker crew chief with the 6th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, pauses for a photo at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., June 30, 2016. Montgomery’s grandfather, John Gilbert, was also a KC-135 crew chief during Vietnam. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Mariette Adams) Crew chief continues grandfather’s legacy
For more than 50 years, generations of Airmen have put their blood, sweat, and tears in the KC-135 Stratotanker. For Senior Airman Tomorian Montgomery, the legacy and tradition of working on this aircraft is in his blood. In October of 1963, John Gilbert, Montgomery's grandfather, enlisted into the Air Force as a KC-135 crew chief. “We flew a
 0 7/01
2016
Staff Sgt. Austin Phillips, 22nd Maintenance Squadron wheel and tire section chief, right, poses with his grandfather, retired Staff Sgt. Raymond Hopper, in front of a KC-135 Stratotanker, June 25, 2016, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. Phillips is assigned to the KC-135, one of the same airframes his grandfather once worked on nearly 60 years before. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Christopher Thornbury) 60 YEARS IN THE AIR: Generations of KC-135 Maintainers
(Editor's note: This article is part of a series looking back on the history of the KC-135 Stratotanker throughout the decades, leading up to the 60th anniversary of the KC-135's first flight on August 31, 2016.)Families often carry a profession through their generations. For Staff Sgt. Austin Phillips and his family, they have been maintaining the
 0 6/28
2016
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