Briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

AIR FORCE

154th Wing on magazine cover

It's not the cover of the Rolling Stone, but for the Hawai'i Air National Guard, it's maybe better.

Air Force Magazine featured a Hawai'i Air Guard F-15 fighter in flight on the cover of its October edition and eight pages of pictures inside.

Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony said in the 12 years he has been in the Air Guard, it's the first time he knows of the 154th Wing making it on the cover of the military magazine.

The 154th flies the widest range of aircraft of any unit in the Air Force. The wing includes 15 F-15A/B fighters and three spares; eight KC-135R Stratotankers and one spare; and four C-130 Hercules transports, with one spare.

An Air Guard wing typically consists of just fighters, or just refueling tankers. A couple of units have strike Eagles and tankers.

"(But), there's no other unit in the Air Force that flies F-15s, KC-135s and C-130s under one wing. Nobody else does, so Air Force Magazine thought that was kind of unique, and it is," Anthony said.

NAVY

USS Russell on deployment

The guided missile destroyer USS Russell left Pearl Harbor Thursday for a scheduled six-month deployment. The destination of the ship, armed with tomahawk cruise missiles, was not revealed.

Pacific Fleet aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its battle group launched some of the first sorties against the Taliban in Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea. The carrier is based in Bremerton, Wash.

The aircraft carrier USS Essex, another Pacific Fleet ship, also is deployed in the Arabian Sea.

ARMY

Tripler offers to X-ray candy

Tripler Army Medical Center Department of Radiology will X-ray Halloween candy 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and 8 to 10 a.m. Thursday.

No appointment is necessary. Parents and their children can just walk in to the Department of Radiology between the designated hours. Call the Tripler Radiology Department at 433-5313.