Family members of a soldier killed in Iraq in October 2005 pulled his name from a pair of boots in a temporary memorial at University of Arizona this afternoon and left in disgust.

The display - "Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War" - is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker social justice organization, to bring attention to war deaths. A larger traveling exhibit of more than 3,000 pairs of boots memorializes all of the U.S. military dead.

The local display features a pair of combat boots for each Arizonan killed in the war and civilian shoes representing the Iraqi dead. The display will be on the UA Mall through Saturday afternoon.

Organizers call the memorials nonpolitical and nonjudgmental, but they are an affront to the men and women who have died over the past five years, said relatives of U.S. Army Spec. Thomas Byrd, 21, a Santa Rita High School graduate killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad.

"You would think if they were honoring the military, they would have a flag here," said Susan Mortensen, Byrd's aunt, anger seething in her voice.

Organizers had sent Byrd's family an invitation assuring them that the traveling display would not be a protest or demonstration. But when Jessica Pettit, a UA student who helped organize the event, referred to soldiers as "death machines," the family turned and left.

[...]

Byrd's grandmother, Sandy Webber, was angry at the lack of flags and the reference to soldiers as death machines. Weber said her pride in her grandson's military service is misunderstood by the organizers of the display, whom she considers war protesters...

As a combat veteran...

I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended.

It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy. I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.

WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- As spectators at the Air Force Memorial dedication events looked skyward to an airborne parade of both modern and historic military aircraft, it probably didn't occur to them that one of the flying crews represented something special.

The B-24 Liberator was but one of perhaps a dozen military aircraft, both active and retired, to fly over the Air Force Memorial here Oct. 14. But the Liberator was the only aircraft overhead to feature a crew made up entirely of active duty enlisted members.

Chief Master Sgt. Fred Lewis of the Tactical Air Control Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. piloted the plane. The chief has been in the Air Force about 28 years and earned his pilot's license as an Airman. Today, the chief spends some of his free time as a pilot with the Collings Foundation of Stowe, Mass., which is involved in preserving historic aircraft and helping members of the general public learn more about aviation history.

Chief Lewis's father was an enlisted radio operator aboard the B-24 when it was still flying with the Air Force. The chief said his father, like many other enlisted fliers, was very young at the time and bore a lot of responsibility in carrying out their flying duties. It was that memory, he said, that inspired him to invite an all-enlisted crew to participate in the Air Force Memorial flyover.

"I thought it would be appropriate to get an all-enlisted crew out here," he said. "I think a lot about all the young kids who flew in these planes. And I hope when we fly this aircraft over the memorial, there are a lot of veterans there, and the spirit of those kids is with them."

Chief Lewis also said he believes the Air Force Memorial represents, in part, the support the United States has for today's Air Force. When he joined the Air Force in the mid-1970's, the United States had just come out of the Vietnam conflict. Many in America, he said, did not support those who chose military service. But the dedication of the Air Force Memorial demonstrates a change in public opinion.

"The Air Force Memorial represents a coming of age," he said. "Those in the Air Force now have the support of the nation, and there are a lot of sacrifices of our predecessors represented here at the memorial."

WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The nation's youngest military service will kick off its 60th anniversary observance this weekend with the official dedication of the Air Force Memorial here.

The memorial, composed of three bold and graceful spires soaring skyward to a height of 270 feet, will be dedicated and given to the nation by the Air Force Memorial Foundation at an official ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 14 on a three-acre promontory next to Arlington National Cemetery and a short walk from the Pentagon.

Officials said the memorial honors the millions of men and women who have served in the Air Force and its predecessor organizations, including the U.S. Signal Corps, the Army Air Corps and the Army Air Forces. It pays tribute to the dedication, sacrifice and contributions of those who pioneered the skies, those who shape the air, space and cyberspace victories of today, and those who will continue to do so in the future, officials said.

The memorial features a paved "Runway to Glory" at the site entrance; a larger-than-life bronze Honor Guard statue; two granite inscription walls located at either end of a central lawn; and a glass contemplation wall that reflects the missing-man formation, the final tribute given to fallen airmen. The memorial's surrounding spaces will be landscaped to create a memorial park and parade ground overlooking the nation's capital.

The dedication ceremony will include an aerial review consisting of aircraft from the 1930s through modern day, from the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator of World War II fame to the B-2 Spirit and C-17 Globemaster III, as well as a five-ship "Heritage Flight" featuring the P-51 Mustang, the F-86 Sabre, the F-4 Phantom, the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds also will perform a flyover and "bomb-burst" maneuver reflecting the design of the memorial's three spires...

Atlantic Ocean (July 28, 2006) – Aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), an F-14D Tomcat assigned to the "Tomcatters" of Fighter Squadron Three One (VF-31), aircraft number 112, completes the final catapult launch of an F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft. The last launch marks the end of an era for Naval Aviation. The F-14 will officially retire in September 2006, after 32 years of service to the fleet. Theodore Roosevelt is completing Joint Task Force Exercises with USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Nathan Laird.

June 27, 2006 — Let us take you on a journey, to the quiet waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Two hundred feet below the surface, 100 miles from any port, Navy divers have examined what they believe is the wreck of the USS Lagarto.

It was one of the Navy's newest submarines, launched in the last year of World War II and sent to the Pacific. The submarine was preparing to attack a Japanese convoy when it was last heard from on May 3, 1945, with 86 sailors onboard.

Now they are on "eternal patrol" — the phrase sailors often use for submariners that bravely went to sea and never returned.

"God only knows, 61 years ago, what actually took place, and why she's actually sitting there on the bottom," said Bryan Zenoni, one of the Navy divers sent to investigate the wreck. "That's what we're here trying to figure out."

Zenoni and his crewmates on the USS Salvor, based in Hawaii, spent a week diving to the Lagarto. It was ostensibly a training mission; the Salvor would be rushed to the scene if a modern-day submarine were trapped underwater. But for the crew of the Salvor, the Lagarto took on larger importance.

"The first thing you do when you get down there," said Zenoni, "is reach down and touch it, because nobody's really been down there in 60 years. So it's kind of an incredible experience."...

An experimental U.S. military project to characterize the performance of two micro-satellite trailblazers operating 22,300 miles above Earth and a prototype maneuvering motor for small spacecraft began with a beautiful blastoff from Cape Canaveral Wednesday evening.

[...]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force and Navy have collaborated to fly this space mission to test technologies that could be incorporated in future military programs. MiTEx will prove whether the technologies -- for satellites and upper stages -- are deemed worthy or simply need more work.

According to information about MiTEx provided to Spaceflight Now by DARPA officials, the major goals of the project include:

--Develop and flight-test a new experimental upper stage

--Investigate and demonstrate advanced space technologies such as lightweight power and propulsion systems, avionics, and spacecraft structures; commercial-off-the-shelf processors; affordable, responsive fabrication/build-to-launch techniques; and single-string components

--Demonstrate a one-year lifetime for small satellites built using these new technologies and techniques

--Demonstrate the ability to insert small satellites into geostationary orbit

--Gain experience in the operations and determine the potential utility of small satellites for future Defense Department missions in a geostationary orbit

The new upper stage burns monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. It is equipped with a 90-pound-force engine as well as a half-dozen five-pound-force engines.

Specific technologies being tested on the stage include:

--Platinum/rhodium bi-propellant attitude control thrusters

--High-performance coated columbium delta-V thruster

--Commercial off-the-shelf manual valve tested to aerospace standards

--Light-weight Inconel-718 composite overwrap pressure vessels

--Lightweight titanium propellant tanks with internal propellant management devices

--Triple junction solar cells

--Lithium-ion batteries

--A low-cost/high-performance star tracker...

A US warship successfully shot down a target missile warhead over the Pacific in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the US military said.

A Japanese destroyer performed surveillance and tracking exercises during the test, marking the first time any US ally has taken part in a US missile defense intercept test, the US Missile Defense Agency said.

The test came amid a confrontation with North Korea over its preparations to launch a long-range missile.

The sea-based system tested off Hawaii is designed to counter only short or medium range missiles, but the cruisers and destroyers that took part are capable of tracking long-range missiles as well.

The mock warhead was launched over the Pacific atop a medium range missile and destroyed in a direct hit six minutes later with an SM-3 missile fired by the Aegis cruiser USS Shiloh, the agency said.

"The missile successfully intercepted the target warhead outside the earths atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai," the agency said in a statement.

"We are continuing to see great success with the very challenging technology of hit-to-kill, a technology that is used for all of our missile defense ground- and sea-based interceptor missiles," Lieutenant General Trey Obering, the agency chief, said in the statement...

Washington, Jun. 21 (UPI) — U.S. federal agents reportedly are conducting a dozen investigations against people who pose as war heroes.

FBI agents say these phony war heroes often buy medals on the Internet and wear them at public events, reports USA Today.

The report says the cases are difficult to prosecute as the posers have to be caught wearing a medal. Besides, a charge of unauthorized wearing of military medals and decorations is only a misdemeanor with a small penalty on conviction.

The FBI has handled 58 such cases in the past six years, with 20 pending. Of the remainder, 60 percent ended in convictions, the report said.

Congress is considering a "Stolen Valor Act" which, when approved, would impose harsher penalties. Currently, anyone caught fraudulently wearing a Medal of Honor faces up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine, the report said.