AmmoTroops

Promotion test answer sheets for 99 airmen at Pope Field in North Carolina were lost in the mail and were unable to be used in the most recent staff sergeant testing cycle, the Air Force Personnel Center said Thursday.

“A significant majority” of those 99 affected airmen tested for staff sergeant, AFPC said in response to an Air Force Times inquiry. It is unclear whether those airmen were passed over as a result of the missing tests.

In its statement, AFPC pledged to resolve the situation for affected airmen.

(Reuters) - China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

Michael Fuchs, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Strategy and Multilateral Affairs, said no country was solely responsible for escalating tension in the region. But he reiterated the U.S. view that "provocative and unilateral" behaviour by China had raised questions about its willingness to abide by international law.

The Air Force’s first enlisted retention boards are two weeks away from convening — and they could end the careers of roughly 4,000 airmen.

Nearly 14,600 airmen — senior airmen through senior master sergeants in certain career fields — are likely to be considered by the retention boards that will begin June 16, according to the Air Force’s latest eligibility matrix, dated May 19. About 28 percent of them could be told to separate or retire.

Congress approved funding last week for the Pentagon’s advanced hypersonic missile program and expressed concerns over China’s recent test of an ultra high-speed strike vehicle designed to deliver nuclear warheads through U.S. missile defenses.

The House fiscal year 2015 defense authorization bill approved $70.7 million for the Army’s hypersonic missile as part of the Pentagon’s conventional prompt strike program.

The Senate, in its version of the fiscal year 2015 defense bill, also authorized $70.7 million for hypersonic weapons.

Washington (AFP) - The United States warned China Thursday against sparking tensions in international airspace after Japan accused Beijing of "dangerous maneuvers" above disputed seas.

"We do not accept China's declaration of an ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) over the East China Sea and urge China not to implement it," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

SEOUL — The men tending to a U.S. soldier after he was knocked out in an early-morning street brawl turned down multiple offers to call an ambulance, according to two managers at a hip hop club that he was thrown out of after getting into an argument with other troops.

Spc. Carl A. Lissone died about 10 hours later from a brain hemorrhage, following a train ride to a city some 40 miles away and a short stay in a hotel just outside the Army base where he was stationed.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — The Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks Monday across Afghanistan to mark the start of their spring offensive, storming a government building in the east where attackers killed two police guards and five civilians, and striking a police checkpoint to the south and killing nine policemen.

Also Monday, rockets hit inside the grounds of the Kabul international airport but caused no damage. Rockets also struck the NATO base at Bagram, just north of the Afghan capital, causing minor damage, the alliance said.

This year’s Taliban spring offensive comes at a sensitive time, against the backdrop of a key presidential election. Militants have also stepped up terror attacks to sow insecurity and weaken the government as international forces prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of this year.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Department of Justice doesn't have any plans to investigate allegations that veterans placed on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals died while waiting for care.

"Well, obviously these reports if they're true are unacceptable, and the allegations are being taken very seriously by the administration. But I don't have any announcements at this time with regard to anything that the Justice Department is doing," Holder told reporters at a press conference.

More than 8,600 airmen applied for voluntary separation pay by the time the window closed May 1, the Air Force said Tuesday.

Of those applications, about 5,600 applicants were eligible for VSP, the Air Force said in its weekly release on its force management programs. In all, more than 1,600 officers and more than 7,000 enlisted airmen applied for VSP, up from more than 1,500 officers and 6,900 enlisted the previous week.

So far, more than 380 officers and roughly 2,400 enlisted airmen have been approved for VSP. Those numbers are unchanged from the previous week.

WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) early Thursday unanimously approved a measure that would authorize just over $600 billion in 2015 US defense spending and block plans to retire the A-10 attack plane.

After a marathon markup session, the committee easily approved its version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that includes a $495.8 billion base Pentagon budget level and $79.4 billion more for an overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget.