Roger That: 375th Air Mobility Wing commander takes final flight around Scott Air Force Base

Col. Kyle Kremer, 375th Air Mobility Wing commander, took his final flight around Scott Air Force Base on Thursday before he relinquishes command of the wing.

The wing, based at Scott, acts in the role of landlord for the air base, overseeing daily operations and the maintenance of roads, building and other major infrastructure.

Kremer was greeted by Scott personnel, family and friends after his last flight in a C-21A aircraft. Kremer has more than 2,671 flight hours, including 40 combat hours.

Lt. Gen. Carlton Everhart II, the 18th Air Force commander, is scheduled to preside over a change of command ceremony at which Kremer will pass command of the 375th Air Mobility Wing to Col. Laura L. Lenderman.

The ceremony is set to begin at 9 a.m. Aug. 3 at the Scott parade field.

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The Veterans Health Administration has 41,500 job vacancies for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals across its health-care system while it struggles to provide timely medical care for veterans, according to records obtained and analyzed by USA TODAY.

The failure to staff hospitals fully is one reason the Department of Veterans Affairs paid for 1.5 million veterans to see doctors outside the agency in the past year, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson testified late last month. Those private visits have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $7.7 billion, the VA said.

The added expenses have left the VA with a $2.6 billion shortfall this year, prompting VA Secretary Bob McDonald to plead with lawmakers Thursday to quickly pass a bill that would give him flexibility to shift money within the VA budget to cover the gap.

Gibson testified before Congress June 26 that the shortfall would not have been so large “if we were fully staffed up.”

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In what may prove a turning point in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), Turkey has struck a military and security cooperation pact with the US that could greatly enhance the effectiveness of coalition air strikes. But what US officials describe as a game-changing deal also comes with a potentially high price tag: the escalating spillover of the Syria-Iraq conflict into neighboring Middle East countries.

In cutting the deal, Barack Obama chose his moment well. For months, negotiations between Washington and Ankara over the possible use of Turkish military bases in the coalition’s air campaign against Isis had been getting nowhere. Then, last Monday, an ISIS suicide bomber killed 32 people in an attack in the Turkish town of Suruç, near the Syrian border, according to The Guardian newspaper of Great Britain.

As seen on Friday, Turkish air force bombers are now also getting directly involved for the first time, even though Turkey is not a member of the coalition.

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Military.com is reporting that the U.S. Army is working on a new weapon sight that will arm soldiers with wireless technology for engaging enemy targets at night, Army engineers said.

In three years, the Army hopes to start fielding the Family of Weapon Sights-Individual, a new lightweight thermal weapon sight that is designed to communicate wirelessly with the service's latest Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG).

Linking these two technologies creates a new capability called Rapid Target Acquisition, according to Lt. Col. Timothy Fuller, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors at Fort Belvoir, Va.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Roger That: 375th Air Mobility Wing commander takes final flight around Scott Air Force Base."