Military appreciation spotlight: Senior Airman Saajaadeen ‘SJ’ Jeffries
Senior Airman Saajaadeen “SJ” Jeffries, who’s from Cleveland, serves with the 60th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Travis Air Force Base.
Jeffries has been in the Air Force for more than three years. He’s a technician involved with Dash-21, a unit that serves as a custodian for a host of C-5 Galaxy support equipment, including 25-man life rafts, emergency escape slides, crash axes, winches, kneeling collars, landing gear pins, first aid kits, emergency exit lights, portable oxygen bottles and rail mechanisms for palletized cargo.
He’s striving to finish his college education, become a certified ethical computer hacker, work in the Pentagon and start his own cybersecurity consulting firm. Alongside him are his wife, Elazia Skinner, and daughter, Laiyah Jeffries.
Hundreds of airmen opt to leave Air Force amid sky-high retention 3 hours ago Airmen of the 730th Air Mobility Squadron load a C-17 engine onto a C-17 Globemaster III at Yokota Air Base, Japan, May 4. (Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal/Air Force) Hundreds of airmen have decided to leave the Air Force as part of the service’s effort to rebalance a glut of troops who stayed in longer than expected amid the coronavirus pandemic. About six months after it announced record retention rates, at least in part spurred by economic uncertainty, the Air Force said Thursday it will end its voluntary force management initiatives May 27.
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany The first class of Knight’s University graduated on base, Germany, May 10, 2021.
Knight’s University is a professional development course designed to teach Airmen communication and leadership skills.
“It was homegrown and it is the primary initiative to develop our folks internally,” said Chief Master Sgt. Clifford Thebodeau, 86th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron superintendent.
The graduating class, 21-A, began April 4, 2021.
The classes consisted of lessons that were three hours long, once a week, over the span of five weeks.
Leadership designed Knight’s University with Airmen’s busy schedule in mind.
“A lot of these guys are always at the grind and doing the job and it’s hard for them to get away to take part in professional developments during the day,” said Master Sgt. Ashley Haldeman, 86th AMXS specialist section chief. “So the idea was to give them something that’s made for us, by us, to help each other grow
“The work that people do here is extraordinarily important for the Air Force,” Roth said. “It’s central. Our job in our ‘organize, train, and equip’ mission is to be ready whenever the country asks us to be ready. Maintaining our airplanes, keeping our aircraft like the C-5, the C-130 and others in shape so that they can be ready to go is central to what we do.”
Along with visiting organizations around Robins AFB like the WR-ALC, Roth had the opportunity to meet with Middle Georgia community leaders.
“The community leaders are across the board extraordinarily supportive of what we do,” Roth said. “They’re great patriots. These kinds of communities understand who we are, what we are, and what we do for America.
US Air Force
In April, an F-22 Raptor took off for the first time in more than a year after its landing gear collapsed on the flight line.
Virginia Air National Guardsmen oversaw most of the rebuild, which included a new landing gear, flight control surface for the right wing, and a new wing tip.
More than a year after its landing gear collapsed on the flight line at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, an F-22 Raptor took to the skies for the first time last month thanks to Virginia Air National Guard maintainers.
Airmen from the 192nd Maintenance Group were able to get the fifth-generation jet, tail number 85, up and running for its first flight back April 9, according to a news release.