Thunderbolt 3/23/2023

Vol. 51, No. 12

Thursday, March 23, 2023

News/Features: page 3 New Air Force One paint

News/Features: page 3 Attack Integrated Deterence

Week in photos: page 4 Images from the week

Army Blackhawk shares MacDill skies Photo by Airman 1st Class Derrick Bole

Community: page 15 Events, Chapel, more...

A U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk assigned to the 159th Aviation Regiment hovers over MacDill Air Force Base Mar. 15.

The UH-60 provides air assault, general support, aeromedical evacuation, command and control, and special operations support to combat, stability and support operations to the Army.

NEWS/FEATURES

AF 2024 budget proposal invests in modernization, transformation Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS)—The Department of the Air Force unveiled a $259.3 billion budget request March 13 designed to continue modernizing the Air Force and Space Force to meet evolving threats while also nourishing current needs that include training, readiness and fostering new technology.

Broken apart, the $259.3 billion proposal that Congress will now consider for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, includes $185.1 billion for the Air Force and $30 billion for the Space Force. If enacted into law as proposed, the department’s overall budget would grow by $9.3 billion beyond last year’s enacted budget.

The increase is necessary, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, to continue modernizing and transforming both services to meet an array of new threats from adversaries and challenges emanating from China as well as those from Russia, North Korea, Iran and other nations.

The budget request includes notable increases for upgrading the ground-based nuclear deterrent known as Sentinel; increasing the number of military space launches to 15 from 10, which underscores the importance of space; and a $5 billion increase in research and development necessary to bring “the force of the future” into reality. The

proposed budget also accounts for inflation and rising fuel costs as well as boosting funds for recruiting and retention.

“We are united in our commitment to modernizing the Air and Space Forces and in achieving the transformation we must have to be competitive with our pacing challenge – China, China, China,” Kendall said, noting that the proposed budget marks a significant step in meeting that goal.

While the budget proposal is unlikely to be adopted without changes from Congress, the document represents the department’s priorities for maintaining the nation’s security and interests. Kendall and other senior leaders acknowledged that the request is the result of difficult trade-offs but also reflects a consensus on how to achieve the department’s mission and the larger operational priorities of the Department of Defense.

In addition to funding for large, overarching efforts to train and equip the force and modernize the way bases are arrayed and managed, the budget proposal includes a multitude of specific line items.

Among them are $4.8 billion in new funding for Kendall’s seven Operational Imperatives. That effort is the blueprint for modernizing and reshaping the Air and Space Forces to accelerate capabilities and position themselves more closely to meet the security threats – and See BUDGET, Page 10

Be sure to visit the official 6th Air Refueling Wing website at www.macdill.af.mil COMMANDER’S ACTION LINE The Action Line provides two-way communication between the 6th Air Refueling Wing commander and the MacDill community. Personnel may submit questions, concerns or comments via email to macdillwingcommander@us.af.mil or Facebook @6thARWCommandTeam

MacDill Thunderbolt Publisher: Joe Deluca Editor: Nick Stubbs The MacDill Thunderbolt is published by the Times Publishing Company, a private firm in no way connected with the U.S. Air Force. This commercial enterprise newspaper is an authorized publication for distribution to members of the U.S. military services on MacDill. Contents of the MacDill Thunderbolt are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by the U.S. government, the Department of Defense,

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the Department of the Air Force or the 6th Air Refueling Wing.

The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force, 6th Air Refueling Wing or the Publishing Company of the products or service advertised.

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MacDill on the web Website: www.macdill.af.mil Facebook: www.facebook.com/ MacDillAirForceBase Instagram: macdill_afb Twitter: @macdill_afb News items for the MacDill Thunderbolt can be submitted to the 6th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs office, 8208 Hangar Loop Dr., suite 14, MacDill AFB, FL 33621. Call the Thunderbolt at 828-2215. Email: 6arw.pa.macdillthunderbolt@ us.af.mil.

Deadline for article submissions is noon, Wednesdays to appear in the next week’s publication. Articles received after deadline may be considered for future use. All submissions are considered for publication based on news value and timeliness.

Every article and photograph is edited for accuracy, clarity, brevity, conformance with the “Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual” and Air Force Instruction 35-101.

NEWS/FEATURES New paint design chose for ‘Next Air Force One’

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (AFNS)—President of the United States Joe Biden has selected the livery design for the “Next Air Force One,” VC-25B, a design that will closely resemble the livery of the current Air Force One, VC-25A, while also modernizing for the 21st century.

While accounting for the VC-25B’s larger 747-8i aircraft, the VC-25B livery has three primary differences with the VC-25A’s livery. The light blue on VC-25B is a slightly deeper, more modern tone than VC-25A’s robin’s egg blue. Additionally, the VC-25B engines will use the darker blue from the cockpit area vice the VC-25A’s robin’s egg blue. Finally, there is no polished metal section on the VC-25B because m o d e r n commercial aircraft skin alloys don’t allow for it.

A formal contractual decision for a VC-25B livery was not required until this year for Boeing to conduct engineering, certification preparation, and supplier selection activities for the program. The Air Force previously displayed a red, white, and blue livery for the VC-25B because it had been publicly expressed as a preferred livery in 2019. A thermal study later concluded the dark blue in the design would require additional Federal Aviation Administration qualification testing for several commercial components due to the added heat in certain environments.

See PAINT, Page 13

Courtesy rendering

President of the United States Joe Biden selected the livery design for the “Next Air Force One,” VC-25B, a design that will closely resemble the livery of the current Air Force One, VC-25A, while also modernizing for the 21st century.

AMC, AFMC commanders talk logistics on the attack, integrated deterrence at warfare symposium

by Maj. Beau Downey Air Mobility Command

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill.—“Vast distances and few areas to use as supply nodes … all potentially during a period of competition.”

That is how Royal Air Force Air Commodore Jez Attridge described the task at hand in the Pacific as moderator of a mobility panel discussion at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, Tuesday.

The panel, titled “Logistics on the Attack,” was a conversation about the buildup and sustainment of materiel necessary to “set the theater,” featuring Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of Air Mobility Command, and Gen. Duke Richardson, commander of Air Force Materiel Command -- the two leaders with the most skin in the game for the successful delivery of logistics effects.

Richardson began by highlighting his charge to address integration See SYMPOSIUM, Page 11

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal

Staff Sgt. Michael Freitas, right, 730th Air Mobility Squadron air freight shift supervisor, and Staff Sgt. Adrian Diaz, left, 730th AMS aerospace propulsion craftsman, weigh a C-17 engine prior to loading it onto a C-17 Globemaster III, May 4, 2021, at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

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WEEK IN PHOTOS

Photo by Senior Airman Joshua Hastings

An A-10C Thunderbolt II assigned to the 122nd Fighter Wing, Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base, Indiana, is shown on the flight line at MacDill Air Force Base March 15. The A-10C is a twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against light maritime attack aircraft and all ground targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

Photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Foster

Photo by Senior Airman Lauren Cobin

An ice sculpture is shown during the Chief Induction Ceremony in Tampa, Florida, March 11. The ceremony recognized 11 senior enlisted leaders from MacDill Air Force Base for their outstanding accomplishments. These inductees will serve in the highest enlisted rank and hold strategic leadership positions with tremendous influence at all levels of the Air Force.

Cohen Allen, a Jefferson High School freshman, lays in the boom-pod of a KC-135 Stratotanker during a tour at MacDill Air Force Base March 14. Students in the Kingsman Academy met pilots, boom operators and maintainers with the 6th Air Refueling Wing to learn about careers in the aviation field. Kingsman is a Jefferson leadership program focused on providing educational opportunities to African American youth.

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NEWS/FEATURES

Air Force announces Future Operating Concept Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

AURORA, Colo. (AFNS)—The Air Force chief of staff announced March 7 a key component in how Airmen will Accelerate Change or Lose by successfully delivering airpower to deter and, if necessary, prevail.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. announced at the 2023 Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, he signed the Air Force Future Operating Concept to ensure long-range planning is intentionally linked to the Joint Warfighting Concept.

The new presentation of Airmen’s unique contributions to the Joint Force, allies and partners prioritizes conducting the service’s five core functions: Air Superiority; Global Strike; Rapid Global Mobility; Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance; and Command and Control.

“Without the integrated capabilities of the United States Air Force, Joint Force opportunities are infrequent, fleeting and costly,” Brown said.

“Future conflicts will be contested and complex.”

The new operating concept supports the National Defense Strategy through the convergence of the Air Force Force Generation deployment See CONCEPT, Page 7

Photo by Eric Dietrich

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. delivers a keynote speech “Airmen in the Fight” during the Air and Space Forces Association 2023 Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., March 7. Brown announced he signed the Air Force Future Operating Concept to ensure long-range planning is intentionally linked to the Joint Warfighting Concept.

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NEWS/FEATURES

AMC removes code used to identify female flyers

by Tech. Sgt. Zachary Boyer Air Mobility Command SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill.—In the summer of 2021, Lt. Col. Nicole Stenstad, 16th Airlift Squadron commander, while researching unconscious gender bias, came up with the idea to try and remove the “G-code” from Air Mobility Command flight authorizations.

AFI 11-401, Aviation Management, instructs the use of AF Form 4327A, including a “Mandatory Remarks” section that uses letter codes to denote the qualifications, duties, and mission status of each flight crew member.

The AMC supplement to the AFI mandated the letter “G” for female crew members—a legacy marker once intended to secure appropriate lodging and readiness items for crew members.

In November 2022, informed by squadronlevel input, AMC removed the “G” code from flight authorizations. Chief Master Sgt. Patrick Gray, AMC Aviation Resource Management functional manager, sent out field guidance to all AMC squadron aviation resource management offices that said, “Unlike the other codes listed, the “G” designation has no bearing on the individual’s experience, qualification, or currency in the aircraft. Identifying the gender of crew members is unnecessary to the completion of duties.”

Gray’s email would go on to say, “Effective immediately, SARM offices will no longer iden-

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Courtesy photo

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Nicole Stenstad, 16th Airlift Squadron commander, poses for a photo. tify female crew members on flight authorizations.”

The removal of the designation was not an overnight accomplishment, rather the product of the work of many Airmen from the lowest level.

Stenstad first reached out to Majors Kelsey Payton and Jennifer Walters, as well as other members of REACH ATHENA, the AMC wom-

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en’s initiative team. Although supportive of the idea, Payton advised Stenstad to collect more research and anecdotes about the code’s potential negative effects.

“I was a bit disappointed,” Stenstad said.

“I personally felt that the need for the change was pretty apparent. But I understood where [they] were coming from.”

In November 2021, during a 437th Airlift See WOMEN, Page 12

CONCEPT From Page 5

model, the Department of the Air Force’s Operational Imperatives, the Air Force Chief of Staff’s Action Orders, Accelerate Change or Lose and ways in which Multi-Capable Airmen will be trained to operate in future contested environments practicing Agile Combat Employment.

The Air Force Future Operating Concept presents six operational fights that Airmen must win simultaneously and can do so by being empowered to make decisions under a doctrine and culture of mission command.

“Trained appropriately, Airmen do not have to wait for orders from higher headquarters to make bold decisions and take advantage of fleeting opportunities,” said Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, Air Force Futures director.

Airmen must be able to prevail in these six key fights as they apply airpower in the defense of allies, partners and national interests: the

fight to compete with or deter, the fight to get into theater, the fight to get airborne, the fight for air superiority, the fight to deny adversary objectives, and the fight to sustain ourselves, our allies and partners in competition and conflict.

During his symposium keynote, Brown reinforced the Air Force Future Operating Concept will only be successful if Airmen across the force are trusted and empowered to execute what the nation has asked them to do.

“We will not be able to execute the Air Force Future Operating Concept without mission command. It takes practice and intentional development,” Brown said to an audience of Air Force leaders. “You must brief mission command, you must train mission command, you must exercise mission command and you must debrief mission command. Mission command is essential to winning … In order to execute at a high standard, we can’t play for second place; we need to play to win.”

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Fairchild tests KC-135 basic aircrew endurance Completes phase two prep for Mobility Guardian 2023 by 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs ROSWELL, N.M.—The 92nd Air Refueling Wing deployed personnel and KC-135 Stratotankers with crews from the 6th ARW MacDill Air Force Base to execute a Phase 2 Lead Wing exercise Feb. 13-17, in Roswell, New Mexico, in preparation to be lead tanker wing at Air Mobility Command’s capstone exercise, Mobility Guardian 2023.

The Phase 2 prep exercise emphasized aircrew endurance, dynamic air refueling concepts, testing of a variety of the KC-135 mission sets, and included an advanced 72-hour endurance event.

“We have to practice like we’ll fight,” said Col. Chesley Dycus, 92nd ARW commander. “This exercise pushed the limits on the tools we have at our disposal to accomplish complex missions, ensuring our ability to rapidly project global mobility, and endure throughout geographically dispersed areas with limited communications.”

Fairchild tested basic crews’ ability to complete a 24-hour flight duty period. Without a waiver, basic crews, comprised of two pilots and one in-flight refueling specialist, are only allowed to operate on a 16-hour flight duty period and are limited to 12-hour flight-duty periods when they are unable to use auto-pilot.

The KC-135 crew endurance testing was conducted with a basic crew flying for a 24-hour duty period. The crew consisted of experienced instructor pilots, who had issued and previously tested ground-tested go-pills. They were authorized to use any and all anti-fatigue measures to complete the 24-hour duty period without auto-pilot. At advanced stages of the crew endurance test, a safety and flight medicine observer were each on board to evaluate fatigue levels and ensure the safety of the crew.

“Every day, we are learning new lessons that we want to apply in combat, so this missiongeneration exercise is a chance to test our capabilities at a tempo and scale that approximates combat operations,” said Gen. Mike Minihan, Air Mobility Command commander.

For the remainder of the 72-hour mission, crews conducted 16-hour flight duty periods to test key Agile Combat Employment concepts for the KC-135 such as: hot pit refueling, concurrent servicing, mission type orders, and contingency based authorities.

“Air Mobility Command is the joint force maneuver,” Minihan said at the Air Force Association’s Air and Space & Cyber Symposium, Sept. 21, 2022. “We are the meaningful maneuver.

There is too much water and too much distance for anyone else to do it relevantly, at pace, at speed, at scale. Everyone’s role is critical, but AMC is the maneuver for the joint force. If we don’t have our act together, nobody wins. Nobody is in position. Nobody is lethal.”

Three aircraft from the 92nd ARW as well as crews from the 6th ARW MacDill AFB, Florida and the 22nd ARW, McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, participated in the three-day exercise, and was supported by total force elements from Key Field (Meridian) Air National Guard Base, Mississippi and Cannon AFB, New Mexico.

As the world’s Super Tanker Wing, Fairchild continues to refine tactics, techniques and procedures oriented on the Mobility Air Force’s full range of mobility readiness capabilities needed for today’s steady state operations and tomorrow’s high-end fight.

“The crews from Fairchild and our partners have my utmost respect and admiration,” said Col. Chesley Dycus, 92nd ARW commander. “We’re changing the paradigm here- the lessons learned during this exercise, and our readiness will only improve the wing’s ability to support Mobility Guardian in 2023 and demonstrate our unrivaled capabilities in complex environments.”

This exercise is an example of how the 92nd ARW is engaged, postured, and ready with credible force to assure, deter, and defend in an increasingly complex security environment.

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A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker prepares for Feb. 17. The 92nd Air Refueling Wing deployed pers cise in preparation to be lead tanker wing at Air Mo

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 92nd Airc hot-pit refueling on a KC-135 Stratotanker during Force Base Feb. 15. This exercise is an example o engaged, postured, and ready with credible force t

Photo by Airman 1st Class Haiden Morris

Photo by Airman 1st Class Haiden Morris

r take-off after an aircrew endurance mission at Roswell, New Mexico, sonnel and KC-135 Stratotankers, to execute a Phase 2 Lead Wing exerobility Command’s capstone exercise, Mobility Guardian 2023.

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refuels a HC-130J during an endurance exercise at Roswell, New Mexico, Feb. 17.

Photo by Airman 1st Class Haiden Morris

Photo by Staff Sgt. Lawrence Sena

craft Maintenance Squadron perform an endurance exercise at MacDill Air of how the 92nd Air Refueling Wing is to assure, deter, and defend.

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Sage Ledet, 384th Air Refueling Squadron inflight refueling specialist, prepares to perform aerial refueling during Fairchild’s Phase Two preparation exercise for Air Mobility Command’s capstone exercise, Mobility Guardian 2023, Feb. 14. Phase 2 emphasized aircrew endurance, dynamic air refueling concepts, testing of the KC-135 mission sets, and included an advanced 72-hour endurance event.

BUDGET From Page 2

adversaries – of today and in the future.

Underneath that effort is funding that modernizes the Air Force’s fighter fleet, adding 72 fighters (F-35 Lightning II and F-15EX Eagle II), another that provides early-stage funding for the next generation of aerial refueling tankers, and funds for updating crucial command and control functions, among others.

The budget proposal also: • Invests in further development of the new and next-in-line fighter aircraft known as “Next Generation Air Dominance” and its powerplant known as Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion; • Pays attention to fiscal discipline by divesting platforms (310 aircraft) that “do not address our most concerning national security challenges;” • If approved as written, the budget proposal supplies a $1 billion increase to purchase 48 top-of-the-line F-35 fighters, an increase of five over the previous fiscal year; • It carries $3 billion to support ongoing development and production of the B-21 Raider long-range bomber, which is scheduled to achieve its first flight this year; The B-21 will become the backbone of the Air Force’s long-range strike force; • The proposal would deliver $2.6 billion to the Space Force for 15 launches in the fiscal year which is an increase of five launches; • It designated $4.4 billion to continue developing and testing the Sentinel ground-based nuclear deterrent, as well as $500 million for procurement. It also includes $1.1 billion for upgraded and resilient missile warning and tracking.

Echoing comments he made March 7 in a major address, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., said the budget proposal is highly focused on delivering not only a more modern Air Force, but one that

has the right combination of hardware, people and “capabilities.”

“We must make sure we have the right mix of capabilities and capacity as an Air Force and as a joint team to be successful,” Brown said.

U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman made a similar point.

“We must field combat-ready forces, so the Space Force has the personnel, expertise, weapon systems and equipment required to protect U.S. interests in space,” he said, adding that the proposed budget balances those requirements for the nation’s newest military service.

In the documentation accompanying the release of the budget, the department said that the proposal “further accelerates the transformation of our Air Force and Space Force and prioritizes investments that will deliver meaningful operational capabilities to our warfighters. This request balances maintaining capabilities to address nearterm threats, while accelerating vital modernization efforts necessary for success in a high-end fight.”

The budget includes as well smaller, but still significant, increases for pilot training and for bonuses to increase the chances that personnel performing critical and highly sought functions will remain in the service.

Taken as a whole, Kendall, Brown, Saltzman as well as other leaders, say the budget proposal represents a significant moment in the services’ “essential transformation.” It also advances the Operational Imperatives driving the efforts.

Finally, senior leaders collectively warned that delay is dangerous and that “standing still is falling behind.” That is why each has beseeched Congress to complete the appropriations process on time to ensure that “the Air Force and Space Force remain dominant.

Be sure to visit the official 6th Air Refueling Wing website at www.macdill.af.mil

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SYMPOSIUM From Page 3

across the logistics enterprise.

“Both the level of the threat we are facing and the idea of how we are going to answer it through a distributed laydown of forces really drives the need for integration,” he said.

Attridge punctuated this need, evoking the dramatic struggles of Russia’s military to deliver even with what he described as plenty of roads and relatively short distances. “[Putin] has shown us really well what it looks like when it goes wrong -- when the build-up and delivery doesn’t account for ‘Plan A’ or ‘Plan B.’” The challenge before the two major commands is how to prepare to operate in an environment exponentially more complex, across huge swathes of water and against the tyranny of vast distances. Integration, Minihan said, buys down risks across capability gaps and addresses the requirement to operate at speeds that outpace a potential adversary -what he called the “tempo required to win.”

“You cannot have integrated operations if you do not have integrated planning in advance,” Minihan said, describing the close relationship between AMC and AFMC. What this looks like at the command level is intimate coordination and cross-talk in the form of staff-to-staff meetings, table-top exercises and other planning activities.

Building on Richardson’s explanation of AFMC’s data-driven approach to ensuring the appropriate materiel needed for the future, Minihan noted several major components that underpin success in the

Pacific: the Global Air Mobility Support System -- which is critical to the positioning of war reserve materiel -- and continued collaboration with allies and partners in the region. The projection of military power into a theater, he said, boils down to pallet-making and unit type codes (specialized kits of specific, itemized equipment).

The two commands have worked together in preparation for Mobility Guardian 2023, AMC’s largest exercise set to take place in the Pacific this summer, which will show in sharp definition the critical role of the mobility air forces in rapidly positioning and maneuvering the rest of the joint force. That exercise will realize many of the efforts between the two commands over the last year.

“When you are the joint force maneuver, when everybody is counting on you to be successful, when every capability the joint force enjoys needs to be in position to aggregate to be lethal, to disaggregate to survive, and then re-aggregate to be lethal again,” Minihan said. “That is exactly where this command’s focus is.”

Attridge summed up the strategic deterrence value of the conversation.

“It’s fair to say if the focus is ‘China, China, China,’ then in order to deliver credible conventional deterrence, you should be going to sleep at night thinking about ‘logistics, logistics, logistics.’”

Minihan completed the metaphor, describing how readiness is deterrence, such that “our adversaries wake up, open up the window, look at us and say, ‘I don’t want any piece of that.’” Adding, “but if they should decide to take us on, that we can win decisively for this nation.”

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WOMEN From Page 6

Wing women’s mentoring group at Joint Base Charleston, members discussed various topics, to include the “Gcode.” From there, progress began.

With buy-in from squadron leadership across the 437th Operations Group, they discussed how to make the change and break through the bureaucracy. The change began with a waiver, requesting to remove the code instead of changing the entire AFI. In January 2022, AMC approved the waiver specifically for the 437th AW, whose aircrew then flew hundreds of missions without it.” The wing reported zero negative impacts to the mission.

Thanks to the efforts of Airmen across the 437th AW, and now with Gray’s email to SARM offices across AMC bases, the code has been removed from all flight authorizations AMC-wide.

“I’ve had female flyers express that they will miss their “G-code,” Stenstad said, “But they know that this is a win for eliminating unconscious bias.”

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PAINT

From Page 3

The VC-25B Program will deliver a new fleet of aircraft to enable POTUS to execute the duties of Head of State, Chief Executive, and Commander in Chief. The aircraft will be uniquely modified to provide the POTUS, staff, and guests with safe and reliable air transportation with the equivalent level of communications capability and security available in the White House.

The VC-25B aircraft will replace the current VC-25A fleet, which faces capability gaps, rising maintenance costs, and parts obsolescence. Modifications to the aircraft will include electrical power upgrades, a mission communication system, a medical facility, an executive interior, a self-defense system, and autonomous ground operations capabilities.

VC-25B deliveries are projected for 2027 Courtesy rendering for the first aircraft and 2028 for the second aircraft. The Air Force remains pos- This rendering shows the new livery design for the next Air Force One. The design was approved by tured to keep VC-25A available and mis- President of the United States Joe Biden. It closely resembles the livery of the current Air Force One, sion-ready until delivery of the VC-25B. while also modernizing for the 21st century.

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6th ARW Chaplain Corps Holy Week schedule Catholic Calendar Fridays during Lent - Stations of the Cross at 5 p.m. followed by meatless potluck Monday – Wednesday Daily Mass at 12:10 p.m.

Weekdays of March 27-30 Confessions by appointment call 813-828-8565 or 813-828-3621 Holy Week and Lent/Easter Schedule n April 3 - 12:10 p.m. Daily Mass n April 4 - No Daily Mass. Chrism Mass at St. Pete Cathedral n April 5 - 12:10 p.m. Daily Mass and Penance Service from 5:30-7 p.m. n April 6 - 7 p.m. Mass of the Last Supper followed

by Eucharistic Adoration until 9:30 p.m. n April 7 - 2:15 p.m. Stations of the Cross followed by 3 p.m. Good Friday Service n April 8 - 8 p.m. Easter Vigil Celebration n April 9 - 9:30 a.m. Easter Sunday Mass. Easter Egg Hunt after Mass

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COMMUNITY

EVENTS

Co-ed youth basketball season Register your 5 – 15-year-olds for co-ed basketball at the MacDill Youth Center March 1 – 31. Cost is $50 for members and $60 for nonmembers. Tentative season runs April through May. Call the Youth Center 828-7958 to register or visit, macdillfss.com/youth/#youthsports.

2023 Air Force Art Contest Do you have artistic skills? Register and enter your 2D and 3D artwork for the 2023 Air Force Art Contest from March 1 – April 30. The contest is open to eligible adults and children ages 6-17. For more information about eligibility, submissions, prizes, judging and categories, visit macdillfss.com/wpcontent/uploads/2023AirForceArtC ontestOfficialRulesandEligibility. pdf.

MacDill car wash opening soon The MacDill Air Force Base car wash is opening soon. Stop by 24 hours/7 days a week. Upgrades include an automatic car wash and self-service/manual washing bays.

Monthly unlimited basic wash is $25.99, basic wash $10, intermediate wash $15, and premium wash $20. Visit macdillfss.com/arts-andtrade-crafts/ for more information.

Become a Secret Shopper Get paid to call or visit 6th Force Support Squadron facilities. To learn more, call or email the 6th FSS Marketing Department at 828-2513 or sixfssfsk@gmail.com.

Find more events at: macdillfss.com

The Champ!

Photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Foster

Jill Warye, 6th Contracting Squadron lead trainer, poses for a photo with U.S. Air Force Col. Corey Damon, 6th Air Refueling Wing vice commander, left, and U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Catrell Wilson, 6th Operations Group senior enlisted leader, during the Champion of the Week recognition at MacDill Air Force Base March 14. Warye was recognized for actively working with the U.S. Space Force to assist with their contracting needs before a memorandum of agreement was established. Warye was also the lead in executing bowling alley renovations, heightening morale for the entire installation.

CHAPEL SCHEDULE Normal Hours- Monday - Friday - 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. After hours chaplain, call the Command Post at 828-4362/4361.

Protestant virtual services - Sunday - 11 a.m. (www.facebook.com/6amwhc)

Jewish - Monthly Lunch and Learn: For schedule & to join Monday-Wednesday Mass - 12:10 p.m.

distro, please contact elimelach.estrin@us.af.mil

www.macdill.af.mil/chapel

Islamic Service - Friday 1:30 p.m. (space reserved)

Catholic Mass - Sunday - 9:30 a.m.

Other Faith Groups - Please contact the Chapel at (813)

(confessions by appointment)

828-3621 or via email at 6ARW.HCADMIN@us.af.mil

Holly Week Schedule - see page 14 For more details and information, visit the Chapel Facebook page at http://www.facebook/6amwhc/ or MacDill’s Chapel website is: https://www.macdill.af.mil/chapel MACDILL THUNDERBOLT ◆ Thursday, March 23, 2023 ◆ WWW.MACDILLTHUNDERBOLT.COM ◆ 15

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WWW.MACDILLTHUNDERBOLT.COM ◆ Thursday, March 23, 2023 ◆ MACDILL THUNDERBOLT