Happy 65th Birthday USAF!

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Today marks the 65th birthday of the United States Air Force.

Since 1947, the Air Force has served the U.S. as the dominant air power in the world. With thousands of years and miles of service among the airmen and amazing successes such as the SR-71 program and the no-fly zone over Libya in 2011, the service has much to be proud of.

However, a few other recent milestones make this celebration somewhat bittersweet. Nearly as old as the service is the B-52 strategic bomber fleet, which recently celebrated its 60th birthday. While the bomber fleet has successfully deterred nuclear action and flown conventional missions alike for more than half a century, these aircraft represent a greater trend that the Air Force and U.S. military in general have accepted: using increasingly old equipment to perform missions. Congress needs to take steps to ensure that this fleet is modernized and that the Air Force develops a legitimate replacement….