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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 13 OctOber 2018

Tyndall Air Force Base sustains ‘catastrophic’ damage

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, that were evacuated from
Fla. (AP) — Tyndall Air Force Tyndall in advance of the
Base suffered catastrophic hurricane,” Stefanek said.
damage when Hurricane Florida’s two U.S. senators,
Michael tore through the Democrat Bill Nelson and
Florida Panhandle, ripping Republican Marco Rubio,
roofs off airplane hangars, said in a letter Friday to top
tossing vehicles around a Air Force officials they want
parking lot and leaving a detailed assessments of the
fighter jet that had been on money and other support
display flipped over on the needed to repair the base,
ground. restore operations and as-
The home to the nation’s sist base personnel.
325th Fighter Wing “took a “We are committed to its
beating,” Col. Brian Laid- full recovery and we look
law said in a letter posted forward to working with you
Thursday night to the 3,600 to achieve that goal,” the
men and women stationed letter said.
at the base located 12 Meanwhile, Air Force Spe-
miles (19 kilometers) east of cial Tactics Airmen with
Panama City. The Air Force the 23rd Special Tactics
evacuated the base in ad- Squadron have returned
vance of the storm’s arrival to controlling air traffic at
Wednesday afternoon. An airplane hanger at Tyndall Air Force Base is damaged from hurricane Michael in Panama City, Tyndall, according to a
“I will not recall you and Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. news release from the Air
your families until we can Associated Press Force. They received the
guarantee your safety. At one except the “ride-out” base suffered severe dam- as well, but we won’t know first airplane at 7:06 p.m.
this time I can’t tell you how team left the base by Tues- age, with many considered the extent until our crews Thursday. Officials say the
long that will take, but I’m day afternoon. Michael a complete loss. In addi- can safely enter those han- opened runway will help
on it,” Laidlaw wrote. “We was a strong Category 4 tion, the Tyndall marina, gars and make an assess- allow aircraft with sup-
need to restore basic utili- hurricane as it lashed the the drone runway and Tyn- ment.” plies and food to land for
ties, clear our roads of trees base, which is between dall Elementary School sus- The 325th Fighter Wing flies distribution in the Florida
and power lines, and as- Panama City and Mexico tained severe damage. the F-22 stealth fighter, the Panhandle. Evacuees who
sess the structural integrity Beach. A number of aircraft were most expensive fighter jet took base transportation
of our buildings. I know that On Thursday, Air Force of- left in the hangars due to in the Air Force arsenal at to Maxwell Air Force Base
you are eager to return. I ficials conducted the first safety or maintenance rea- about $339 million per air- in Montgomery, Alabama,
ask you to be patient and aerial assessment of the sons and all of the hangars craft. were restricted to one large
try to focus on taking care base and found extensive are damaged, said Ann “The Air Force remains luggage piece per fam-
of your families and each damage. A report posted Stefanek, a spokeswoman capable of executing its ily and one carry on per
other.” on the base website said for the Air Force. “We an- combat mission across the person. They were asked
The evacuations were or- the flight line is devastated ticipate the aircraft parked world with aircraft from oth- to make sure they had 72
dered Monday and every- and every building on the inside may be damaged er bases, as well as those hours’ worth of items.q

Pentagon reveals cyber breach of travel records

By LOLITA C. BALDOR “It’s important to under- curity reasons, the depart-
Associated Press stand that this was a breach ment is not identifying the
WASHINGTON (AP) — The of a single commercial ven- vendor. He said the vendor
Pentagon on Friday said dor that provided service is still under contract, but
there has been a cyber to a very small percentage the department “has taken
breach of Defense Depart- of the total population” of steps to have the vendor
ment travel records that Defense Department per- cease performance under
compromised the person- sonnel, said Buccino. its contracts.”
al information and credit The vendor was not identi- Disclosure of the breach
card data of U.S. military fied and additional details comes on the heels of a
and civilian personnel. about the breach were not federal report released
According to a U.S. official available. Tuesday that concluded
familiar with the matter, “The department is con- that military weapons pro-
the breach could have af- tinuing to assess the risk of grams are vulnerable to
fected as many as 30,000 This March 27, 2008, file photo, shows the Pentagon in harm and will ensure noti- cyberattacks and the Pen-
workers, but that number Washington. fications are made to af- tagon has been slow to
may grow as the investiga- Associated Press fected personnel,” said the protect the systems. And it
tion continues. The breach investigation, said that no Oct. 4. statement, adding that af- mirrors a number of other
could have happened classified information was Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, a fected individuals will be breaches that have hit fed-
some months ago but was compromised. Pentagon spokesman, said informed in the coming eral government agencies
only recently discovered. According to a Pentagon the department is still gath- days and fraud protection in recent years, exposing
The official, who spoke on statement, a department ering information on the services will be provided to health data, personal infor-
condition of anonymity be- cyber team informed lead- size and scope of the hack them. mation, and social security
cause the breach is under ers about the breach on and who did it. Buccino said that due to se- numbers. q