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  • Wheatland Union High School football team touches down on Beale AFB

    Diverse experiences with the Air Force influenced Joshua Crawley as a teacher and a coach and, helped him communicate with different groups of students. When asked if there was much similarity between the training, he received in the Air Force and the skills he teaches on the football field, he

  • Exercise READY DRAGON tests Beale’s readiness to deploy, operate

    The 9th Reconnaissance Wing (RW) executed Exercise READY DRAGON on June 3-6 to test the wing's ability to rapidly deploy down range. Approximately 184 Airmen from the 9th RW, the 940th Air Refueling Wing and supporting units participated in the exercise, exploring ACE applications as the wing

  • TU-2S Dragon Lady 1078’s Resurrection: Rebirth of the “Silver Dragon”

    TU-2S Dragon Lady 1078’s silver frame stood out in the sunny blue sky, Feb. 15, as it conducted its first flight in 1,030 days. After almost three years of extensive maintenance in a collaborative effort between the 9th Maintenance Group and Lockheed Martin, aircraft 1078 spread her wings again.

  • AF Year in Photos

    This year's photos feature Airmen from around the globe involved in activities supporting expeditionary operations and defending America. This annual feature showcases the men and women of the Air Force.

  • U-2 Soars High at Weapons School

    The U-2 Dragon Lady performed exceptionally while participating as an asset during the capstone event of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School 23-A cycle, May 16 - June 7 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The Air Force Weapons School, also known as the Weapons Instructor Course (WIC), trains weapons

  • The ISR Mission

    Semper Paratus, Latin for “always ready,” makes up the 9th Reconnaissance Wing’s mantra. The 9th RW at Beale AFB is one of twelve units in the Sixteenth Air Force that falls under Air Combat Command. The mission here is to deliver persistent, integrated reconnaissance to the nation, largely in part

  • IST Program

    Do you have what it takes to fly 70,000 feet? The U-2 Dragon Lady pilot program is a competitive program that takes pilots from different aircraft platforms and even different service branches into consideration. Members from different service branches can qualify through the Interservice Transfer

  • Without POL, Pilots can’t breathe

    When pilots need oxygen for high-altitude flights, Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants Airmen (POL) come with the tools they need. The 9th Logistics Readiness Squadron (LRS) fuels cryogenics technicians know how to make sure they provide an essential necessity to keep the mission going.

  • U-2 pilot assists civilian aircraft in distress call

    A U-2 Dragon Lady pilot assisted a civilian pilot in distress, Feb. 8, 2022, near Lake Berryessa. At approximately 9 a.m., a civilian aircraft suffered engine failure over Lake Berryessa. The civilian pilot received radio assistance from Maj. Heatherman, 99th Reconnaissance Squadron (RS) U-2 pilot.

  • A Woman Making History is Tough as Nails

    When you were 7 years old and your first grade teacher leaned down with a huge smile on their face and asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” What do you remember saying? Some kids said firefighters or teachers, some said doctors or scientists, and some said pilots. Retired U.S. Air

  • U-2 Federal Lab Achieves Flight with Kubernetes

    The U-2 Federal Laboratory successfully leveraged Kubernetes during a local training sortie on a U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, on September 22. This represents the first time Kubernetes has flown on an operational major weapon system in

  • Training the Nation's Future Fleet of U-2 Pilots

    History was made July 31, 2020 when U.S. Air Force retired Lt. Col. Jonathan Huggins, 1st Reconnaissance Squadron U-2 instructor, became the first civilian instructor in the U-2 program to fly solo.Huggins retired on Sep. 26, 2014 and has served as a U-2 pilot instructor for 15 of the 18 years he’s

  • U-2 Dragon Lady supports U.S, NATO objectives

    The U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, Beale Air Force Base, Calif. is currently deployed to RAF Fairford as part of the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron. The aircraft supplements a variety of missions that enhance regional and global security in support of U.S. and

  • U-2 Phase Maintenance

    The U-2 Dragon lady is vital to the mission globally and in order to keep the mission going the plane needs to be maintained, to do that, Airmen from the 9th Maintenance Squadron (MXS) deconstruct the plane during phase maintenance.

  • Keeping Airmen Healthy While the Mission Keeps Going

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 can spread through small droplets released when an infected person coughs or exhales. These droplets land on surfaces around a person and put other people at risk of getting infected. To prevent the spreading of COVID-19, Airmen are

  • No Margin For Error

    When a plane goes down, an ejection seat keeps pilots from going down with it. Ejecting from an ejection seat is not something a pilot wants to do, but it is something they have to do in case of an emergency where everything else in an aircraft fails. It is their last chance at survival, and their

  • 372nd TRS Det. 21: Training future U-2 crew chiefs

    The 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and its expeditionary counterparts’ crew chiefs are responsible for launching every U-2 Dragon Lady sortie across the globe. Before all of this, they must complete U-2 crew chief training at the 372nd Training Squadron Detachment 21.The detachment, which is

  • 9th MXG maintain rare U-2 Black Letter Jet at Beale

    A team of Airmen from the 9th Maintenance Group certified a U-2 Dragon Lady as a rare black-letter jet for flight March 17, 2019 Beale. The name “black-letter” originates when the dedicated crew chief initials the first letter of their last name in the “status today” block on a maintenance

  • More than a phase: 9th MXS maintenance critical to U-2 mission set

    Reconnaissance is the oldest mission set in combat aviation making the U-2 Dragon Lady essential to the mission of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing and the Air Force as a whole.Ensuring the long-term performance of the U-2 falls upon a team of Airmen in the 9th Maintenance Squadron who perform phase

  • Total Force Integration: 9th LRS, 940th reservist fuels Beale

    The 9th Logistics Readiness Squadron petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) flight works to ensure the mission at Beale maintains a steady rate.The 9th LRS POL runs 24-hour operations to ensure the 9th Reconnaissance Wing's inventory of U-2 Dragon Ladies, RQ-4 Global Hawks and T-38 Talons receive fuel

  • CSAF impressed by Team Beale’s initiative, lead on CSAF focus areas

    The Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General David L. Goldfein, recently met with members of Team Beale to receive a first-hand look of the continual progression made to maintain and supply readiness to our air and space superiority Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2017, at Beale Air Force Base,

  • U.S. Air Force pilots: Masters of the sky

    Pilots deployed with the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing come from different walks of life, fly a variety of aircraft, and play different roles within the Air Force’s five core missions supported here. However, they all serve a common purpose.

  • A TIMELESS TASK

    In the dark confines of a deployable van, the lingering smell of noxious gases offends the senses and stains ABUs. Those unpleasant odors radiate freedom from their metal confines because they belong to the only deployable Department of Defense unit providing the production, exploitation and