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NEWS, NEWS, NEWS...
First Female Fighter Squadron Commander
Tucson--Lt. Col. Martha McSally, 38, will assume command of the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base later this summer. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the squadron flies the A/OA-10 "Warthog" tank killer attack aircraft.
McSally made international news in 2002 when she sued Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon over orders that female soldiers and airmen wear traditional Muslim head-to-toe robes called abayas while off base in Saudi Arabia.
The 354th employs twenty-seven aircraft and more than sixty pilots and crew.
Air Show Favorite Ian Groom Dies in Accident--May 1, 2004
Nationally known air show favorite Ian Groom, 58, of North Naples, Florida, was killed while practicing for the McDonald's Air & Sea Show on May 1.
Witnesses say his Russian-built Sukhoi 31 single-seat aerobatic plane crashed around 2:15 p.m. while practicing his signature flat spin about 2,000 feet off the beach in Broward County.
U.S. Coast Guard divers recovered Groom's body. But the cause of the accident is unknown, though many in the aerobatic community expressed doubt that the cause was pilot error. An autopsy and toxicological screen will be performed, but results won't be known for weeks.
Groom, a South Africa native who became a U.S. citizen in 1995, generously donated his time and skill to help train pilots for the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after September 11, 2001, training nearly 100 pilots since then on recovery techniques for out-of-control aircraft.
Owner/operator of Ian Groom Air Shows Inc., based at the Immokalee Regional Airport, he'd been flying for over twenty years.
We'd like to add our sincerest condolences to his family and friends.--Editor
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