For those of you who are members of the social networking Web site Facebook, the 446th Airlift Wing at JBLM-McChord Field recently started a fan page. It has posted a few items on there already, and includes a discussion question under the discussion tab. The Reserve wing is encouraging people to become fans and let them know what you think.

This week six 62nd Airlift Wing airmen and one 446th AW reservist will compete at the third annual Aviation Maintenance Technology Society's Aircraft Maintenance Professionals Skills Competition March 16-18 in Las Vegas, Nev.

Read more about the competition and the airmen headed there.

The JBLM-McChord Field Chapel Support Center and the USO is teaming up to host a dinner for deployed families from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday (March 1) at the chapel.

The dinner is open to McChord Field families with a spouse on a deployment or temporary duty assignment. 

The dinner will have a "March Madness" basketball and sports theme.

For more information, call the chapel at (253)982-5556.

The next time you go for a jog in the cool, wet weather of the Puget Sound and complain about the conditions, think first of these two reservists from the 446th Airlift Wing. 

They run nearly every day in the dry, dusty conditions of the desert.

Both are stationed at Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq, and have established a running club on base. The pair is approaching the 700 mile mark and hope to reach it before they return home to JBLM-McChord Field next month.

Read their story here.

This week Air Force officials released details of a plan that would reward bases with a cash prize for earning the top spot within each group based on point values in several categories: percent over goal; donation amount equal to or greater than the previous year's amount; and active duty participation rate. You can read more about the plan here.

I find this plan a weird considering that the representatives that I've talked to each year in the past are hesitant to talk in specifics about monetary goals for how much the base wants to raise. The theme has been 100 percent contact, basically making sure everyone knows about it and how to get involved.

If you read the story on the Air Force's Web site, there are already a few negative comments about the idea. Your thoughts?  

Twenty-three security forces reservists recently returned home from a six-month deployment to Iraq.

Members of the squadron were responsible for perimeter security of the air base in northern Iraq, including detecting and stopping any hostile threats from enemy combatants. 

Read more about their deployment here.

(446th AW PA) — The 446th Mission Support Squadron's Airman and Family Readiness Center will host its third Yellow Ribbon post-deployment workshop at the Red Lion Inn, in Olympia Feb. 20-21. 

The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program is a Congressional-mandated program that provides military people and their families with information, services, referrals and outreach opportunities available to them, to support their life transitions. 

Reservists with the 446th AW who have deployed for 90 days or more in support of current operations and family members who attend, are eligible to have their expenses reimbursed. Guardsmen and reservists who have not been deployed are ineligible for reimbursement, but are welcome as well. Previous workshop participants are encouraged to attend. 

Topics to be covered at the workshop include financial counseling, effective communication tips, the 'Troops to Teachers' initiative, education programs, veteran service organizations, Tricare and other veteran benefits. 

For more information on eligibility, accommodations, and daycare and registration, contact Master Sgt. Steven Thomas, NCO in charge of the center, at (253) 982-5330. 

To find out more about the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program and to find workshops,visit www.jointservicesupport.org.    

Airmen at Joint Base Lewis-McChord were acknowledged this week for earning an Air Mobility Command-level award. Read more about it here. 

Applications to attend Operation Purple Family Retreat are now being accepted. The second retreat for winter 2010 will be at the Teton Science School, Jackson Hole, Wyo., from March 19-23. 

Operation Purple Family Retreats give servicemembers and families opportunities to communicate, work as a team and to reconnect after deployment, as they explore and learn about the environment.  

Read more about it here.  

A panel of five African-American professional pilots — including two Team McChord airmen — will share their experiences from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 6) in the William M. Allen Theater at the Museum of Flight in Seattle (9404 East Marginal Way S.).

The panel discussion, which is part of the museum's Black History Month commemoration, is free with museum admission.

Tuskegee Airman Bill Holloman will serve as moderator and Lt. Col. Rod Lewis, 4th Airlift Squadron commander; and Lt. Col. Kimberly Scott, an Alaska Airlines pilot and 446th Airlift Wing reservist with the 728th Airlift Squadron, will sit on the panel.  

Books about African American pilots and astronauts, as well as other memorabilia, will be available for purchase in the museum's store.