Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin visited USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), where she met crew members and thanked them for their service.

Palin accepted the invitation to visit Stennis, while the ship was transiting in the Gulf of Alaska, participating in exercise Northern Edge 2009.

The governor’s visit began as she landed aboard Stennis in a C-2A Greyhound from the “Providers” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 30.

Later in her tour, Palin visited flight deck control and donned flight deck safety gear in order to observe flight operations from the flight deck.

Palin saw Sailors and Marines in action when she toured the bridge, primary flight control, the hangar bays and a weapons magazine.

Palin spoke with approximately 400 Stennis crew members in Hangar Bay 2 and thanked them for their service.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you,” said Palin. “I love the United States military, and I thank you so much for the choice that you have made to serve something greater than self, to be serving your country and to be bettering our world.”

Approximately 20 Sailors who call Alaska home were in the front row and got the opportunity to speak with the governor and shake her hand.

Stennis, along with Stennis Carrier Strike Group assets, Carrier Airwing (CVW) 9 and USS Antietam (CG 54), are participating in Northern Edge 2009, a joint training exercise, which focuses on detecting and tracking of units at sea, in the air and on land.

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WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended on halting production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet and scrapping a new helicopter for the president as he outlined deep cuts to many of the US military’s biggest weapons programs.

Gates said his $534 billion budget proposal represents a “fundamental overhaul” in defense acquisition and reflects in priorities from fighting controversial wars to the newer threats US forces face from insurgents in places such as Afghanistan.

The department must ensure it has the right programs and money to “fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years to come, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks,” Gates said as he revealed details of his budget for the next fiscal year.

The promised emphasis on budget pairing is a reversal from the Bush years, which included a doubling of the Pentagon’s spending since 2001. spending on the tanks, fighter planes, ships, missiles and other weapons accounted for about a third of all defense-spending last year. But Gates noted more money will be needed in areas such as personnel to the Army and Marines expand the size of their forces.

Production of the F-22 fighter jet, which cost $140 million apiece, would be halted at 187. Plans to build a new helicopter for the president and a helicopter to rescue downed pilots would be canceled. A new communications satellite would be scrapped and the program for a new Air Force transport plane would be ended.

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Two unmanned NASA spacecraft reached the moon’s orbit and started the process of mapping its surface for future missions Tuesday morning.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a satellite whose instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the moon’s surface, entered lunar orbit at 6:27 a.m. ET.

About two hours later, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Spacecraft (LCROSS) swung past the moon on its way into an elongated Earth orbit. The spacecraft sent streaming video back to Earth, shown on a NASA Web site, for an hour as it passed the moon.

The two spacecraft lifted off June 18 atop the same Atlas V rocket. The mission is the first in NASA’s plan to return to the moon, then travel to Mars and beyond, the space agency said.

During the mission, the agency will collect all sorts of data, including day-night temperature maps, NASA said. There is particular emphasis on the polar areas of the moon, where sunlight is more plentiful and where water might exist.

The LCROSS is scheduled to crash land on the moon Oct. 9 to search for the presence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s South Pole.

The data that the LRO collects and sends to Earth also will be used in planning an eventual lunar outpost, the agency said. During its mission, the orbiter also will spend at least a year looking for potential landing sites for astronauts.

A well-known sound, the high-pitched screech of the T-37B Tweet, was missing from the 80th Flying Training Wing’s aircraft parking ramp, one that has been prevalent in the Air Force’s pilot training mission for 50 years

The final student training mission, marking the last time an Air Force pilot will begin their career in the introductory jet.

Second Lt. Trevor Kernes, 89th Flying Training Squadron student pilot, said he was honored to be part of the historical event.

“Anyone of these guys deserves it,” the future Ohio National Guardsman said. “To be chosen out of some of the best in the world is an honor. I’m humbled.”

Lieutenant Kernes, a former forward air traffic controller who served in Afghanistan after 9/11 and was part of the initial push into Iraq in 2003, said the Tweet was fun to fly and a good training platform.

“I’m sorry for the T-6A (Texan II) student pilots because they didn’t get to fly the T-37“, he said.

Since 1959, more than 78,000 Air Force pilots have flown the venerable Tweet. The T-37 began its extraordinary flight into history in 1956 when it became an active aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory becoming operational in 1959.

“There is nothing new of that airplane,” Lt. Col. Doug Antcliff, 19th Air Force said of the aircraft’s technology. “But, I’m sad to see it go because it is a true workhorse.”

The Tweet officially retires from active service July 31. The 80th FTW began training student pilots Aug. 29, 2008, in the Tweet’s replacement the Texan II.

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