Wild said her son always wanted to go into the military, like his father, who is a command chief in the Air Force Reserve at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

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If all continues to go well, the results will be plugged into the airport's air-traffic control system for real within a few months.

ECONOMIST: Lagrangian coherent structures

The Air Force estimates that if the cuts go into effect, two-thirds of its aircrews will not receive the training hours needed to stay mission-capable.

CNN: Forced budget cuts a disaster for military

When people first immerse themselves in such frigid water, their bodies go into "cold shock, " and they start gasping for air, which puts a strain on the heart.

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Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta foreshadowed the crisis in a letter to Congress last November warning that if the law was implemented as written, then cuts scheduled to go into effect next January could result in the Navy shrinking to its smallest size in a century and the Air Force having the fewest number of planes in its entire history.

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