This past week marked the dismantling of the last of America's largest nuclear bombs, a 10,000-pound B53 that was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

But while those Cold War behemoth bombs are now history, the warplanes designed to drop them live on. And on.

The 76 venerable B-52 bombers in America's combat air fleet are being upgraded and will remain in use for another three decades, the Air Force says.

Their extraordinary run began in 1952, when the Stratofortresses took on the strategic role of carrying nuclear weapons for Cold War-era deterrence missions. Since then, they've seen service in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bestowed with the nickname BUFF (Big Ugly Flying Fellow -- or a cruder version thereof), the B-52s aren't much to look at, but their airframes are solid enough to continue flying into the 2040s, the Air Force says.

Being updated now to carry precision "smart" bombs, the B-52s are also getting upgraded electronics, satellite communications and replacements for their 1960s-vintage radar, last updated in the 1980s.

Another legacy of an almost prehistoric era is also to be replaced: Pilots and crew of B-52s, who still rely on talking to pass information with each other and ground personnel, will be equipped with faster, more reliable digital methods of communication.

Backers of the National Guard say it's time for President Barack Obama to make good on his 2008 campaign promise to give the Guard a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ever since Obama's vow, congressional supporters of the Guard have pushed to pass legislation to add a citizen-soldier representative to the military's powerful forum where the top brass of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps set policy, wrangle with budgets and advise the secretary of defense and president.

The reason: Guard personnel now number nearly 470,000, and occupy a front-line role in fighting America's wars, aside from their duties in disaster response and border protection.

A bipartisan brigade of 61 senators has signed on to a measure that would grant the Guard the seat. The House included the same directive in its defense authorization bill in May. While this is the strongest support yet for the JCS expansion, a vote has not yet been scheduled in the Senate on the final defense legislation and the White House hasn't been engaged.

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Herman the Hermit Crab, the Rex and Purrcilla mountain lion family, the Disaster Twins Julia and Robbie, and Marty and his turtle friend Jett are in the crosshairs of a couple of budget-cutting lawmakers.

Republican U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma want the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration to curtail the number of cartoon mascots the agency uses in its child-friendly pitches for disaster preparedness.

Those mascots have starred in an array of comic books, games and online stories aimed at educating children about what to do in floods, hurricanes, tornados, blizzards and other emergencies.

Johnson, as the ranking member of a Senate subcommittee on government management, and Coburn contend that taxpayers will save $2.6 million over a decade if FEMA cuts back to a single mascot.

According to Federaltimes.com, which first reported on the mascot slashing, FEMA says it has devoted "minimal resources" to its ready.gov/kids website since it debuted in 2006, but agrees there is "value in saving and reducing the duplication of effort."

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