Air Force Reserve Command officials of the 934th Airlift Wing at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport/Air Reserve Station, Minn., gained an additional five years to use private property for practice air drops when they signed a new lease agreement in mid-November with the landowner, Burdette Stief, a World War II Army veteran. The Reserve wing has leased the land for the past 25 years, while before that a joint use with the Air National Guard dated to the 1960s. Yes, Stief gets paid—now $33,600 per year—but Reserve officials say he could have chosen to develop the property.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.