One of the two officers, newly commissioned 2nd Lt. Anthony Florentine, actually received his Bronze Star medal the day before he sprouted gold bars at Officer Training School; it was for actions while he was a staff sergeant. During a six-month deployment to a Signals Intelligence Terminal Guidance Team with the Army’s 4th Brigade in Iraq, Florentine participated in 65 combat missions, helping capture 110 suspects and rescue three hostages. He is now off to pilot training. The second Bronze Star recipient, Maj. Joseph Wurmstein served as an electronic warfare officer with the Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, where he trained soldiers in tactics and techniques and equipment fielding in the use of a Counter Radio-controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare program device. Wurmstein now serves as deputy chief of Air Force Space Command’s space strategy, doctrine, and policy office. (Maxwell AFB, Ala., report by Scott Knuteson; Peterson AFB, Colo., report by SSgt. Daylena Gonzalez)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.