The DOD POW/Missing Personnel Office announced April 28 it identified the remains of eight airmen missing in action from World War II: 2nd Lt. Frank J. Arhar, Lloydell, Pa.; 2nd Lt. Jack S.M. Arnett, Charleston, W.Va.; Flight Officer William B. Simpson, Winston-Salem, N.C.; TSgt. Charles T. Goulding, Marlboro, N.Y.; TSgt. Robert J. Stinson, San Bernardino, Calif.; SSgt. Jimmie Doyle, Lamesa, Tex.; SSgt. Leland D. Price, Oakwood, Ohio; and SSgt. Earl E. Yoh, Scott, Ohio. They were part of an 11-member crew on a B-24J Liberator shot down Sept. 1, 1944, during a mission over the Republic of Palau. Other aircraft crews reported seeing the bomber come apart in the air and crash into the sea. Although they also spotted two parachutes, an aerial search was unsuccessful and further recovery in the Japanese-controlled area was impossible. Excavations in 2005, 2007, and 2008 of an underwater site uncovered the remains.
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.