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Sgt. Nathan Dunn became the first C-17 aerial port expeditor to load his 1,000th aircraft. Dunn hit the milestone on Oct. 4 at Incirlik AB, Turkey, where he is on a volunteer deployment serving with the 728th Air Mobility Squadron. His home station is JB Charleston, S.C. “He’s great at what he does,” said MSgt. Mark Lee, 728th AMS superintendent of air freight, of Dunn. Graduating from APEX training in May, 2007, Dunn reached his 500th load in August 2009. He is now an APEX instructor when he’s not deployed. The APEX program began in October 2006 to increase productivity by allowing aircraft to be loaded and unloaded without the supervision of the loadmaster. “As long as we have an APEX person there, we can unload and load an aircraft,” explained Lee. (Incirlik report by SSgt. Kali L. Gradishar)
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.