The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 1st Lt. Joseph Helton, 24, of Monroe Ga., died Sept. 8 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 6th Security Forces Squadron at MacDill AFB, Fla. The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday the death of an airman from MacDill, but the Pentagon had withheld his name pending notification of family.
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.