The Air Force has ushered in five former enlisted Tactical Air Control Party airmen—fresh from Officer Training School—to the new Air Liaison Officer career field, designated 13L. “It’s an honor to be the first ones to go through this program,” said 2nd Lt. Dennis Seay, former TACP technical sergeant. Another former TACP, 2nd Lt. Michael Hoffman agreed and said, “We have a lot of motivated enlisted folks who have somewhat put off trying to get a commission because of the fact they were going to have to leave the career field.” The five new ALOs are now attending ALO qualification training at Nellis AFB, Nev., and follow that with fire support coordinator and joint fires observer courses at Ft. Sill, Okla. Not finished yet, they will attend joint air operations command and control training at Hurlburt Field, Fla. (Air University report by SrA. Melissa Copeland) (Also read, Air Guard ALOs Blazed the Way)
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.