Herman S. Wolk, a long-time contributor to Air Force Magazine, died May 6 after a battle with lung cancer. Wolk served for nearly 50 years as an Air Force historian, starting his career in 1959 at Strategic Air Command and retiring in 2005 from the Air Force Office of History. In 2004, he received the Air Force Association’s Gill Robb Wilson award for outstanding contribution in arts and letters. Wolk wrote numerous articles and books, the most recent of which was Cataclysm: General Hap Arnold and the Defeat of Japan, published by the University of North Texas Press this year. His most recent article for Air Force Magazine was “Commander and Chief” in the December 2009 issue.
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.