The Defense Department has identified the remains of five airmen missing in action since World War II and returned them to their families for burial with full military honors. They are: Capt. Leonard E. Orcutt of Alameda, Calif.; TSgt. Louis H. Miller, Philadelphia; SSgt. George L. Winkler, Huntington, W.Va.; 2nd Lt. Harry L. Bedard, Minneapolis; and 2nd Lt. Robert S. Emerson, Norway, Maine. Orcutt was buried on May 5 in Oakland, Calif. Miller was interred on June 17 in Arlington National Cemetery. Winkler also was laid to rest in Arlington, on May 5. Bedard will be buried on June 25 in Dayton, Minn., while Emerson’s burial is scheduled for July 9 in his hometown. These airmen were the crew of a B-25J bomber that crashed northwest of Consolacion village in the Philippines on April 3, 1945. In 2008, DOD disinterred the group remains of these airmen at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo., in order to individually identify them with the help of mitochondrial DNA. (DOD release)
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.