The Defense Department announced that it has identified the remains of 10 airmen missing in action from World War II. DOD officials are returning the airmen’s remains to their families for burial with full military honors. The airmen were the crew of a B-24J Liberator lost over Germany on April 29, 1944. They are: 2nd Lt. Robert R. Bishop of Joliet, Ill.; 2nd Lt. Thomas Digman Jr., Pittsburgh; 2nd Lt. Donald W. Hess, Sioux City, Iowa; 2nd Lt. Arthur W. Luce, Fort Bragg, Calif.; SSgt. Joseph J. Karaso, Philadelphia; SSgt. Ralph L. McDonald, East Point, Ga.; Sgt. John P. Bonnassiolle, Oakland, Calif.; Sgt. James T. Blong, Port Washington, Wis.; Sgt. Michael A. Chiodo, Cleveland; and Sgt. John J. Harringer Jr., South Bend, Ind. They will be buried as a group in a single casket on Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. Hess and Karaso also will be interred individually there. Crash site excavations in 2005 and 2007 led to recovery of human remains, military equipment, and personal belongings that enabled the airmen’s identification, according to DOD.
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.