Remembering the first airman to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom, combat controllers and pararescue personnel dedicated a memorial to SSgt. Scott Sather at Lackland AFB, Tex., a part of Joint Base San Antonio. The Air Force shipped the 12,000-pound granite cenotaph that originally stood at Sather Air Base near Baghdad—a base named in his honor—to San Antonio last March ahead of the US military pullout from Iraq late last year. Sather, a combat controller, was killed while engaging the enemy in southern Iraq on April 8, 2003, less than three weeks after the OIF ground war began on March 20, 2003. His “phenomenal leadership and bravery on the battlefield . . . were instrumental in the resounding successes of numerous combat missions performing a significant role in the success of the war and the complete overthrow of the Iraqi regime,” reads the memorial’s inscription. The dedication took place at San Antonio’s Medina Annex on Jan 20. (Lackland 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.