The Air Force announced yesterday the four recipients of the 2008 Lance P. Sijan Air Force Leadership Award. They are: Maj. James Hughes Jr., assigned to Bolling AFB, D.C., senior officer category; Capt. Thomas Eckel, Eglin AFB, Fla., junior officer category; SMSgt. Michael Bobbitt, Yokota AB, Japan, senior enlisted category; and TSgt. Scott Woodring, Robins AFB, Ga., junior enlisted category. The awards will be presented at a later date. The Sijan award is named after the first Air Force Academy graduate to receive the Medal of Honor. It recognizes airmen who demonstrated outstanding leadership while assigned to an organization at the wing level and below. (For more on Sijan heroics, read The Courage of Lance Sijan from the July 2004 issue of Air Force Magazine.)
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.