At last word, the tanker analysis of alternatives is still under review, but the Air Force went ahead and issued a request for information last Friday from companies that might want to participate in a tanker competition. Leading Air Force critic, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, reacted quickly, sending a letter of complaint to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday. The Air Force has withdrawn the RFI, which Air Force spokesman Col. Chris Geisel called “a bit premature,” according to Reuters news service. Read more in “The Tanker Blame Game” in September’s Air Force Magazine.
About 10 rockets struck Al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, on the morning of March 3, just over a year after an Iranian ballistic missile attack ravaged the installation and left more than a hundred U.S. troops with traumatic brain injuries. An American contractor suffered "a cardiac episode while sheltering" and died.…