The Defense Department has identified remains of four airmen that died when their B-25 bomber crashed after it was attacked by Japanese fighters on Oct. 24, 1943, on a bombing run out of New Guinea. A Nov. 8 Pentagon news release lists the airmen as 1st Lt. Robert H. Miller of Providence, R.I.; 2nd Lt. Robert L. Hale of Newtonville, Mass.; SSgt. Joseph A. Berube of Fall River, Mass.; and SSgt. Glendon E. Harris of North Monmouth, Maine. Remains discovered in 1946 and 1947 could not be identified at the time and were buried in the Philippines. Excavation of a crash site in 1999-2000 discovered remains and those, along with ones recovered in 2004 from the Philippine cemetery subsequently were identified using DNA and other modern forensic tools.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.