The Pentagon has identified the remains of three Army Air Forces airmen missing in action since 1941. They are: 2nd Lt. Augustus J. Allen, Myrtle Springs, Tex.; SSgt. James D. Cartwright, Los Angeles; and Cpl. Paul R. Stubbs, Haverhill, Mass. The three, who were assigned to the 39th Observation Squadron, flew from France Field in Panama, on June 8, 1941, in an O-47A bound for Rio Hato, Panama, but never arrived. Air and ground search forces found no trace of the airmen or the aircraft. In 1999 a man hunting in mountainous Panama Province spotted wreckage. In August 1999, a DOD team surveyed the area. It would be February 2002 before a team excavated the site. To read more, click here.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…