What happened the night Maj. Jill Metzger disappeared from the department store in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan is still a mystery—and will be for an unknown period of time. “We’re plugging ahead with the investigation as fast as we can,” MSgt. Carolyn Gwathmey, Office of Special Investigations spokeswoman, told Stars and Stripes. According to Gwathmey, there currently is no time frame to end the investigation. Since Metzger’s mysterious Sept.5 disappearance, media speculations about the events of that night have run rampant, but none have been confirmed by the Air Force. Gwathmey called some of them “squirrelly.”
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.