The Los Angeles Times profiles an effort by servicemembers and an anthropologist to excavate the site of an April 9, 1944, crash of a B-24D Liberator in Mojave, Calif.—a crash that claimed all 10 Army Air Forces crew members. Amateur archeologists uncovered the first remains from the site in 2005. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, wrapped up its investigation last month, sending the commingled remains to their lab for the identification process.
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.