The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 1st Lt. Joseph Helton, 24, of Monroe Ga., died Sept. 8 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 6th Security Forces Squadron at MacDill AFB, Fla. The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday the death of an airman from MacDill, but the Pentagon had withheld his name pending notification of family.
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…