Retired Air Force Col. John M. Thacker died of kidney disease March 6 at his home in Virginia, reports the Los Angeles Times (Thacker obituary is third in a series of obits.) He was 90. Thacker was one of the few pilots who got into the air during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, receiving a Silver Star for his actions that day. He commanded a fighter group during the Korean War and last served as inspector general of Headquarters Command at Bolling AFB, D.C., before his retirement from the Air Force.
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…