On a trip to MacDill AFB, Fla., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked at a Town Hall meeting to say when the Air Force would get a replacement for its Eisenhower-era aerial tankers. The “short answer,” he said, is, “I don’t know.” He termed that admission “a confession,” quipping, “Confession is good for the soul.” He went on to tell the Town Hall audience that the Pentagon had been “wrestling with this for four or five years. My personal view is that we’re getting closer … and a recommendation will be made to Congress.”
The Air Force has spent more than two years studying cancer risks to Airmen who work with the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now lawmakers in Congress are placing fresh scrutiny on the issue and have prepared legislation that would direct the service to clean silos and launch facilities.