Honoring the Alaska-Siberia Ferry Crews:
During World War II, there were American and Russian aircrews that ferried some 8,000 US aircraft from Montana to Russia by way of Alaska and Siberia. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, along with assorted other officials, on Aug. 27 helped dedicate a memorial to these intrepid fliers in Fairbanks, Alaska. Severe weather caused the crash of 133 aircraft in North America—flying from Montana across Canada to Fairbanks—and another 44 in Siberia. The US Army Air Forces 7th Ferrying Squadron flew the US leg, turning the aircraft over to their Russian counterparts at Army Ladd Airfield, now known as Ft. Wainwright.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
