The Air Force has accepted a ceremonial $10 from Merced County in California for some 1,900 acres of the former Castle Air Force Base, reports the Modesto Bee via the Merced Sun-Star. Considering some Merced residents gave the nearly 2,800-acre facility to the Army Air Forces in 1940, it was probably a fair deal. The base closed under BRAC 1995 and has been the subject of cleanup and transfer actions, including giving other parcels of the land to the Bureau of Prisons and Human and Health Services.
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.