The Pentagon announced May 4 that A1C Austin H. Gates Benson, 19, of Hellertown, Pa., died May 3 of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident near Khyber, Afghanistan. He had deployed from the 54th Combat Communications Squadron at Robins AFB, Ga. No further information was provided. (Also read Express-Times report)
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.