SSgt. Kenneth Wilburn, a combat controller apprentice from Union, S.C., who died Jan. 12 after losing consciousness three days earlier during water skills training at Lackland AFB, Tex., suffered a cardiac arrest, which led to irreversible brain injury, according to the findings of Air Combat Command’s investigation into his death. ACC released these findings on Tuesday. Wilburn, assigned to Lackland’s 342nd Training Squadron, lost consciousness Jan. 9 while treading water in a training pool. He did not respond to emergency life-saving efforts on the scene and never regained consciousness at Wilford Hall Medical Center. He was removed from life support three days later. He was 30. (ACC’s release) (Accident investigation board report; caution, large file)
The Pentagon's research labs are ramping up their search for munitions that can be mass-produced—an effort likely to be buoyed by billions of dollars in the department's new fiscal 2027 budget request and tens of billions in the upcoming years. While the topline information shared about the President’s defense budget…