Free Republic

What do B-2 bombers and nuclear submarines have in common? Both cost about the same and both require periodic, and expensive, refurbishment. The U.S. B-2 bomber is the most expensive warplane ever to enter service. The 21 that were built ended up costing over $2 billion each. About half of that was development expense. At the time these aircraft were built (in the 1990s), they cost as much as a major warship. The B-2 has similar needs, including periodic (every seven years), lengthy (13 months) refurbishment (programmed depot maintenance, or PDM). Most of the PDM is devoted to refurbishing structural...

Maybe it's my age. I remember playing Little League ball and getting Cracker Jacks at the concession stand. The prize-inside was a little comic book called Hello 1980! It was filled with all kinds of neat gadgetry and predictions that this boomer-child could only dream of. Kind of like a real-life Jetsons.

Al Felsen, left, who served most of World War II as a prisoner of war, talks on Friday about his experiences with George Timmons and Brig. Gen. Warner Sumpter. Sumpter presented Felsen with a Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal and the Philippines Defense Medal. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)FORT HUACHUCA - For more than three years in the 1940s, Al Felsen suffered under the brutality of Japanese guards in a number of camps after he was captured in the Philippines. Felsen has been trying for years to receive a Purple Heart Medal for the wounds he received while a prisoner of war....