Air Force officials turned up at the Lockheed Martin plant in Marietta, Ga., last week to cast their eyes on the tail section—with the Alaska tail code—of the first F-22 Raptor bound for Pacific Air Forces. This Raptor will join 35 others destined for Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, beginning next year. Elmendorf will establish two active-duty F-22 squadrons and one Air Force Reserve Command associate squadron.
Retired Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, known for introducing the "tap code" by which American POWs in North Vietnam could surreptitiously communicate with one another, died July 6. Harris was brutalized by the North Vietnamese over almost eight years of captivity.