Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley convened ANG senior leaders from all 50 states to share the plan that will reset the Air Guard for the future. More than 1,000 adjutants general, wing and unit commanders, command chief master sergeants and others attended the conference in Baltimore, according to a Dec. 19 news release. McKinley explained that the combined punch of BRAC 2005, Quadrennial Defense Review, and the Air Force’s own Total Force Initiatives has led ANG to reorganize missions, equipment, and allocation of manpower across the board. He said it had “not been an easy process, [but] … we need to get through it.”
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.