Battlefield Airman Tests the Future in Binoculars: 
The coordination between battlefield airmen and pilots may get a boost with a new gyro-stabilized, laser-incorporating set of binoculars, called the Stabilized Portable Optical Target Tracking Receiver. The SPOTTR, recently tested during Northern Edge 2006 by TSgt. Nathan Hoffman, a joint terminal attack controller with the 354th Operations Group at Eielson AFB, Alaska, enables a battlefield airman to see where an aircraft’s targeting laser hits the ground. “I can give quick target ‘talk-ons’ to pilots, like ‘move your laser spot 100 meters east,” said Hoffman. In the current, time-consuming process, a JTAC uses terrain features to guide a pilot using a laser-guided bomb to the target.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.
