The Defense Department has identified the remains of Air Force Maj. John L. Carroll, a forward air controller who was killed by enemy forces after his O-1G Bird Dog aircraft was hit and forced to land. The Decatur, Ga., airman told search and rescue forces he would stay with his aircraft, but the first rescue failed because of intense enemy fire. On a second pass, rescuers could see that Carroll was dead and could not land to retrieve his body. An investigation of the site in 1993 provided aircraft wreckage. Interviews from 1996 through 2007 of witnesses turned up identification, some personal effects, and directions to a burial site.
Fresh off the first combat deployment of its new EA-37B, the Air Force is nearly doubling the planned number of new electronic attack jets and projecting more than $3 billion in spending on the program in the next five years.