The Air Force has decided that Jan. 1, 2007, will be the date when enlisted airmen must make the switch back to wearing US insignia with circle. The service announced earlier this month that it planned to make this change, which officials call a return to enlisted heritage. The Air Force also plans to eliminate the option for senior noncommissioned officers to wear their rank on shoulder boards, beginning Oct. 1, 2006.
Denys Overholser, the Lockheed Martin engineer whose insights on the mathematics of radar cross section led directly to the first operational stealth attack airplane and permanently reshaped combat aircraft design and tactics, died April 28 at the age of 86.