The Pentagon named the former civilian technical director for the C-17 acquisition program, Lawrence Fielding, one of eight employees to receive the DOD Distinguished Civilian Service Award for 2006. Fielding, who retired from Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in August spent 35 years in civil service—all of it with ASC.
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.