According to news reports, an internal Air Force memo declared that the death Oct. 14 of the service’s No. 2 civilian acquisition official, Charles Riechers, “appears to be suicide.” Riechers has been the subject of news articles questioning his Air Force-arranged job with Commonwealth Research Institute, a Pennsylvania-based non-profit group, while he awaited Senate confirmation for his USAF job. The Senate Armed Services Committee had asked for details on the matter because Riechers, according to the Washington Post, which first broke the story, reportedly did no work for CRI; instead, he worked for the Air Force. In a subsequent statement to the Post, an Air Force spokesman said that Riechers had worked “in a scientific and engineering technical assistance capacity to the Air Force and made recommendations that were instrumental in engineering our acquisition transformation and continuing the Air Force’s modernization of our aging fleet.”
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.
