DOD has determined the identity of the remains of an airman missing since Jan. 8, 1968, when his RF-4C Phantom disappeared over South Vietnam. He was Maj. Charles L. Bifolchi of Quincy, Mass. A US Army helicopter crew found wreckage the day after Bifolchi and his fellow crewmember went missing, and US forces continued searching for four days, but enemy activity and the steep terrain prevented recovery of the two crewmen. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command personnel and Vietnamese teams conducted two surveys from 1993 to 2000, recovering human remains and aircraft wreckage.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.