Both the House and Senate hurriedly passed the 2007 defense authorization bill, approving, as in the just-signed-into-law appropriations measure, the Air Force’s multiyear procurement plan for 60 F-22A Raptors over the next three years. Lawmakers have asked for a new independent analysis of MYP cost and certification by the Secretary of Defense that USAF has met all MYP criteria required by law.
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.