The Air Force has awarded a Bronze Star medal to TSgt. Lorenzo Zapata for meritorious conduct while deployed to Southwest Asia, where he served as a convoy commander for eight months. Deployed from Ramstein’s 435th Vehicle Readiness Squadron, Zapata typically led 50 personnel, operating more than 40 vehicles for each mission, during which they delivered supplies to forward operating locations in Iraq. (Ramstein report)
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.