The 451st Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, inactivated during a ceremony at Camp Losano on Dec. 27. During the ceremony, squadron commander Maj. Richard Zeigler and Col. Sean Tyler, 451st Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander, cased the squadron guidon. Zeigler said he was proud of the work the unit, which activated on July 17, 2006, has done over the past 7.5 years, according to a Dec. 27 Kandahar release. 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Michael Fantini and Danish Air Force Col. Henrik Kanstrup, KAF deputy commander, also attended the ceremony.
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.