A C-17 lifted two 25,000-pound Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles from an austere airstrip at Forward Operating Base Farah, in western Afghanistan. “The interesting part of this was landing on the semi-prepared field, which is a dirt runway,” said Maj. Wes Skenfield, 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron pilot deployed from JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., in discussing the May 10 mission. “It all came together really well, and actually the conditions were better than I expected,” he added. The provincial reconstruction team at Farah no longer needed the MRAP all-terrain vehicles, “so we are giving them to another unit,” said Army Capt. Terell Jones, PRT logistics boss at the FOB. “It has been a really long time since a C-17 landed here, but the mission was a success as a result of the coordination between the different services,” added Jones. (Farah report by Navy Lt. Benjamin Addison)
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.