Nine C-17 airlifters from JB Charleston, S.C., air-dropped pallets and paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in a massive joint-force deployment drill. “The exercise provided more than 500 operational and maintenance training objectives,” said Capt. Rob Cross of Charleston’s 437th Maintenance Squadron in an April 2 release. “The exercise let us practice Total Force integration on a whole new level,” he added. The mass airdrop on March 27, dubbed “Raging Moose,” gave Charleston’s 437th Airlift Wing and Air Force Reserve Command’s associated 315th AW practice with close-formation flight and aerial refueling en-route to an “undisclosed” dropzone.
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.