January 25, 1964
1964: Echo II, a balloon-type passive communications satellite, launches as the first cooperative space experiment between the U. S. and the Soviet Union.
January 22, 1991
1991: DESERT STORM: F-111F Aardvarks initiate “smart bomb” attacks against hardened aircraft shelters at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. The attacks are so successful that Iraqi fighters start flying to Iran to escape destruction.
Januuary 21, 1991
1991: Operation DESERT STORM/AIR FORCE CROSS. Capt Paul T. Johnson in his A-10 Thunderbolt II finds a downed Navy fighter pilot, who had ejected in Iraqi territory. Johnson destroys a threatening Iraqi truck, allowing an
January 20, 2001
2001: Texas Governor and former Texas Air National Guardsman George W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the US. He is the first former Air Guardsman to become President.
January 19, 1976
1976: The 180th Tactical Fighter Group (Ohio) becomes the first Air National Guard unit to participate in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, NV.
January 18, 1981
1981: IRANIAN HOSTAGE RELEASE. Iran releases 52 American hostages held in the American Embassy in Tehran after 444 days.
January 15, 1950
1950: General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold dies of a heart ailment at Sonoma, CA.
January 8, 1973
1973: LAST AERIAL VICTORY. In their F-4D Phantom 65-0796, Capt Paul D. Howman and 1Lt Lawrence W. Kullman shoot down a MiG southwest of Hanoi with a radar-guided AIM-7 missile. This shootdown was the last
January 7, 2005
2005: Colonel Joseph Lanni, the 412th Test Wing Commander at Edwards AFB, delivers an F/A-22 Raptor to Langley AFB, VA. That Raptor, the fifth built, forms the nucleus of the first operational F-22 squadron.
January 6, 1979
1979: The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, accepts Tactical Air Command’s first F-16.