On This Day in History

1972:  Operation LINEBACKER II. President Nixon halts the bombing of North Vietnam north of the 20th parallel. Peace talks resume in Paris, France, on 8 January 1973.

1966: The USAF selects Cessna Aircraft Company to produce the O-2 for forward air controller, liaison, and observation functions.

1952: KOREAN WAR. An SA-16 crew of the 3d Air Rescue Squadron picks up a downed pilot in the Yellow Sea north of Cho-do. He was in the water less than three minutes.

1942: Flying his P-38 Lightning against the Japanese in the Pacific, 2Lt Richard I. Bong score his first two aerial victories. He later becomes the top ace in the war (40) and receives the Medal

1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. BG Frederick W. Castle leads some 2,000 heavy bombers against German airfields. On the way an engine fails, and his unescorted B-17 becomes a target to enemy fighters. After his bomber

2006: The 437th Airlift Wing and the 315th Airlift Wing (Air Force Reserve Associate) at Charleston AFB, S. C., fly a 20-ship formation of C-17 Globemaster IIIs, the largest C-17 formation to date ever flown

1907: The Army’s Chief Signal Officer, Brig Gen James Allen, seeks bids for the first heavier-than-air military flying machine. The specifications call for an aircraft that could carry two people, fly at 40 miles per

1944: Gen Henry H. Arnold becomes General of the Army (5 stars), the first airman to hold this rank.

1950: KOREAN WAR/Operation CHRISTMAS KIDLIFT. The 61st Troop Carrier Group airlifts more than 800 endangered South Korean orphans on 12 C-54s from Kimpo to Cheju-do, an island off the South Korean coast.

  1903: Orville Wright makes the first sustained, controlled power airplane flight in the Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk. In the fourth and longest flight of the day, flown by Wilbur, the Wright Flyer