On This Day in History

1960: Capt Harold E. Mitchell pilots a Fairchild C-119 to make the first aerial retrieval of an orbited capsule. Discoverer XIV, which had launched on 18 August, ejects the capsule. For this aerial recovery, the […]

    1978: At McConnell AFB, A1C Tina M. Ponzer (381st SMW) becomes SAC’s first enlisted female to perform Titan II alert duty. (on the left, with Lt Patricia Fornes on the right)

1943: The Air Transport Command  uses a C-87 Liberator (converted B-24) to carry Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt on a tour of the Pacific theater to boost morale, inspect Red Cross installations, and learn how women from

    2002: GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR. The USAF extends the mobilization of over 14,000 Guardsmen and Reservists, mostly security forces, into a second year of this conflict.

1953: The XC-99, the world’s largest plane to date, makes its first transatlantic flight from Kelly AFB to Frankfurt, Germany, with 60,000 pounds of cargo. For size comparison, The XC-99 is shown in flight c.

1972:  The first director of the F-15 Joint Test Force, Lt Col Wendell Shawler becomes the first USAF pilot to fly the F-15.

2003: A C-9A Nightingale (No. 68-10959) assigned to the 375th Airlift Wing at Scott AFB performs the last scheduled C-9 aeromedical evacuation mission.

1983:          Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger directs the USAF to deploy 100 Peacekeeper missiles in Mi­nuteman Silos.

1945: Maj Charles W. Sweeney, flying the “Bockscar” B-29, drops a second atomic bomb, called “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki. Later in his career, Sweeney becomes the commander of the Massa­chusetts ANG. He dies on 16

1945: Flying his “Enola Gay” B-29 from Tinian Island, Col Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. and his crew drop the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. This photo shows the officers on the mission, with Tibbits