On This Day in History

  1944: Harry Crosby, company pilot, flies the Northrop MX-324, the first US rocket-powered aircraft, for the first time at Harper Dry Lake, CA.

1943: Lt Charles Hall, 99th Fighter Squadron, becomes the first US African-American pilot to shoot down an Axis plane, a German Focke-Wulf 190 over Sicily.

1941: The Air Corps Ferrying Command (ACFC) sends its first air transport flights from Bolling Field to Scotland via Montreal and Newfoundland. Using modified B-24 Liberator bombers with seats in the bomb bay, the “Arnold

1975: The USAF retires its last Douglas C-47B Skytrain (Gooney Bird) to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. Douglas Aircraft delivered the first aircraft in 1941.

1972: MEDAL OF HONOR. For heroic and valorous service this date, Capt Steven L. Bennett, a forward air controller,  receives the Medal of Honor posthumously. Citation: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3230/bennett-steven-l.php

1927: MACKAY TROPHY/DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS. Lts Lester J. Maitland and Al­bert F. Hegenberger fly the first nonstop flight from Oakland to Wheeler Field, Honolulu. They fly 2,407 miles in 25:50  by using the directional beacons

1996: Terrorists bomb Khobar Towers near King Abdul-Aziz AB, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Air Force personnel and injuring 300 others. It is the worst terrorist attack against American military personnel since the 1983 bombing of

1997: Operation PROVIDE COMFORT/NORTHERN WATCH. EF-111A Ravens from the 429th Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS) at Cannon AFB leave Turkey for home after nearly 2,100 days of deployment to support the two operations.

1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. 2Lt David R. Kingsley, 97th Bombardment Group, Fifteenth Air Force, receives a Medal of Honor for putting his own parachute on his wounded tail-gunner (whose chute had been damaged). Kingsley thereby

1982: After passing its Operational Readiness Inspection, Hahn Air Base, Germany’s 50th Tactical Fighter Wing, 313th TFS becomes the first F-16 operationally ready squadron in USAFE.