On This Day in History

  1950: Korean War. 1Lt Bryce Poe II, in an RF-80A, flies the USAF’s first jet combat reconnaissance mission, photographing the North Korean advance.

1995: For the first time a Space Shuttle, the Atlantis, visits the Russian Mir space station.

  1994: A 60th Airlift Wing C-5 from Travis AFB flies a 34-ton Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine to Chernobyl, Ukraine. There medical specialists use the machine to treat victims of the 1986 nuclear reactor

  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

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

    1954: USAF creates a Western Development Division under Brig Gen Bernard A. Schriever to accelerate the Atlas ICBM program.

  1941: The United States Army Air Forces is formed, leading to, by the end of World War II, a largely autonomous force.

1944: BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA. Through 20 June, American pilots shoot down 476 Japanese aircraft in “The Marianas Turkey Shoot.” The US loses 130 planes.

1965: The 1st Air Commando Squadron, 34th Tactical Group, Bien Hoa AB receives the Presidential Unit Citation. This is the first USAF unit so honored since the Korean War.

  2003: DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSSES. USAF award 34 aircrew members from Charleston AFB the DFC for actions in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Eight recipients receive the DFC during the first night of humanitarian relief operations in