This Day in Air and Space History

1966: Using Sidewinder missiles, an F-4C crew shoots down a MiG-21 over North Vietnam, the first to be destroyed in combat. Major Paul J. Gilmore and 1Lt William T. Smith were escorting F-105 Thunderchiefs near

1956:        First flight of the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster.

1980:        33rd Air Rescue and Recovery Service Detachments at Clark AB and Kadena AB assist in the rescue of 900 passengers from the MV Don Juan that sank about 150 miles south of Manila.

1948: KEY WEST AGREEMENT. The SECDEF issues a memo to his Secretaries with a paper defining the functions of the services and the JCS, based on the National Security Act. The Air Force receives responsibility

1966: President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s aircraft, a VC-121 Super Constellation named Columbine III, is retired and flown from Andrews AFB to Wright-Patterson AFB. The aircraft went into service with MAC’s 89th Military Airlift Wing in

1967: MEDAL OF HONOR. Maj Leo K. Thorsness receives his medal by protecting a mission to rescue downed airmen in North Vietnam. He is shot down, captured, and held as a prisoner of war until

2004: MACKAY TROPHY. Near Kharbut, Iraq, in near-zero visibility, two USAF HH-60Gs assigned to Moody AFB rescue a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter crew that had crashed in a sandstorm. All five Army crash survivors

1969: North Korean MiGs shoot down a US Navy EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft with 31 crewmen during its routine mission some 100 miles off the North Korean coast. Within seven minutes, Osan-based F-106s are in the

1986: Operation EL DORADO CANYON. The US retaliates against Libya for its involvement in terrorism with an airstrike using 24 F-111s from RAF Lakenheath, five EF-111s from RAF Upper Heyford, and Navy aircraft from the