July 13, 1921
1921: Brig Gen William “Billy” Mitchell’s Martin MB-2 and Handley Page bombers sink several ships off the Virginia Capes. The tests study the use of bombs on ships to suggest how ship design could counter […]
July 10, 1962
1962: Operation DOMINIC-Sunset. From Johnston Island, a Thor IRBM carries a megaton-plus hydrogen bomb above 200 miles in altitude. The detonation marks the highest thermonuclear blast by a US bomb, and perhaps, the highest of
July 8, 1944
1944: Lt Col Clifford Heflin flies his C-47 on the first landing mission into France to rescue airmen who had parachuted behind enemy lines.
July 9, 1944
1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. During an attack on the Ploesti oil refineries, Lt Donald D. Pucket’s B-24 receives heavy and direct hits and crashes. For his courage and supreme sacrifice in attempting to save the
July 7, 1942
1942: Flying a Lockheed Vega A-29 Hudson, Lt Harry J. Kane and crew of the 396th Bomb Squadron attack and sink a German submarine (U-701) off Cherry Point NC to make the first sure
July 6,1989
1989: President George H. W. Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award to Gen James H. Doolittle (retired) at the White House. Doolittle is the only person to have
July 3, 1992
1992: Operation PROVIDE PROMISE. The US European Command launches the operation to airlift relief supplies to Bosnia-Herzegovina on a regular basis.
July 2, 1943
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.
July 1, 1941
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
June 30, 1975
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.