On This Day in History

1996:    Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR. A Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System E-8A flew its 50th mission in support of Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR, surpassing the E-8 record of 49 missions in Operation DESERT STORM.

1913:    Smithsonian Institute regents appoint an advisory committee to inaugurate the Aerodynamic Laboratory project at Langley Field, VA.

1973:    Operation HOMECOMING/MACKAY TROPHY. After N. Vietnam releases its POWs, MAC airlift returns them to Clark. When the POWs reach America, the 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing transfers them to various military hospitals. Altogether, the Military

1977:    Jimmy Carter becomes the first President to fly in the E-4A National Emergency Airborne Command Post in a flight from Andrews AFB, MD to Robins AFB, GA.

  1933:    The Army establishes four provisional air transport squadrons, one at each air depot, to haul equipment and materiel between airfields and the depots as well as transport troops on maneuvers. Major (later Major

1951:    KOREAN WAR/OPERATION THUNDERBOLT. Generals Earl E. Partridge and Matthew B. Ridgway reconnoiter the front lines in a T-6 prior to their 25 January dawn counterattack on Red Chinese forces. To sustain this offensive, in

2002:    A KC-10 arrives at Dulles with John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American accused of joining Al Qaeda and fighting in Afghanistan against US forces. A US Park Police helicopter takes Lindh to a detention

  1944:    Operation SHINGLE. To support the amphibious landings at Anzio, the Mediterranean Allied Air Force flies 1,200 sorties.

1991:    Operation DESERT STORM/AIR FORCE CROSS. Capt Paul T. Johnson in his A-10 Thunderbolt II finds a downed Navy fighter pilot, who had ejected in Iraqi territory. Johnson destroys a threatening Iraqi truck, allowing an

  2001:    Texas Governor and former Texas Air National Guardsman George W. Bush is inaugurated as Presi­dent of the US. He is the first former Air Guardsman to become President.