On This Day in History

  1965:    When the USAF Aeronautical Station inactivates at Yokota, a 30-year era of Morse code in the USAF comes to an end. Begun in 1935 with the creation of the Aeronautical (Airways) Station – […]

  1949:   Operation VITTLES. The last flight took place to end the Berlin Airlift. Results show 2,343,301.5 tons of supplies carried on 277,262 Allied flights. US planes carried 1,783,826 tons.

1991:       President George H. W. Bush terminates SAC’s alert force operation, which started in October 1957. This action heralds an end to the Cold War.

1918:    Between this date and 1 October, Air Service pilots shoot down 74 German aircraft and 15 balloons.

2007:    FIRST MQ-9 REAPER MISSION. The MQ-9 Reaper flies its first operational mission in Afghanistan for Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. (2009 photo)

1929:    Lt James H. Doolittle makes the first all-blind flight at Mitchel Field. Although a check pilot accompanies him, Doolittle takes off in a Consolidated NY-2 airplane with a completely covered cockpit, flies a short

  2004:    Operation PROVIDE HOPE. A C-17 from McChord AFB delivers medicines and medical supplies worth $15 million to Bishkek IAP in the Kyrgyz Republic. It was the largest humanitarian shipment to the republic since

  1957:    USAF Chief of Staff General Thomas D. White announces that radar units could detect ICBMs at 3,000 miles.

  1958:    The RAF receives its first Thor missile at Feltwell, England.

  1947:    Aboard the VC-54C “Sacred Cow,” which becomes Air Force-1, President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 separating the USAF from the US Army.