1956: Operation SAFE HAVEN. After a revolt against Soviet rule in Hungary expelled Russian occupation forces, the Soviets send in reinforcements to restore order. But before the Soviet-backed Hungarian government close the borders, some […]
1963: SECDEF Robert S. McNamara cancels the X-20A Dyna-Soar Program and places the near-earth Manned Orbiting Laboratory project under USAF direction.
1998: President William J. Clinton presents a fourth star to Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first black USAF general and the leader of the “Tuskegee Airmen” in World War II.
1995: Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR. USAF airlifters start moving troops and equipment to Bosnia to support this NATO operation.
2001: Operation NOBLE EAGLE. The 125th Fighter Wing (Florida Air National Guard) sends its F-15s to patrol the skies over the Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch. It was the first shuttle
1942: Ninth Air Force sends 24 B-24s to attack ships at the Naples docks in the first US Army Air Forces air strike against mainland Italy in World War II.
1963: President Lyndon B. Johnson designates National Air and Space Administration and other facilities at Cape Canaveral as the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
1943: The Combined Chiefs of Staff ask the Allied Expeditionary Air Force to attack “Ski Sites” in the Pas de Calais and Cherbourg Peninsula areas. These areas were identified as V-1 missile launching sites. (Map
1952: MEDAL OF HONOR. Maj Charles J. Loring deliberately crashes his damaged aircraft into enemy gun emplacements; receives Medal of Honor posthumously. Citation: https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/charles-j-loring-jr
1970: SON TAY RAID. A special USAF and Army task force of volunteers try to rescue US servicemen from the Son Tay POW camp 20 miles west of Hanoi, but the prisoners had been
