On This Day in History

    2001: President George W. Bush initiates a war on terrorism and homeland-defense efforts with combat air patrols within the US under operations NOBLE EAGLE and ENDURING FREEDOM.    

  1942:    The Secretary of War forms the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, under the leadership of Nancy Harkness Love. In October, female pilots begin ferrying aircraft from production sites to airfields in the US.

  1972:    To become the USAF’s Vietnam War leading ace, Capt Charles B. DeBellevue, flying as a weapon systems officer in a 555 TFS F-4, shoots down his fifth and sixth enemy plane. He became

  942:    The VIII Bomber Command loses its first aircraft in combat when two B-17s fail to return from a strike on the Avions Potez aircraft plant at Meaulte, France.

1923:    Army bombing tests off Cape Hatteras, NC sink the condemned naval vessels USS New Jersey and USS Virginia, proving the vulnerability of Naval vessels to aerial attack.

  1922:    Lt James H. Doolittle completes the 1st transcontinental flight in one day in a rebuilt DH-4B with Liberty 400 HP engines, 2,163 miles in 21 hours, 20 minutes. He makes one refueling stop

  1996:    The 11th Reconnaissance Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada begins operating the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle above Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  1910:    The first American woman pilot, Blanche Scott, solos in a Curtiss Pusher over the Lake Keuka Field of the Curtiss Company at Hammondsport, N. Y.

  2005:    HURRICANE KATRINA. Air National Guard personnel log 600 rescues in one day after Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Gulf Coast.

  1952:    KOREAN WAR SORTIE RECORD. Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers set a new 24-hour record by sending 854 Fifth Air Force sorties against Pyongyang, N. Korea.