(Wilbanks above, Levitow below) 1967 and 1969: MEDAL OF HONOR. Two are awarded on this day in separate years. 1967: Capt Hilliard A. Wilbanks: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3443/wilbanks-hilliard-a.php A1C John L. Levitow: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3343/levitow-john-l.php
February 24, 1967 and 1969 Read More »
1955: The Army selects Bell Helicopter from among 20 competing companies to build the first turbine-powered helicopter. Bell’s design, the XH-40, later becomes the HU-1 Iroquois (later still UH-1), the famous “Huey” from Vietnam.
1967: Operation JUNCTION CITY. 23 USAF C-130s carry 700 troops from the 173d Airborne Brigade on the first U.S. parachute personnel drop in the Vietnam War. Heavy drops of equipment and supplies follow the personnel
1961: Final training for the first Mercury flights begins with the naming of Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, and John H. Glenn, Jr., as candidates for an early ballistic flight.
1913: The Army tests Lawrence Sperry’s Gyrostabilizer, or automatic pilot, for the first time.
1945: On the Japanese-held island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, C-47s drop 2,065 paratroopers to support an American amphibious landing aimed at capturing the harbor of Manila.
1945: On the Japanese-held island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, C-47s drop 2,065 paratroopers to support an American amphibious landing aimed at capturing the harbor of Manila.
1944: Twelfth Air Force sends 254 B-17 and B-25 bombers to attack and destroy the Abbey of Monte Cassino, Italy. The US Fifth Army took the ruins on 18 May, allowing the US Fifth and
1989: In its first launch, the McDonnell-Douglas Delta II space booster lifts the first operational NAVSTAR Block II GPS satellite into orbit.
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.
