One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

1965
February 4: Air Defense Command fighter pilots scored their first interception
of a Bomarc drone target, which was flying at more than 1,500
miles per hour at an altitude of more than 50,000 feet.
February 8: The U.S. Air Force performed its first retaliatory air strike in
North Vietnam. A North American F–100 Super Sabre flew cover for
attacking South Vietnamese fighter aircraft, suppressing ground fire
in the target area.
February 18: B–57s and F–100s attacked Vietcong targets near An Khe in
the first USAF jet raids against enemy troop concentrations in South
Vietnam.
March 2: Lt. Hayden J. Lockhart became the first USAF prisoner of war in
Vietnam after his F–100 was shot down in a raid over North Vietnam.
He evaded the enemy for a week before he was captured and
remained a prisoner until February 12, 1973.
March 18: Alexei Leonov of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became
the first man to walk in space, performing the extravehicular activity
from the Voskhod 2.
March 23: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched
the first Gemini manned flight. Aboard the two-man capsule were Maj.
Virgil I. Grissom, USAF, the first astronaut to go into space a second
time, and Lt. Cmdr. John W. Young, United States Navy. This was also
the first spaceflight during which the orbit was deliberately changed.
April 20: Strategic Air Command shipped its last Atlas missile to storage
facilities to be used as a launch vehicle in various research and development
programs, thus completing the phaseout of the first generation
of intercontinental ballistic missiles, all of which were liquidfueled.
April 23: The first operational Lockheed C–141 Starlifter aircraft was delivered
to Travis Air Force Base, California. Capable of crossing any
ocean nonstop at more than 500 miles per hour, the Starlifter could
transport up to 70,000 pounds of payload, including 154 troops, 123
paratroopers, or a combination of troops and supplies.
April 29–May 5: Scores of C–130s and C–124s moved some 12,000 troops
and 17,250 tons of their equipment and supplies from Pope Air Force
Base, North Carolina, to San Isidro, Dominican Republic. The airlift,
part of Operation POWER PACK, allowed the United States to bring
stability to this Caribbean island nation and prevent unfriendly elements
from taking it over. Reserve transports, Air National Guard communications
aircraft, and USAF fighter and reconnaissance airplanes
also took part in the operation.
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