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

July 31: The first class of Vietnamese students under the Vietnamization
Program completed the Undergraduate Pilot Training course at
Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.
August 21: Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced the Total Force
Concept of the armed services, making the Air Force Reserve and Air
National Guard, rather than the draft, the initial sources for augmentation
of the active force.
August 24: Two search-and-rescue HH–53 Sea Stallions successfully completed
a 9,000-mile flight from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to Da Nang Airport,
Vietnam—the first nonstop transpacific helicopter crossing.
September 27–October 28: USAF transports participated in Operation FIG
HILL, carrying 200 medical personnel, two mobile military hospitals,
and more than 186 tons of medical equipment and supplies, waterpurification
equipment, food, tents, and vehicles to Jordan after its
military forces clashed with Palestinian Liberation Organization forces
residing in the country.
October 2: The Special Operations Center at Hurlburt Field, Florida, took
possession of the new UH–1N Bell Twin Huey, making the center the
first operational USAF organization to have the helicopter.
November 18–December 16: C–141 and C–130 cargo airplanes airlifted
more than 140 tons of relief equipment and supplies from the United
States and from U.S. bases in the Far East to East Pakistan after a
cyclone flooded the country. Some of the flights covered almost 10,000
miles.
November 21: A special task force of Air Force and Army volunteers
attempted to rescue American servicemen from the Son Tay prisonerof-war
camp 20 miles west of Hanoi. Brig. Gen. Leroy J. Manor, USAF,
commanded the operation, while Col. Arthur D. Simons of the Army
led the search-and-rescue team. Unfortunately, the prisoners had been
moved elsewhere.
1971
March 17: Jane Leslie Holley became the first woman commissioned
through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program.
April 19: Salyut I became the first space station in orbit.
1970–71
April 26: Crewing an SR–71 Blackbird strategic-reconnaissance aircraft
assigned to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Lt. Col. Thomas B.
Estes, USAF, aircraft commander, and Maj. Dewain C. Vick, USAF,
reconnaissance systems officer, made a record-breaking 15,000-mile
109