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

1972–73
December 18: President Richard M. Nixon directed the resumption of fullscale
bombing and mining in North Vietnam—an operation known as
LINEBACKER II. SSgt. Samuel O. Turner, USAF, became the first
B–52 tail gunner to shoot down an enemy airplane.
1973
January 8: Capt. Paul D. Howman, USAF, and 1st Lt. Lawrence W. Kullman,
USAF, flying an F–4D Phantom, scored the last aerial victory of the
Vietnam War when they shot down a MiG southwest of Hanoi, North
Vietnam, with a radar-guided AIM–7 missile.
January 27: In Paris, North Vietnam and the United States signed an “Agreement
on Ending the War and Restoring Peace to Vietnam.” The ceasefire
was set to begin on January 29.
January 28: A B–52 Stratofortress crew performed the last Operation ARC
LIGHT sortie, bombing enemy targets in South Vietnam at 0628 hours
local time. This operation had continued since 1965.
February 12: Military Airlift Command pilots initiated Operation HOME-
COMING, flying the first of 590 released American prisoners of war
from Hanoi, North Vietnam, to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. The
operation concluded on April 9.
March 28: The last USAF aircraft departed South Vietnam.
May 15: Operation AUTHENTIC ASSISTANCE began. In six months, USAF
airplanes airlifted 9,250 tons of food, seed grain, medical supplies, and
vehicles to and within the African countries of Mali, Chad, and Mauritania
to relieve the victims of drought and famine.
May 25–June 22: In a space mission, three U.S. astronauts repaired the Skylab
space station, which had been damaged during its launch, so that
it could conduct orbital research.
July 1: Military conscription (the draft) in the United States ended, but the
Selective Service continued to register young men of military age.
July 15: An A–7D Corsair II of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, based in
Thailand, flew the last combat mission of the Southeast Asian War. All
told, since February 2, 1962, the Air Force had flown 5.25 million sorties
over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, losing
2,251 aircraft—1,737 to hostile action and 514 for other operational
reasons.
August 20: The United States began an airlift of 2,400 tons of relief equipment
and supplies to Pakistan for the victims of flooding. The airlift
112