One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
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August 22: President George H. W. Bush authorized a 90-day call-up <strong>of</strong><br />
200,000 reservists for Operation DESERT SHIELD. Eventually, more<br />
than 20,000 <strong>USAF</strong> reservists and 12,000 <strong>Air</strong> National Guard personnel<br />
served in that operation and its successor, DESERT STORM.<br />
August 23: <strong>The</strong> 89th Military <strong>Air</strong>lift Wing received the first <strong>of</strong> two Boeing<br />
VC–25A presidential transport aircraft at Andrews <strong>Air</strong> Force Base,<br />
Maryland. <strong>The</strong> VC–25A was a modified 747–200B commercial transport<br />
that replaced the VC–137C for service as <strong>Air</strong> Force <strong>One</strong>.<br />
September 8: Marcelite Jordan Harris became the first black woman to hold<br />
the grade <strong>of</strong> brigadier general in the <strong>Air</strong> Force.<br />
September 18–28: <strong>The</strong> 436th and 438th Military <strong>Air</strong>lift Wings transported<br />
107 pallets <strong>of</strong> tents, cots, and blankets to Jordan for the relief <strong>of</strong> some<br />
100,000 foreign workers who had fled from Kuwait because <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Iraqi invasion.<br />
October 1: <strong>Air</strong> Force Systems Command relinquished Patrick <strong>Air</strong> Force<br />
Base, Florida, and the space-launch mission to <strong>Air</strong> Force Space Command.<br />
December 29: <strong>The</strong> 169th Tactical Fighter Group was the first <strong>Air</strong> National<br />
Guard unit to deploy to the Persian Gulf region for Operation<br />
DESERT SHIELD.<br />
1991<br />
1990–91<br />
January 15: Strategic <strong>Air</strong> Command relinquished Vandenberg <strong>Air</strong> Force<br />
Base, California, and its launch facilities to <strong>Air</strong> Force Space Command.<br />
January 17: Operation DESERT STORM, the liberation <strong>of</strong> Kuwait from Iraqi<br />
military occupation, opened with a massive barrage <strong>of</strong> air and cruisemissile<br />
strikes against targets in Iraq and Kuwait. <strong>USAF</strong> special operations<br />
MH–53 helicopters initiated combat by leading an Army helicopter<br />
force that destroyed enemy radar sites. During the first 14<br />
hours, aircraft from a U.S.-led coalition flew more than 1,200 combat<br />
sorties. B–52G Strat<strong>of</strong>ortress crews from the 2d Bomb Wing <strong>of</strong> Eighth<br />
<strong>Air</strong> Force, Strategic <strong>Air</strong> Command, flew from Barksdale <strong>Air</strong> Force<br />
Base, Louisiana, to launch 35 cruise missiles against targets in Iraq and<br />
returned home, completing the longest bombing mission in history.<br />
Constituting less than 2.5 percent <strong>of</strong> all coalition aircraft, the F–117A<br />
stealth fighter-bomber successfully attacked over 31 percent <strong>of</strong> Iraqi<br />
strategic targets the first day.<br />
January 21: Capt. Paul T. Johnson, <strong>USAF</strong>, in his A–10 Thunderbolt II aircraft,<br />
located a Navy fighter pilot who had ejected in Iraqi territory. <strong>The</strong> A–10<br />
destroyed a threatening Iraqi truck to allow a <strong>USAF</strong> MH–53J Pave Low<br />
137