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

1991–92
later provided aerial protection for a security zone in northern Iraq so
that the Kurds could return to their homes. This area became a no-fly
zone—an area in which Iraqi aircraft were forbidden to fly.
April 18: The Air Force completed the first successful flight test of a new Martin
Marietta/Boeing MGM–134A small intercontinental ballistic missile.
The missile traveled 4,000 miles from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California,
to the Pacific Island target area at the Kwajalein Missile Range.
May 10–June 13: In Operation SEA ANGEL, USAF transport aircraft airlifted
more than 3,000 tons of relief equipment and supplies to
Bangladesh after a typhoon and tidal wave. C–5s and C–141s carried
most of the cargo, including five Army Black Hawk helicopters and
their crews, to the city of Dacca. From there, C–130s and the helicopters
transported relief supplies to the flooded area.
June 8–July 2: The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines buried Clark
Air Base and two other U.S. military installations with volcanic ash, forcing
the Air Force to evacuate some 15,000 people to Guam and the
United States. FIERY VIGIL became the largest evacuation operation
since the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. Clark Air Base in the Philippines,
the oldest and largest USAF overseas base, closed permanently.
September 27: President George H. W. Bush ordered termination of Strategic
Air Command’s alert, initiated in October 1957, during which time
crews stood ready around the clock to launch nuclear strikes. This
event heralded the conclusion of the Cold War between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
November 1: After the crash of a Canadian C–130 Hercules in Greenland, a
Twenty-Second Air Force C–5 Galaxy from Elmendorf Air Force Base,
Alaska, loaded with a 36-member search-and-rescue team from the
Alaskan Air National Guard, and two MH–60G Pave Hawk helicopters
flew to Thule, Greenland. The American airmen located the crash scene
some 300 miles from the North Pole and rescued 13 survivors.
December 21: The AC–130U Spectre gunship flew for the first time. The
new-generation gunship combined increased firepower, reliability,
and accuracy with the latest target-location technology.
1992
January 17: To modernize its fleet of training aircraft, the Air Force
accepted the first production model T–1A Jayhawk.
February 10–26: In Operation PROVIDE HOPE I, 15 USAF wings and
groups airlifted 2,274 tons of food, medical supplies, and other relief
cargo to 24 cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which
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