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

ombs to a range near the Iraqi border on the fourth anniversary of
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
September 19: Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY commenced. U.S. military
forces deployed to Haiti to restore the country’s democratically
elected president and stem the flow of Haitian refugees to the United
States. The Air Force provided airlift for the peaceful invasion.
September 26: A B–52 Stratofortress, a B–1B Lancer, and a KC–10 Extender
landed at Poltava Air Base, Ukraine, marking the first time since World
War II that U.S. bombers had landed in that country. B–17 Flying
Fortresses had flown there 50 years earlier on shuttle bombing missions
against Nazi targets in eastern Europe.
September 30: Reflecting the continuing downsizing trend that occurred in
the wake of the Cold War, five more USAF bases closed, including Grissom
(Indiana), Loring (Maine), Lowry (Colorado), Richards-Gebaur
(Missouri), and Rickenbacker (Ohio).
October 4: F–16 Fighting Falcons replaced the last F–4 Wild Weasel aircraft
in the performance of suppression of enemy air defenses missions.
October 10: After Iraqi troops massed near the Kuwaiti border, USAF cargo
planes began flying additional U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf region
in an operation called VIGILANT WARRIOR. During October the
number of USAF aircraft in-theater increased from 77 to 270, including
F–15E Eagles, F–16 Fighting Falcons, and A–10 Thunderbolt IIs.
October 14–16: In their first strategic mission, two C–17 Globemaster IIIs
transported military equipment and supplies from Langley Air Force
Base, Virginia, to Saudi Arabia.
November 21–23: As part of Project SAPPHIRE, C–5s transported more
than 1,300 pounds of highly enriched uranium from the former Soviet
Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States to protect it from terrorists,
smugglers, and unfriendly governments.
1995
1994–95
January 1: The first Air Force Reserve KC–135 associate unit, the 931st Air
Refueling Group, activated.
February 3: Lt. Col. Eileen M. Collins, USAF, became the first woman pilot
of a space shuttle.
March 31: The first woman USAF bomber pilot, 2d Lt. Kelly Flinn, began B–52
flight training at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.
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