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

1995
April 8: Despite being hit 12 times by small-arms fire during takeoff, a USAF
C–130 Hercules aircraft returned safely to Italy after delivering flour to
Sarajevo, Bosnia, as part of Operation PROVIDE PROMISE.
April 19: After a truck bomb exploded and partially destroyed a federal
building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people and injuring more than
400 others, the Air Force airlifted firefighters, urban search-and-rescue
teams, investigators, and medical personnel from all over the United
States to Oklahoma.
April 27: Air Force Space Command declared the Global Positioning System
satellite constellation fully operational. The system provides accurate
geographical coordinates for personnel moving on the ground, sea, or
air.
June 2–3: Two B–1B Lancer bomber crews flew around the world in a record
36 hours, 13 minutes, 36 seconds, refueling in flight six times and
earning the crews the Mackay Trophy.
June 2–8: After a surface-to-air missile downed his F–16 Fighting Falcon fighter
over Bosnia, Capt. Scott O’Grady, USAF, evaded capture by hostile forces
for six days until he was rescued by Marine Corps helicopters.
June 27–July 7: For the first time, a U.S. space shuttle, the Atlantis, docked
with the Russian space station Mir.
June 30–August 10: In Operation QUICK LIFT, C–5 Galaxies and C–141
Starlifters airlifted British and Dutch forces, comprising a United
Nations rapid-reaction force, to Croatia.
July 29: Air Combat Command activated the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron,
the first unit of unmanned aerial vehicles, reflecting the Air Force’s
increasing reliance on unmanned aircraft in combat-support roles.
August 30: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched Operation
DELIBERATE FORCE, an intensive air campaign against Serb ground
targets in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Together with a Bosnian-Croatian
ground offensive, the air attacks persuaded the Serbs to agree to peace
terms by the end of the year.
September 14–30: The Air Force airlifted more than 30 tons of medical supplies
from Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, to Hanoi, Vietnam,
marking the first USAF humanitarian-airlift mission to Vietnam
since 1975.
September 15–21: After Hurricane Marilyn devastated islands in the eastern
Caribbean Sea, Air Mobility Command, Air Force Reserve, and Air
National Guard cargo aircraft airlifted nearly 1,000 tons of relief cargo
to the Virgin Islands. This disaster-relief operation was the first to
employ C–17 Globemaster III aircraft.
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