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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1998<br />
built to fly at an altitude <strong>of</strong> up to 65,000 feet and photograph an area<br />
the size <strong>of</strong> Kentucky in 24 hours.<br />
July 25: <strong>The</strong> Navy commissioned the USS Harry Truman, its eighth Nimitzclass<br />
aircraft carrier, at Norfolk, Virginia.<br />
August 20: <strong>The</strong> United States launched more than 75 Tomahawk land-attack<br />
missiles from ships and submarines against terrorist targets in<br />
Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for the bombings <strong>of</strong> US<br />
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7 that killed 257 people.<br />
September 22: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force began airlifting relief supplies to the victims<br />
<strong>of</strong> Hurricane Georges. <strong>Air</strong> Mobility Command, <strong>Air</strong> Force Reserve, and<br />
<strong>Air</strong> National Guard transport crews delivered water, generators, construction<br />
supplies, plastic sheeting, and ice from all over the United<br />
States to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and southern Mississippi,<br />
flying at least 150 missions.<br />
October 29: Former senator John H. Glenn, Jr., the first U.S. astronaut to<br />
orbit Earth (1962), returned to space in the space shuttle Discovery to<br />
test the effects <strong>of</strong> microgravity on the elderly. At 76 years <strong>of</strong> age, he was<br />
the oldest person ever to enter space.<br />
November 6: <strong>USAF</strong> transport crews and aircraft began airlifting 7.4 million<br />
pounds <strong>of</strong> relief cargo to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador<br />
after those countries were devastated by Hurricane Mitch, which<br />
claimed more than 10,000 lives. By the time the airlift ended on March<br />
19, 1999, the crews had flown more than 200 missions.<br />
December 4–15: <strong>The</strong> crew <strong>of</strong> the space shuttle Endeavour completed the first<br />
International Space Station assembly mission, which involved delivery<br />
and attachment <strong>of</strong> Unity, the first U.S. module, to Russia’s previously<br />
launched Zarya module. <strong>The</strong> crew members also launched the <strong>USAF</strong><br />
MightySat I to evaluate composite materials, advanced solar cells, and<br />
other technology.<br />
December 9: President William J. Clinton awarded an honorary fourth star<br />
to Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first black <strong>USAF</strong> general and the<br />
leader <strong>of</strong> the “Tuskegee <strong>Air</strong>men” in World War II.<br />
December 16: Operation DESERT FOX commenced with the launch <strong>of</strong><br />
cruise missiles and air strikes by the United States and Great Britain<br />
against Iraqi targets after Iraq refused to allow United Nations<br />
weapons inspectors to continue their work. <strong>The</strong> four-day operation,<br />
which hit some 100 enemy sites, destroyed weapons-production facilities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> largest air campaign against Iraq since the Southwest Asia<br />
War <strong>of</strong> 1991, DESERT FOX involved the first combat use <strong>of</strong> B–1B<br />
Lancer bombers.<br />
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