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

1999
1999
January 24: A Navy F–18 launched the Raytheon-built AGM–154A joint standoff
weapon for the first time in combat against an Iraqi air defense site.
February 7: From Cape Canaveral, Florida, a Delta II rocket launched Stardust,
the first spacecraft designed to intercept a comet and return samples
to Earth. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
scheduled Stardust to rendezvous with Comet Wild-2 on January 2, 2004.
February 17: The first C–130J, a new transport with six-bladed propellers,
advanced avionics, and shorter takeoff and landing capability, arrived
at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, to serve with the 403d Wing.
March 21: Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain completed
the first balloon flight around the world, landing near D’khla,
Egypt, after ascending from Chateau-d’Oex, Switzerland, on March 1.
March 24: To save ethnic Albanians living in the Serb province of Kosovo
from forced eviction and genocide, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
launched Operation ALLIED FORCE against Yugoslavia. Exclusively
an air campaign, ALLIED FORCE was the first combat operation
against a sovereign nation in the 50-year history of the alliance. The
United States, which called its portion of the operation NOBLE
ANVIL, used B–2 Spirit bombers for the first time in combat. F–15
pilots shot down two enemy MiG–29s on the first day of the conflict.
March 26: On the third day of Operation ALLIED FORCE, one F–15C pilot
shot down two MiG–29s in aerial combat over Yugoslavia.
March 27: For the first time, an F–117 stealth fighter was shot down in combat.
Enemy ground fire brought down the Nighthawk over Yugoslavia.
Capt. John A. Cherrey, an A–10 pilot, earned the Silver Star for locating
the downed pilot, who was rescued by helicopter the same day.
March 27: A computer virus called “Melissa” swept across the Internet,
destroying electronic programs and databases. Air Force systems
escaped serious damage with the help of an Air Combat Command
antivirus program.
April 4: A USAF C–17 Globemaster III airlifted relief supplies from Dover
Air Force Base, Delaware, to Tirana, Albania, for refugees from Kosovo
at the start of Operation SUSTAIN HOPE (SHINING HOPE), a
humanitarian-airlift counterpart of the ongoing Operation ALLIED
FORCE (NOBLE ANVIL). In the first month, allied transports, including
C–5s, C–17s, and C–130s, airlifted more than 3,000 tons of food,
medicine, tents, supplies, cots, blankets, sleeping bags, and other relief
cargo to refugees who had fled to camps in Albania, Macedonia, and
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