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

1999
Montenegro. Maj. Gen. William S. Hinton, Jr., USAF, commanded the
operation.
April 17: For the first time, the Air Force sent the RQ–1 Predator on flights
in a combat zone. The unmanned aerial vehicle performed reconnaissance
over Serbia during Operation ALLIED FORCE.
May 1: The first Air Force Reserve Command units that were mobilized in
support of Operation ALLIED FORCE entered active duty service.
Eventually, six tanker wings and one rescue wing were called to active
duty.
May 2: Serbian ground forces shot down an F–16 over Yugoslavia, the second
and last USAF aircraft lost to enemy fire in Operation ALLIED
FORCE; an MH–60 helicopter crew rescued the pilot.
May 4: An F–16CJ pilot shot down a Yugoslavian MiG–29 fighter over Kosovo,
the fifth and final USAF aerial victory in Operation ALLIED FORCE.
June 10: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization suspended air strikes
against Yugoslavia after its president agreed in writing to the withdrawal
of Serb forces from Kosovo, their replacement with multinational
peacekeeping forces, and the return of hundreds of thousands
of ethnic Albanians to that province. Noted military historian John
Keegan claimed that ALLIED FORCE was the first war in history won
by air power alone.
July 23: Col. Eileen M. Collins, USAF, who had been the first woman pilot of
a space shuttle in 1995, became the first woman commander of a
space-shuttle mission on a flight of the Columbia.
September 20: C–130s began airlifting U.S. troops from Australia to Dili in
East Timor in a United Nations peacekeeping operation called STA-
BILISE. After East Timor declared its independence from Indonesia,
a bloody war ensued. Twenty-one C–130s, three KC–135s, two C–17s,
and one C–141 eventually took part in the operation, which airlifted
international peacekeeping troops to East Timor by way of Australia.
October 1: Aerospace Expeditionary Force 1 deployed to Southwest Asia—
the first of 10 such forces to rotate availability for deployment duty.
The new system allowed the Air Force to respond more effectively with
ready forces for operations overseas and increased morale by making
deployments more predictable.
October 6: The United States destroyed the first of 150 Minuteman III silos
in eastern North Dakota, in accordance with the terms of the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.
November 2: The Air Force announced the official transfer of Howard Air
Base to Panama, in accordance with the terms of the Panama Canal
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