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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1999<br />
Montenegro. Maj. Gen. William S. Hinton, Jr., <strong>USAF</strong>, commanded the<br />
operation.<br />
April 17: For the first time, the <strong>Air</strong> Force sent the RQ–1 Predator on flights<br />
in a combat zone. <strong>The</strong> unmanned aerial vehicle performed reconnaissance<br />
over Serbia during Operation ALLIED FORCE.<br />
May 1: <strong>The</strong> first <strong>Air</strong> Force Reserve Command units that were mobilized in<br />
support <strong>of</strong> Operation ALLIED FORCE entered active duty service.<br />
Eventually, six tanker wings and one rescue wing were called to active<br />
duty.<br />
May 2: Serbian ground forces shot down an F–16 over Yugoslavia, the second<br />
and last <strong>USAF</strong> aircraft lost to enemy fire in Operation ALLIED<br />
FORCE; an MH–60 helicopter crew rescued the pilot.<br />
May 4: An F–16CJ pilot shot down a Yugoslavian MiG–29 fighter over Kosovo,<br />
the fifth and final <strong>USAF</strong> aerial victory in Operation ALLIED FORCE.<br />
June 10: <strong>The</strong> North Atlantic Treaty Organization suspended air strikes<br />
against Yugoslavia after its president agreed in writing to the withdrawal<br />
<strong>of</strong> Serb forces from Kosovo, their replacement with multinational<br />
peacekeeping forces, and the return <strong>of</strong> hundreds <strong>of</strong> thousands<br />
<strong>of</strong> ethnic Albanians to that province. Noted military historian John<br />
Keegan claimed that ALLIED FORCE was the first war in history won<br />
by air power alone.<br />
July 23: Col. Eileen M. Collins, <strong>USAF</strong>, who had been the first woman pilot <strong>of</strong><br />
a space shuttle in 1995, became the first woman commander <strong>of</strong> a<br />
space-shuttle mission on a flight <strong>of</strong> the Columbia.<br />
September 20: C–130s began airlifting U.S. troops from Australia to Dili in<br />
East Timor in a United Nations peacekeeping operation called STA-<br />
BILISE. After East Timor declared its independence from Indonesia,<br />
a bloody war ensued. Twenty-one C–130s, three KC–135s, two C–17s,<br />
and one C–141 eventually took part in the operation, which airlifted<br />
international peacekeeping troops to East Timor by way <strong>of</strong> Australia.<br />
October 1: Aerospace Expeditionary Force 1 deployed to Southwest Asia—<br />
the first <strong>of</strong> 10 such forces to rotate availability for deployment duty.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new system allowed the <strong>Air</strong> Force to respond more effectively with<br />
ready forces for operations overseas and increased morale by making<br />
deployments more predictable.<br />
October 6: <strong>The</strong> United States destroyed the first <strong>of</strong> 150 Minuteman III silos<br />
in eastern North Dakota, in accordance with the terms <strong>of</strong> the Strategic<br />
Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.<br />
November 2: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force announced the <strong>of</strong>ficial transfer <strong>of</strong> Howard <strong>Air</strong><br />
Base to Panama, in accordance with the terms <strong>of</strong> the Panama Canal<br />
155