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

1952–53
September 30: The Bell Rascal GAM–63 air-to-surface strategic missile was
launched for the first time.
November 22: While leading a flight of four F–80 Shooting Star fighters in
dive-bombing enemy gun positions, Maj. Charles J. Loring’s aircraft
was hit. He deliberately crashed his damaged aircraft into the gun
emplacements, earning the Medal of Honor for his sacrifice.
November 26: The Northrop B–62 Snark—a turbojet-powered, subsonic,
long-range missile—flew for the first time.
1953
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The Snark was the nation’s first intercontinental guided missile.
February 8: The American Medical Association recognized aviation medicine
as a medical specialty, the first one to evolve from military practice
and research.
March 1: The Air Guard’s 138th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Syracuse,
New York, and 194th Fighter-Bomber Squadron at Hayward, California,
began an experimental augmentation of Air Defense Command’s
runway alert program, the beginning of what would become the Air
Force’s total-force approach to reserve components’ utilization and
training.
April 21: Operation LITTLE SWITCH began. By May 15, the Air Force had
airlifted more than 150 sick and wounded former prisoners of war
from Korea to Japan and from Japan to the United States after North
Korea released them in a prisoner exchange.