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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1954<br />
1954<br />
March 1: <strong>The</strong> United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb in the Marshall<br />
Islands, located in the middle <strong>of</strong> the Pacific Ocean. A fusion weapon, the<br />
hydrogen bomb was many times more powerful than the earlier fission<br />
atomic bombs such as the one that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.<br />
April 1: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a bill creating the<br />
<strong>Air</strong> Force Academy.<br />
June 21: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force directed its <strong>Air</strong> Research and Development Command<br />
to create the Western Development Division under Brig. Gen.<br />
Bernard A. Schriever to oversee acceleration <strong>of</strong> the Atlas intercontinental<br />
ballistic missile program.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first generation <strong>of</strong> U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles included the Atlas.<br />
June 24: Secretary <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Air</strong> Force Harold E. Talbott announced that the<br />
permanent location <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Air</strong> Force Academy would be a 15,000-acre<br />
tract <strong>of</strong> land six miles north <strong>of</strong> Colorado Springs, Colorado.<br />
June 26: Operation WOUNDED WARRIOR began. At the conclusion <strong>of</strong><br />
fighting in what had been French Indochina, the 315th <strong>Air</strong> Division<br />
and the Military <strong>Air</strong> Transport Service airlifted more than 500<br />
wounded French soldiers from Vietnam via Japan and the United<br />
States to France and Algeria. <strong>The</strong> operation concluded on July 17.<br />
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