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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1961–62<br />
June 1: At Kincheloe <strong>Air</strong> Force Base, Michigan, the first Bomarc-B pilotless<br />
interceptor site was declared operational.<br />
June 9: Delivery <strong>of</strong> the first C–135 Stratolifter introduced jet cargo aircraft<br />
into the fleet <strong>of</strong> the Military <strong>Air</strong> Transport Service.<br />
July 1: North American <strong>Air</strong> Defense Command began systematically detecting,<br />
tracking, and cataloging man-made objects in space.<br />
July 21: Capt. Virgil I. Grissom became the second U.S. and the first <strong>USAF</strong><br />
astronaut in space. He attained an altitude <strong>of</strong> 118 miles and a speed <strong>of</strong><br />
5,310 miles per hour in a 303-mile suborbital spaceflight.<br />
August 1: Five <strong>Air</strong> Force Reserve C–124 groups and more than 15,000<br />
reservists were mobilized as part <strong>of</strong> the administration’s response to<br />
the Communists’ construction <strong>of</strong> the Berlin Wall.<br />
August 8: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force launched an Atlas F missile from Cape Canaveral,<br />
Florida, for the first time. <strong>The</strong> Atlas F, designed for long-term storage<br />
<strong>of</strong> liquid fuels and for shortened countdown, was the only Atlas model<br />
destined for emplacement in hardened, underground silos.<br />
October 30: As part <strong>of</strong> Operation STAIR STEP, the first <strong>of</strong> 216 <strong>Air</strong> National<br />
Guard fighters from units mobilized on October 1 during the Berlin<br />
crisis began deploying across the Atlantic Ocean to European bases.<br />
November 15: <strong>The</strong> 2d Advanced Echelon, Thirteenth <strong>Air</strong> Force, activated in<br />
Saigon, Republic <strong>of</strong> Vietnam (South Vietnam), marking the <strong>of</strong>ficial<br />
entry <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Air</strong> Force into the Vietnam War. In an operation called<br />
FARM GATE, a detachment <strong>of</strong> the 4400th Combat Crew Training<br />
Squadron began deployment to South Vietnam with special-operations<br />
aircraft.<br />
December 15: <strong>The</strong> North American <strong>Air</strong> Defense Command semiautomatic<br />
ground-environment system became fully operational with completion<br />
<strong>of</strong> its 21st and last control center at Sioux City, Iowa.<br />
1962<br />
February 2: A C–123 Provider aircraft crashed in South Vietnam while spraying<br />
defoliant during Operation RANCH HAND, marking the first<br />
<strong>USAF</strong> aircraft loss in South Vietnam.<br />
February 20: Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., United States Marine Corps,<br />
became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth. He flew for nearly five<br />
hours in Mercury capsule Friendship 7.<br />
March 5: <strong>The</strong> crew <strong>of</strong> a B–58 Hustler bomber assigned to the 43d Bombardment<br />
Wing set three speed records in a round-trip flight between New<br />
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