This Week In AFLCMC History - February 27 - March 5, 2023

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle History Office
27 Feb 1958 (Wright-Patterson AFB)

During the 1950s, the flightlines of Wright-Patterson AFB Areas B and C (now part of Area A) were extremely busy, rivaling some of the major commercial airfields of the day. In the first six months of 1958, the semiannual takeoff and landing operations numbers for WPAFB—which are one criterion of a given area’s air traffic density—numbered 66,552 hours at Patterson Field (now Area A) and 29,252 hours at Wright Field (Area B). One major reason for Area B’s smaller numbers was the fact that on 27 Feb 1958, Headquarters Air Force approved closing Wright Field to regular jet aircraft operations. 

28 Feb 1998 (Intel., Surveillance, Recon. & Spec. Ops. Forces Dir.)

25 years ago, a Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Un-manned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flew for the first time. It took off at 7:43 a.m. (PST) and completed a 56-minute flight above Edwards AFB. It performed the entire flight autonomously along a “bow tie”-shaped mission plan that allowed it to reach 32,000 feet in altitude while remaining within Edward AFB’s airspace. Commenting on the success of the first flight, DARPA program manager Col Doug Carlson (USAF) stated: “Not only did Global Hawk perform beautifully, but the successful flight demonstrated how government, military, and contractor personnel can work together on a challenging development program.”

1 Mar 1923 (Wright-Patterson AFB)

100 years ago, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company delivered the TC-1 lighter-than-air, non-rigid airship to the Army Air Service. It was the largest non-rigid airship to be made in America, measuring 196 feet in length, 57 feet in height, 54 feet in width, and nearly 45 feet in diameter. In April 1923, it would enter service at Scott Field (today Scott AFB), where it would in that same year set a speed record for dirigibles at 74 mph. Unfortunately, the airship didn’t even last six months—it was destroyed on 6 Jun 1923, after arriving at Wilbur Wright Field, Ohio (WPAFB Area A) in the middle of a storm. While trying to secure the ship to its Terry mast, the cable slipped and broke and the crew lost control of it. It crashed into another mast, and exploded in a fireball when static electricity ignited its hydrogen stores. Fortunately, no one was killed.

2 Mar 1973 (Mobility & Training Aircraft Dir.)

50 years ago, the first T-43 rolled out of Boeing’s plant at Renton, Washington. A modified Boeing 737-200 airliner, the T-43 was a medium range, swept-wing jet aircraft used mainly for navigator training.

Equipped with a suite of then-modern navigation and communication equipment, it was a significant upgrade over the T-29C it replaced. Several T-43s were also converted to an executive airlift mission, becoming CT-43s. Its airlift mission ended in 2001, followed by its training mission in 2010.

3 Mar 1958 (Digital Directorate—Hanscom AFB)

65 years ago, Secretary of the Air Force James H. Douglas asked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to undertake responsibility (as principal systems engineering advisor to the Air Force) for the integration of the Air Force’s part of the country’s first air defense system, called the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE. MIT had played a critical role in developing SAGE since its “Project Lincoln” inception in 1951, but felt it inappropriate for an academic institution to take it from the experimental phase to deployment, however, and so spun the new non-profit MITRE Corporation for that task. This program was also responsible for putting Hanscom AFB “on the map” as the center for Air Force electronic systems development.

4 Mar 1969 (88th Air Base Wing—WPAFB)

Designed through a base-wide contest, a new emblem for WPAFB’s 2750th Air Base Wing (ABW, now the 88 ABW) was approved on this date in 1969. The 2750th had been using the WW2-era emblem of the 4000th Army Air Forces Base Unit (pictured, left). The contest to design the new emblem lasted for a month, and saw more than 60 designs entered for consideration. The designer of the winning entry—Craig W. Gridley, an Aeronautical Systems Division engineer—was awarded a $25 United States savings bond as his prize. The motto, “Strength Through Support,” was approved in April 1969.

5 Mar 1948 (Hill AFB)

75 years ago today, the Public Information Office at Hill AFB began disseminating a twice-monthly base newspaper called the "Hill Top Times." This ended over two years of public relations silence since the discontinuation of the World War II-era “Hill Fielder.” Some of the front page articles from the very first issue discussed the passage of the Federal Employee Retirement Bill (signed by President Truman on 28 Feb 1948), “Hill Field’s” being renamed “Hill Air Force Base,” the 1948 fundraising drive for the Red Cross at Hill (which had just passed the $1,000 mark), and a commendation letter to the Hill AFB maintenance team. The “Hill Top Times” continues to see publication today.
 
AFLCMC Black History Month/Women’s History Month Highlight:
Major General Marcelite J. Harris (1943-2018)


 
Major Gen Marcelite J. Harris retired from the Air Force in 1997. At the time, she was the highest-ranking female officer in the United States Air Force, and the highest-ranking African-American woman within the entire Department of Defense.

Born in Houston, Texas, on 16 January 1943, Harris joined the Air Force as a second lieutenant in 1965 after achieving a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Initially, she worked in administrative positions—first at Travis AFB, and then at Bit-burg Air Base in West Germany—before shifting over to the maintenance field, where she’d largely remain the rest of her Air Force career.

Harris’s first maintenance position was in 1969, when she worked as a maintenance analysis officer at the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing, still at Bitburg, West Germany. She’d work several other maintenance jobs be-fore doing a brief stint as a personnel staff officer and White House social aide (1975-1978) for the Ford and Carter administrations, and serving at the U.S. Air Force Academy commanding Cadet Squadron 39 (1978-1980)—where she was one of the first two women air officers commanding at the Academy. Her first maintenance squadron command came in 1982, when she commanded the 384th Field Maintenance Squadron at McConnell AFB, Kansas. She then held two maintenance director postings before commanding the 3300th Technical Training Wing from 1988-1990 at Keesler AFB, Mississippi. From 1990-1993, she was the vice commander for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB. She was the first woman to command a major organization at Tinker AFB, and, while there, on 1 May 1991, she also became the Air Force’s first black female general when she achieved her first star. She became a major general in 1995 while serving as the director of maintenance at Headquarters Air Force in D.C.

She remained active in aerospace and government even after her retirement in 1997, first working for NASA and then starting her own company, Eroster Government Solutions. She remembered the Air Force in retirement, and frequently spoke on her experiences. President Barack Obama also appointed her to the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2010 (where she served until 2016). General Harris died on 7 Sep 2018. She was buried with full military honors beside her husband, Lt Col Maurice Harris, at Arlington Nation-al Cemetery on 7 Sep 2019.