This Week In AFLCMC History - July 24 - 30, 2023 Published July 24, 2023 By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office 24 Jul 1965 (Fighters & Advanced Aircraft Directorate) On Jul 24, 1965, an SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) shot down an F-4C Phantom II belonging to the 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron. It was the first U.S. aircraft lost to a SAM during the Vietnam War—over the course of which a total of 110 USAF aircraft were shot down by SAMs. To mitigate the threat, the Air Force created specialized “Wild Weasel” crews, missions, and weapons to destroy SAM sites. It also motivated a significant effort within AFLCMC’s predecessors in Electronic Counter Measures (ECM)/Electronic Warfare (EW). Various systems collected electronic intelligence data, which informed the development of aircraft ECM/EW “pods” to defeat SAM tracking systems. 25 Jul 1986 (Digital Directorate/Hanscom AFB) On this date, the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) selected Martin Marietta and Rockwell from among Phase I National Test Bed (NTB) contractors to continue on with Phase II preliminary designs. The three-phased NTB acquisition began in Mar 1986 with Phase I, where four $1 million firm fixed-price contracts were awarded; and continued on this date into Phase II. In Aug 1986, the SDIO created the NTB Joint Program Office (JPO) at Hanscom AFB, and charged the office with the responsibility for program management. By Dec 1986, Phase II was finished at a cost of $2.7 million per contract and Hanscom’s Electronic Systems Division had established an office at Falcon Air Force Station (now Schriever AFB) in Colorado. Martin Marietta eventually won the contract. The NTB was to be a computer-based simulator capable of assessing strategic defense, and was part of President Reagan’s “Star Wars” space defense program. It would evolve into the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Missile Defense Integration & Operations Center. 27 Jul 1953 (AFLCMC/Korean War) 70 years ago, an armistice between North and South Korea ended U.S. involvement in the Korean War. It was the first war fought by the newly-independent U.S. Air Force, and when fighting ceased U.S. airpower had killed 10 enemy aircraft for every 1 U.S. aircraft lost—partly thanks to the superior F-86 Sabre. At Wright-Patterson AFB, the Korean War brought with it increased manning, new projects, and a construction boom. The Wright Air Development Center—headquartered in Bldg. 14 where AFLCMC is headquartered today—spearheaded the Air Force’s development efforts during the war. The conflict jump-started the complete transition from the World War II-era piston-and-propeller aircraft to jet-powered fighters and bombers. A new emphasis on electronics also led to the introduction of the field of avionics—marrying “aviation” and “electronics”—as well as air-to-air missiles, radar bombing, guided missiles & bombs, and the extensive use of airborne radar. 28 Jul 1935 (Bombers Directorate) On this date, Boeing’s Model 299—which would serve as the proto-type for the B-17 Flying Fortress—first flew at the Boeing plant near Seattle, Washington. In August, it arrived at Wright Field to undergo testing, where it far surpassed the Army’s specifications for speed, range, and load-carrying capacity. Unfortunately, in Oct 1935, Model 299 would crash at Wright Field, instantly killing Wright Field’s Chief Test Pilot Major Ployer P. Hill (for whom Hill AFB is named) and injuring Boeing Chief Test Pilot Leslie Tower, who later died of his injuries. The crash occurred because the pilots forgot to unlock part of the flight controls during the complex start-up. This event inspired the creation of the now-universal aircraft preflight checklist. Despite the accident, the Model 299 was successful enough that the Air Corps continued its development and procured it by the thousands as the iconic B-17 of WW2. 29 Jul 1995 (ISR & Special Operations Forces Directorate) On Jul 29, 1995, the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron (today the 11th Attack Squadron) was stationed at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field (today Creech AFB). At that same time, they also became the first Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) squadron in the United States Air Force, being assigned to fly the MQ-1 Predator. They soon did so during Operation Allied Force over the Balkans, when its use was still primarily in reconnaissance (as it would not be armed until 2001). Although the Predator has since been retired, the 11th Attack Squadron continues to serve today with the 432nd Operations Group. 30 Jul 1948 (Bombers Directorate) On this date, 75 years ago, the first of two North American XB-45 Tornado prototypes (one of which, T/N 45-59479, is pictured) was delivered to the Air Force. The second was delivered on August 31st. A third prototype had crashed, killing both test pilots. Flown for about a decade, the B-45 Tornado was America’s first production jet bomber. It was also the first American aircraft with four jet engines. It was designed as a nuclear deterrent (though it also was utilized well as a reconnaissance plane), and became the first jet bomber capable of carrying a nuclear bomb, as well as the first jet bomber to drop a nuclear weapon. Finally, it was the first jet aircraft to be refueled mid-air, a feat made possible by the nascent aerial refueling technologies of the time. 75 Years Ago: The End of Segregation in the Military (26 Jul 1948) Seventy-five years ago, on July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, effectively ending the practice of racial segregation in the military (which at the time was primarily expressed in the form of black and non-black units). Reproduced above, the order outlined the president’s direction that the military provide “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons … without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.” It then established a presidential committee—the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services —to ensure that the military’s integration orders were carried out as described. It wasn’t an easy or an overnight process. President Truman only published the Executive Order because his earlier attempts, in February 1948, to get Congress to act on Commission on Civil Rights recommendations had been met with the threat of filibusters. Even after the order was published, there was resistance in some quarters: Secretary of the Army, Kenneth C. Royall, was forced to retire from his post in 1949 after his continued refusal to integrate the Army following EO 9981. Within the newly-established Air Force, however, the appetite for integrating the service actually predated President Truman’s order that they do so: At a January 1948 meeting of the Air Board, Gen Jimmy Doolittle and others advocated for integration. In an April 5, 1948 letter to Lemuel E. Graves of the Pittsburgh Courier, the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force—Gen Carl “Tooey” Spaatz—wrote that, “[it] is the feeling of this Headquarters that the ultimate Air Force objective must be to eliminate segregation among its personnel,” and that black personnel should be able to compete “for any duty within the Air Force for which they may qualify.” Later that same month, Spaatz announced that the Air Force would make good on its beliefs and integrate (though this would not occur in fact until after EO 9981). Doolittle and Spaatz were not alone in their desire to integrate the Air Force: They were also publicly supported by the Secretary of the Air Force, Stuart Symington; Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel Lt Gen Idwal H. Edwards; Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene Zuckert; and others. Due to this staunch support from the majority of its senior leaders, the Air Force was the first fully integrated branch of the military (completing the process in 1952). The other branches would follow more slowly over the course of the next decade or so. But while the Air Force was ahead of the curve, it is important to acknowledge that not every leader in the Air Force was enthusiastic about integration, and some areas were less quick to comply with Air Force direction than others. Moreover, even after integration was completed, racial prejudice remained. In an April 1952 edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, it was noted that black personnel at Wright-Patterson AFB—where there was “complete integration,” and where a number of black personnel held “top supervisory positions”—were reluctant to move to the South, because not only did they worry that they would face hateful prejudice and discrimination in the communities there, but also that they would “not be given comparable positions [to the ones they had at Wright-Patt] if they [were] moved to Air Force stations in the South.” As suggested above, Wright-Patterson AFB’s integration was considered fairly successful for the time—partly because it had begun on the civilian side years before Truman’s executive order even went into effect. As early as July 1945, The Daily Bulletin: Combined with The Ohio Express (a Dayton-based African American newspaper) noted that nearly 8,000 black civilian workers had “been integrated here at the Wright and Patterson army air fields,” before further indicating that, at both locations, black civilian employees worked “in all branches of civilian employment, ranging from maintenance, semi-skilled and clerical workers to engineers and chemists who are making experiments for the advancement of American air power.” After Truman’s executive order, in June 1949, “over 80 [black] officers and enlisted men” were assigned to Wright-Patt, where the sentiment among base leadership at the time, as expressed in the Ohio Daily Express, was that “those who don’t like it can get out.” In August 1948, the month after President Truman’s executive order, a headline in the New York Age read “Washington Visitors to Wright-Patterson ROTC Camp Discover No Segregation,” and remarked on the fact that the lack of segregation at Wright-Patt seemed to be to the great benefit of everyone. But while Wright-Patterson AFB had a relatively smooth integration following the 1948 Executive Order, the local history (and future) of race relations was more typical of northern cities than idyllic, with periodic race riots and segregated military barracks on base through WWII. Seventy-five years on, work still remains to be done in all quarters of society if we are to truly live up to our nation’s ideals.