December 7-19, 1972. The Apollo 17 mission is the last of the
 moon landings. It is also the first US manned launch to be conduct-
 ed at night. Mission commander Navy Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan and lunar
 module pilot/geologist Harrison Schmitt spend a record seventy-five
 hours on the lunar surface.
     December 18, 1972. The US begins Operation Linebacker II, the
 eleven-day bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. Massive air strikes help
 persuade North Vietnam to conclude Paris peace negotiations, which
 will be finalized January 27, 1973.
     December 18, 1972. In a throwback to past aerial combat, SSgt.
 Samuel O. Turner, the tailgunner on a Boeing B-52D bomber downs a
 trailing MiG-21 with a blast of .50-cal. machine guns near Hanoi.
 Six days later, A1C Albert E. Moore, also a B-52 gunner, shoots down
 a second MiG-21 after a strike on the Thai Nguyen rail yard. These
 were the only aerial gunner kills of the war.
     January 8, 1973. Capt. Paul D. Howman (pilot) and 1st Lt.
 Lawrence W. Kullman (WSO), flying in a McDonnell Douglas F-4D, record
 the last USAF victory in the Vietnam War as they shoot down a MiG-21
 near Hanoi. It was the duo's only aerial victory.
     January 27, 1973. Cease-fire agreements ending the war in
 Vietnam are signed in Paris.
     February 12, 1973. Operation Homecoming, the return of 591 Amer-
 ican POWs from North Vietnam, begins.
     April 10, 1973. First flight of the Boeing T-43A navigation
 trainer occurs. The T-43 is developed from the 737-200 civil
 transport.
     May 25-June 22, 1973. An all-Navy crew of Capt. Pete Conrad and
 Cmdrs. Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz salvage the Skylab program, as
 they repair the space station (which had been damaged on launch) in
 orbit. Their twenty-eight day, 404-orbit mission is the longest in
 history to this point.
     July 1, 1973. Authorization for the military draft ends.
     July 18, 1973. John L. McLucas becomes Secretary of the Air
 Force.
     July 28-September 25, 1973. The Skylab 3 crew of Navy Capt. Alan
 Bean, Marine Maj. Jack Lousma, and scientist Dr. Owen Garriott per-
 form valuable science experiments and Earth observations during their
 fifty-nine day, 892-orbit stay on the space station.
     August 1, 1973. Gen. George S. Brown becomes Air Force Chief of
 Staff.
     October 1, 1973. CMSgt. Thomas N. Barnes becomes Chief Master
 Sergeant of the Air Force.
     November 10, 1973. The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's aerial de-
 monstration squadron, fly their 518th and last show in the McDonnell
 Douglas F-4E Phantom II at New Orleans, La.The team would convert to
 the Northrop T-38A Talon for the 1974 show season.
     November 14, 1973. The US ends its major airlift to Israel. In a
 thirty-two-day operation during the Yom Kippur War, Military Airlift
 Command airlifts 22,318 tons of supplies.
     November 14, 1973. The first production McDonnell Douglas F-15A
 Eagle is delivered to the Air Force at Luke AFB, Ariz.
     November 16, 1973-February 8, 1974. A crew of space rookies,
 Marine Lt. Col. Gerald Carr; Air Force Lt. Col. William Pogue, a
 former Thunderbird pilot; and Dr. Edward Gibson form the third and
 final Skylab crew. At eighty-four days, this crew, which observes the
 Comet Kohoutek during the mission, will hold the American space
 mission duration record until 1995.
     January 21, 1974. The General Dynamics YF-16 prototype makes a
 first, unplanned, flight at Edwards AFB, Calif. As company test
 pilot Phil Oestricher conducts high-speed taxi tests, and the air-
 craft lifts off the runway, and rather than risk damage to the air-
 craft, the pilot elects to lift off and go around to come in for a
 normal landing. The first "official" flight is made on February 2,
 also by Mr. Oestricher.
     June 9, 1974. Company pilot Henry E. Chouteau makes the first
 flight of the Northrop YF-17 at Edwards AFB, Calif. Although the
 YF-17 would not be selected as the winner of the Air Force's Light-
 weight Fighter Technology evaluation program, it would become the
 progenitor of the Navy's F/A-18 Hornet.
     July 1, 1974. Gen. David C. Jones becomes Air Force Chief of
 Staff.
     September 1, 1974. Maj. James V. Sullivan and Maj. Noel Widdi-
 field set a New York-to-London speed record of 1,806.964 mph in a
 Lockheed SR-71A. The trip takes one hour, fifty-four minutes, fifty-
 five seconds.
     October 24, 1974. The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems
 Organization carries out a midair launch of a Boeing LGM-30A Minute-
 man I from the hold of a Lockheed C-5A.
     December 23, 1974. Company pilot Charles Bock, Jr., USAF Col.
 Emil Sturmthal, and flight test engineer Richard Abrams make the
 first flight of the Rockwell B-1A variable-geometry bomber from
 Palmdale, Calif.
     January 13, 1975. The General Dynamics YF-16 is announced as the
 winner of the Air Force's Lightweight Fighter Technology evaluation
 program. The F-16 is also the leading candidate to become the Air
 Force's new air combat fighter. The YF-17 becomes the predecessor
 of the Navy's F/A-18 Hornet.
     January 16-February 1, 1975. Three USAF pilots set eight recog-
 nized class records for time-to-climb (jet aircraft) in the McDonnell
 Douglas F-15A Streak Eagle at Grand Forks AFB, N.D. One of the
 records, time-to-climb to 20,000 meters (two minutes, 2.94 seconds)
 set by Maj. Roger J. Smith, still stands.
     January 26, 1975. The Force Modernization program, a nine-year
 effort to replace all Boeing LGM-30B Minuteman Is with either
 Minuteman IIs (LGM-30F) or Minuteman IIIs (LGM-30G), is completed,
 as the last ten LGM-30Gs are turned over to SAC at F.E. Warren AFB,
 Wyo.
     February 1, 1975. Maj. Roger Smith sets a world time-to-climb
 record to 30,000 meters (98,425 feet) in three minutes, 27.8 seconds
 in the McDonnell Douglas F-15A Streak Eagle.
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------