May 15, 1975. Carrying 175 Marines, Air Force special operations
 helicopters land on Kho Tang Island, off the Cambodian coast, to be-
 gin rescue of the crew of the US merchant ship Mayaguez, which had
 been seized in international waters by the Cambodian Navy three days
 earlier.
     June 30, 1975. The last Douglas C-47A Skytrain in routine Air
 Force use is retired to the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson
 AFB, Ohio.
     July 15-24, 1975. US astronauts Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford,
 USAF, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton rendezvous, dock, and
 shake hands with Soviet cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov
 in orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
     August 20, 1975. The Viking 1 mission to Mars is launched from
 Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., on a Titan III booster. The spacecraft en-
 ters Mars orbit on June 19, 1976, and the lander, which takes soil
 samples and performs rudimentary analysis on them, soft-lands on
 July 20, 1976.
     September 1, 1975. Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., USAF, be-
 comes the first black officer to achieve four-star rank in the US
 military.
     October 21, 1975. Fairchild Republic Co.'s A-10A Thunderbolt II
 makes its first flight. The first combat-ready A-10A wing will be
 the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach, S.C., which will
 begin taking delivery of the fighters in March 1977.
     November 29, 1975. The first Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB,
 Nev., begins a new era of highly realistic training for combat
 aircrews.
     January 2, 1976. Thomas C. Reed becomes Secretary of the Air
 Force.
     May 8, 1976. The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's aerial demonstra-
 tion squadron, fly the 2,000th show in their twenty-three year his-
 tory at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The team's Northrop T-38A Talons
 sport a special paint scheme for America's Bicentennial celebration.
     July 3, 1976. In an Israeli commando assault on Entebbe airport
 in Ugnada, the Israelis destroy four MiG-17s and seven MiG-21s on
 the ground and rescue 105 mostly Israeli and Jewish hostages held by
 pro-Palestinian terrorists.
     July 27-28, 1976. Three SR-71 pilots (Maj. Adolphus H. Bledsoe,
 Capt. Robert C. Helt, and Capt. Eldon W. Joersz) set three absolute
 world flight records over Beale AFB, Calif: altitude in horizontal
 flight (85,068.997 feet), speed over a straight course (2,193.16
 mph), and speed over a closed course (2,092.294 mph). The records
 are still standing in 1996.
     March 24, 1977. Boeing delivers the first basic production ver-
 sion of the E-3A Sentry (AWACS) to Tinker AFB, Okla.
     April 6, 1977. John C. Stetson becomes Secretary of the Air
 Force.
     June 30, 1977. President Jimmy Carter, citing the continued
 ability of the B-52 fleet and the development of cruise missiles,
 announces he is canceling the B-1A variable-geometry bomber program.
 Testing of the four B-1A prototypes will continue, however.
     August 1, 1977. CMSgt. Robert D. Gaylor becomes Chief Master
 Sergeant of the Air Force.
     August 23, 1977. Cyclist/pilot Bryan Allen wins the $95,000
 Kremer Prize for successfully demonstrating sustained, maneuverable,
 man-powered flight in the MacReady Gossamer Condor. Mr. Allen pedals
 the aircraft, which is made of thin aluminum tubes covered with
 Mylar plastic and braced with stainless steel, over a 1.15-mile
 course at Shafter Airport, Shafter, Calif.
     August 31, 1977. Alexander Fedotov, flying in the MiG E-266M, a
 modified MiG-25 "Foxbat," sets the recognized absolute record for
 altitude, reaching 123,523.58 feet at Podmosconvnoe, USSR. This
 record still stands.
     October 1, 1977. Volant Oak, the quarterly rotation of six Air
 Force Reserve and Air National Guard transports to Howard AFB, Pan-
 ama, for in-place tactical airlift in Central and South America,
 begins.
     December 1, 1977. In total secrecy, company test pilot Bill Park
 makes the first flight of the Lockheed XST Have Blue demonstrator at
 Groom Lake, Nev. Developed in only twenty months, Have Blue is
 designed as a test-bed for stealth technology.
     February 22, 1978. The first test satellite in the Air Force's
 Navstar Global Positioning System is successfully launched into
 orbit.
     March 23, 1978. Capt. Sandra M. Scott becomes the first female
 aircrew member to pull alert duty in SAC.
     July 1, 1978. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., becomes Air Force Chief of
 Staff.
    August 11-17, 1978. Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman
 complete the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Flying
 in the helium-filled Double Eagle II, the trio makes the 3,100-mile
 flight from Presque Isle, Me., to Miserey, France, in 137 hours, six
 minutes.
     November 30, 1978. The last Boeing LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM is
 delivered to the Air Force at Hill AFB, Utah.
     January 6, 1979. The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill AFB,
 Utah, receives the first operational General Dynamics F-16A fighters.
 The first Air Force Reserve F-16s are delivered to the 419th TFW at
 Hill on January 28, 1984.
     June 12, 1979. Pilot/cyclist Bryan Allen makes the first human-
 powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
     July 9, 1979. The Voyager 2 space probe, launched in 1977, flies
 within 399,560 miles of Jupiter's cloud tops. Voyager 2 will pass
 Neptune in 1989.
     July 26, 1979. Hans Mark becomes Secretary of the Air Force.
     August 1, 1979. CMSgt. James M. McCoy becomes Chief Master Ser-
 geant of the Air Force.
 End of Part 31
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