October 30, 1990. Gen. Merrill A. McPeak becomes Air Force Chief
 of Staff.
     November 9, 1990. Col. (Dr.) Thomas C. Cook, believed to be the
 Air Force's last World War II combat veteran still serving, retires.
 He saw action as a B-24 navigator in Europe and transferred to
 Reserve status in 1948. He returned to active duty in 1976.
     December 17, 1990. The Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics YF-22
 prototype is flown to an unprecedented 60 angle-of-attack (AOA)
 attitude and remains in full control in a test flight over Edwards
 AFB.
     January 7, 1991. Saying that "nobody could tell him how much it
 would cost to keep the program going," Secretary of Defense Dick
 Cheney announces that he is canceling the McDonnell Douglas-General
 Dynamics A-12 Avenger attack aircraft program for default. The A-12
 would have been the Navy's first stealth aircraft.
     January 16, 1991. At 6:35 a.m. local time, B-52G crews from the
 2d Bomb Wing, Barksdale AFB, La., take off to begin what will become
 the longest bombing mission in history. Carrying thirty-nine AGM-86C
 air-launched cruise missiles (a conventional version of the nuclear-
 armed General Dynamics AGM-86B ALCM), the bomber crews fly to the
 Middle East and launch their missiles against high-priority targets
 in Iraq.
     January 17, 1991. War begins in the Persian Gulf. Operation Des-
 ert Shield becomes Operation Desert Storm. More than 1,200 combat
 sorties are flown, and 106 cruise missiles are launched against tar-
 gets in Iraq and Kuwait during the first fourteen hours of the
 operation.
     January 18, 1991. Eastern Air Lines, one of the oldest US com-
 mercial carriers, goes out of business. The airline operated for
 sixty-four years.
     January 25, 1991. In one of the fastest development and fielding
 of weapons in modern history, Air Force Systems Command's Armament
 Division asks the Army to machine eight-inch cannon barrels to the
 shape of a bomb. On February 24, the first of these Lockheed/Texas
 Instruments GBU-28/B bombs is tested at Tonopah Test Range, Nev.,
 and penetrates so deeply, the weapon is never found. Within five
 hours of delivery to Saudi Arabia, two of the 4,700-pound weapons
 are dropped from an F-111 on February 27.
     February 6, 1991. Capt. Robert Swain of the 706th Tactical Figh-
 ter Group (AFRES), NAS New Orleans, La., shoots down an Iraqi heli-
 copter in the first air-to-air victory for the Fairchild A-10
 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft. He uses the plane's 30-mm cannon.
     February 15, 1991. In one of the most unusual air-to-air victor-
 ies ever, Capt. Tim Bennett and Capt. Dan Bakke of the 4th Tactical
 Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., shoot down an Iraqi heli-
 copter (probably an Mi-24 "Hind") with a GBU-10 2,000-pound laser-
 guided bomb dropped from their F-15E.
     February 22, 1991. Soviet cosmonaut Musa Manarov sets a record
 for accumulated time in space, amassing his 447th day in orbit.
 Cosmonaut Manarov is on the eighty-third day of his Soyuz TM-11
 mission, working aboard the space station Mir, when he breaks the
 record.
     February 28, 1991. Iraq surrenders to the US-led coalition. In
 the forty-three-day, round-the-clock war, the Air Force flew fifty-
 nine percent of all sorties with less than fifty percent of the
 assets, flew more than 50,000 combat sorties, offloaded more than
 800 million pounds of fuel, and transported 96,465 passengers and
 333 million pounds of cargo.
     March 8, 1991. The first Martin Marietta Titan IV heavy-lift
 space booster to be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., lifts off.
 The booster carries a classified payload.
     April 6, 1991. Operation Provide Comfort, humanitarian air oper-
 ations to protect and supply Kurds in northern Iraq threatened by
 Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War, begins.
     April 18, 1991. The Air Force carries out the first successful
 flight test of the Martin Marietta/Boeing MGM-134A small ICBM. The
 missile flies 4,000 miles from Vandenberg AFB to its assigned target
 area in the Army's Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific Ocean.
     April 23, 1991. Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice announces
 that the Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics F-22 and the Pratt & Whit-
 ney F119 engine are the winners in the Advanced Tactical Fighter
 competition.
     May 6, 1991. The US destroys the last of 846 MGM-31 Pershing II
 missiles prohibited by the INF Treaty. On May 12, the Soviet Union
 destroys the last of 1,846 SS-20 missiles.
     June 6, 1991. The Air Force reveals the existence of the Northrop
 AGM-137A Triservice Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM), a stealthy
 ground attack weapon with a range of less than 600 kilometers.
     July 1, 1991. The Warsaw Pact, the military coalition of Soviet
 Bloc countries, formally disbands.
     July 2, 1991. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. announces the
 first flight of the first production helicopter built without a tail
 rotor. The MD520N uses a blown air system for antitorque and
 directional control.
     September 15, 1991. The McDonnell Douglas C-17A transport makes
 its first flight. The crew of four takes off from the company's plant
 in Long Beach, Calif., and lands two hours, twenty-three minutes
 later at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif.
     September 27, 1991. Strategic bomber crews stand down from their
 decades-long, round-the-clock readiness for nuclear war.
     November 26, 1991. Clark AB, the Philippines, is officially
 turned over to the Philippine government, ending nearly ninety years
 of US occupancy. It was the largest overseas USAF base.
     December 17-19, 1991. Four Naval aviators set sixteen recognized
 class records for altitude, speed, and time-to-climb with and without
 payload (turboprop aircraft) in a Grumman E-2C Hawkeye at NAS
 Patuxent River, Md. The records still stand.
 End of Part 37
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