June 28, 1995. The National Air and Space Museum of the Smith-
 sonian Institution finally puts the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped
 the first atomic bomb on Japan, on display. The exhibition program
 is straightforward and factual. Earlier, amid major controversy, the
 museum canceled plans to show the Enola Gay as a prop in a politi-
 cized horror show after Congress and the public--alerted by reports
 from the Air Force Association--took strong objection.
     July 7-August 5, 1995. The C-17 airlifter, earlier beset by
 troubles so severe that program cancelation was a possibility, pro-
 duces outstanding results in a month-long wartime surge test. In
 November, the Department of Defense says the C-17 has bounced back
 from its problems and authorizes the Air Force to buy up to 120 of
 these aircraft.
     July 8, 1995. Minuteman III ICBM achieves 100 million hours of
 operational duty.
     July 29, 1995. Air Combat Command activates the 11th Reconnais-
 sance Squadron, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) unit, and assigns
 it to the 57th Operations Group at Nellis AFB, Nev. Equipped with
 the Tier II Predator--and later Tier II+ and Tier III--types, the
 11th RS is tasked to explore the use of remotely piloted aircraft.
     August 25, 1995. A 2d Bomb Wing B-52H, and its five-member crew,
 set an aviation world record from Edwards AFB, Calif.--flying 5,400
 nautical miles, unrefueled, with a payload of 11,000 pounds, in
 eleven hours, twenty-three minutes, with an average speed of 556 mph.
     August 30, 1995. US Air Force, Navy, and Marine aircraft lead
 Operation Deliberate Force, a NATO bombing campaign responding to
 Bosnian Serb mortar attacks that killed thirty-eight civilians at an
 outdoor market in Sarajevo. The operation ends September 14, 1995.
     September 1, 1995. Officially emerging from mothballed status,
 the SR-71 is declared operationally capable by Air Combat Command.
     September 10, 1995. The First Lady, the first production Lockheed
 C-130 Hercules, is retired in ceremonies at Duke Field, Fla. This
 aircraft, which was first flown on April 7, 1955, had a distinguished
 career, including more than 4,500 combat hours in Southeast Asia
 after it was converted into a gunship. The First Lady was later
 retired to the USAF Armament Museum at Eglin AFB, Fla.
     October 1, 1995. Air Combat Command activates the 609th Infor-
 mation Warfare Squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C.
     November 2, 1995. Lt. Col. Greg Feest becomes the first pilot to
 log 1,000 hours of flight time in the Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk
 Stealth fighter.
     December 6, 1995. A crew from the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ram-
 stein AB, Germany, marks the beginning of Operation Joint Endeavor
 by flying their Lockheed C-130E in to Tuzla, Bosnia. Operation Joint
 Endeavor is the ongoing NATO effort to enforce the Bosnian peace
 treaty signed at Dayton, Ohio.
     December 7, 1995. Literally going out in a blaze of glory, the
 Galileo spacecraft's atmospheric probe separates from the orbiter
 and plunges into Jupiter's atmosphere. The probe sends a stream of
 data back to the orbiter and manages to survive 58.5 minutes before
 it is crushed by the intense pressure. Galileo was launched from
 the space shuttle in 1989.
     December 19, 1995. A federal judge rules in favor of General
 Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, establishing that the Navy's A-12
 Avenger stealth attack aircraft was canceled for the convenience
 of the governement, rather than default. The A-12 was canceled in
 1991.
     December 20, 1995. NATO air operation Decisive Endeavor begins
 to monitor and enforce peace implementation in Bosnia.
     January 4, 1996. Sikorsky test pilot Rus Stiles and Boeing test
 pilot Bob Gradle make the first flight of the Army's YRAH-66 Comanche
 helicopter prototype at West Palm Beach, Fla. The RAH-66, designed
 for armed reconnaissance/light attack missions, is the first heli-
 copter to employ stealth technologies.
     February 14, 1996. A crew flying the Northrop Grumman E-8A Joint
 STARS surveillance platform over Bosnia makes the type's fiftieth
 mission in support of Operation Joint Endeavor, breaking a sortie
 record set in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Despite the E-8's
 successes in these two operations, Joint STARS is still officially
 in development. End of Part 41
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