National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

First airman to receive Air Force-designed Medal of Honor dies

By Oriana Pawlyk on August 18, 2014 Air Force, Award, History

Colonel Bernard Fisher, awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967, died over the weekend in Idaho, KBOI 2News reports. He was 87. Fisher was first to receive the Air Force designed Medal of Honor, which was established on April 14, 1965 (The first Medal of Honor received by an airman was awarded to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker for aerial combat in 1918). President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the award to then-Maj. Fisher for risking his life to save a fellow pilot shot down during action in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam in 1966. Fisher, who volunteered to go to Vietnam, “landed his Douglas…

Air Force museum expansion breaks ground

By Stephen Losey on June 4, 2014 History

By 2016, some of the Air Force’s most historic aircraft could have a new home. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday broke ground on its fourth building, the Air Force said this morning. The expansion, which is expected to cost $35.4 million and is scheduled to open to the public in 2016, will be the new home for aircraft from the Presidential, Research and Development and Global Reach collection, and will have a new and expanded Space Gallery. The museum’s new 224,000-square foot building will include some really cool aircraft, including: SAM 26000, the…

VIDEO: USAF Band performs at the National Air and Space Museum in a “flash mob” manner

By Oriana Pawlyk on December 4, 2013 Air Force, Video

Starting with a single cellist on the floor of the National Air and Space Museum’s Milestones of Flight gallery and swelling to 120 musicians, the United States Air Force Band exhilarated museum visitors yesterday with its first-ever flash mob. Check out their holiday-themed performance.

American Veterans Center honors Doolittle Raiders with accompanying toast

By Oriana Pawlyk on November 12, 2013 Air Force, Award, History, Photos, Veterans, Video, Washington

By Oriana Pawlyk and wire reports As three of the four remaining Doolittle Raiders honored one another with a toast Saturday, Nov. 9, veterans, active-duty members, family and friends toasted to the Raiders’ last gathering at the American Veterans Center annual awards gala in Washington, D.C. The 80 men who risked their lives on a World War II bombing mission on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor were honored in Ohio with a wreath laying ceremony and a B-25 flyover that morning, followed by the toast at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Hennessy donated 48 bottles…

Don’t want to run in the Air Force marathon anymore? Give your spot away

By Oriana Pawlyk on July 10, 2013 Air Force, Charity, Sports

The Air Force Marathon has officially sold out all races. So what’s next? Organizers have announced details for a transfer program, which is now “the only official way for runners to give their [running] bib to another runner,” according to Rob Aguiar, the race director. So essentially, if you don’t wish to run anymore, give your spot to one of your friends. “Along with the charity partner slots, it is the only way for someone not currently registered to secure a spot,” he said in an Air Force press release. The transfer program will open July 22 at 9 a.m.…

“Here’s Why” of the week

By Oriana Pawlyk on April 30, 2013 Air Force, Here's Why, History

Taking our “Here’s Why” from the paper to the blog. An explanation for why something is the way it is in the Air Force/military. The protocol for pilots who’ve been shot down has changed from one war to the next: In Korea and Vietnam, for example, a pilot would most likely use Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE), an Air Force program best known to provide any military member with the skills to evade capture, survive, while remaining under the military code of conduct. It even proved useful for fighter pilot Scott Francis O’Grady, who used the skill for six…

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