Reviewing history in the military, the Air Force and triumphs and misadventures in airpower. In October 1861, the Union Army Balloon Corps was activated as part of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Balloon Corps was essentially an early form of reconnaissance conducted from a hot air balloon. How did this idea come about? Aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe was in the middle of experimenting a transatlantic crossing by hot air balloon. With the onset of the war, his attempts were interrupted. Instead, he was introduced to President Abraham Lincoln and offered his aviation expertise – he gave Lincoln…
Browsing: Photos
A F-22A Raptor flies over a maintenance crew made up of active-duty and reserve airmen from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Sept. 23. The maintenance members were out in the early snowfall ensuring the jets were ready to fly. (Staff Sgt. Zachary Wolf/Air Force)
Sesame Street’s Elmo walks into the crowd during the Sesame Street/USO Experience at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, Aug. 10, 2013. The Sesame Street/USO Experience for Military Families is the USO’s longest-running, free-traveling tour based on Sesame Street’s military family initiative. The tour is traveling to 42 installations in eight countries in the European and Pacific regions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Dana J. Butler/Released) Check out more photos from the event here.
In honor of #ThrowbackThursday, the official U.S. Air Force Facebook page posted this photo, giving “a shout-out to Basic Military Training Flight 919 from November 1959.” Check out more photos of graduated BMT flights at http://1.usa.gov/12Me4B2.
Reviewing history in the military, the Air Force and triumphs and misadventures in airpower. On Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dubbed “Enola Gay” dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb, nicknamed the “Little Boy,” over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing approximately 110,000 Japanese citizens. Three days later, the U.S. dropped the second atom bomb on Japan, at Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s surrender in WWII. The U.S. had originally planned to drop the bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki on Aug.11, five days after the first was dropped on Hiroshima, but weather forced crews…
Are you a Denver Broncos fan? This Guardsman sure is — enough to be a part of the team. Benjamin Garland, first lieutenant for the 140th Wing, Colorado Air National Guard, is now the Denver Broncos offensive guard. “[It’s] extremely challenging; its way more difficult than it looks,” Garland said in a release. “[It’s] so much a mental game where you have to understand the whole dynamic of the defense and how just a small move from a defensive player changes the play completely.” After a long offseason and spending last year on the practice squad, he’s now in the…
Rocky Wirtz, Chairman of the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks, visited their hangar July 29. He brought something with him that “[he] thinks belongs to some guy named ‘Stanley.'” Thunderbird 12. (Air Force Thunderbirds photo via Instagram). Check out more photos from the Thunderbirds on their Instagram feed here.
Reviewing history in the military, the Air Force and triumphs and misadventures in airpower. On the night of July 24, 1943, over 750 Royal Air Force bombers descended on Hamburg, Germany. “Operation Gomorrah” became a mission for the RAF by night, the Americans by day, which we called “Blitz Week.” The goal? The series of raids were tasked to gain air superiority, cripple German industrial production and to inflict severe material damage on what Air Chief Marshal Arthur T. Harris called the “second city of the Reich.” According to Air Force Magazine, Harris’s Bomber Command “threw 2,355 sorties at Hamburg…
Family members of the crew flying on a C-124 Globemaster II that crashed Nov. 22, 1952, may finally be getting some answers. The shifting of an Alaskan glacier that unearthed some wreckage and frozen remains from the cargo plane that crashed near Mount Gannett, Alaska has given Alaskan Command and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) more evidence to work with. According to ABC News, additional layers of the glacier melted away this winter, yielding more possibilities of finding remains. JPAC returned to Alaska last month to continue the investigation said Lee Tucker, a JPAC spokesperson. JPAC concluded its investigation…
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. As the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., said farewell to Col. Dan Dant and welcomed Col. Daniel Wright III as the new commander, the military tradition of “pass in review” was upheld during the ceremony. What is this and where does it come from? Senior Airman Marcy Glass writes that the tradition of “pass in review” has roots that date back to Alexander the Great. He would walk the lines inspecting his…
