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NEWS | Feb. 23, 2011

This week in Air Force history

By Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs

Feb. 20, 1952 - President Harry S. Truman asked retired Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle to lead a three-man commission to study relief of airport congestion near large cities.

Feb. 21, 1973 - A 30-year civil war in Laos ended and a ceasefire prevailed. The U.S. halted air strikes.

Feb. 22, 1945 - Aircraft from Eighth, Ninth, and Fifteenth Air Forces began an all-out assault on German communications and other transportation targets.

Feb. 23, 1912 - The War Department officially recognized the military aviator rating.

Feb. 24, 1969 - An enemy mortar shell strikes an AC-47 gunship on which Airman 1st Class John L. Levitow served. Although seriously wounded, he ejected a smoking flare and became the first enlisted Airman to receive the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

Feb. 25, 1960 - The Army's first test flight of the Pershing I missile proved successful.

Feb. 26, 1974 - The A-10A prototype fired its GAU-8/A gun for the first time during an inflight test at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.