[Featured image: the scene of destruction after U.S. and coalition aircraft target a convoy of escaping Iraqi soldiers along the “Highway of Death.” (U.S. Air Force photo)
1949: Lucky Lady II, a U.S. Air Force B-50 “Superfortress” bomber flown by Capt. James Gallagher and his 13-man crew, takes off from Fort Carswell (Tex.) on their first leg of the first-ever nonstop flight around the world. The flight covers 23,452 miles in 94 hours and 1 minute, requiring mid-air refuelings over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Hawaii.
After Gallagher touches down, Air Force General Curtis LeMay announces that his Strategic Air Command bombers can reach “any place in the world that required the atomic bomb.” Unfortunately one of the KB-29 tankers from Clark Field in the Philippines crashes after fueling the Lady, killing all 9 crewmembers.
1955: As North American Aviation test pilot George F. Smith tests an F-100 “Super Sabre” prior to the fighter’s delivery to the Air Force, his controls freeze up, sending the fighter into a dive. Smith ejects at 777 miles per hour and becomes the first airman to punch out of a aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds (Mach 1.05). He is subjected to over 40 G’s during violent deceleration, which destroys much of his parachute. The unconscious pilot lands in the Pacific Ocean, remarkably less than 100 yards from a former Naval rescue worker on his fishing boat. Smith will spend the next seven months in the hospital recovering.
1991: Although Saddam Hussein refers to it as a withdrawal and not a retreat, his forces are being routed in Kuwait by the American-led ground campaign – only in its third day. Far from being the “Mother of All Battles” that the Iraqi dictator predicted, 21 of his divisions are either destroyed or are no longer combat effective. Meanwhile, a Marine reconnaissance unit enters Kuwait City, the first American outfit to reach the Kuwaiti capital.
That evening, a large column of Iraqi Army vehicles heading north along Highway 80 are targeted by Marine A-6 “Intruder” aircraft. The attack planes hit the first and last vehicles, boxing in the column. Over the next ten hours, coalition aircraft hammer the hundreds of trapped vehicles, creating a swath of destruction known as the “Highway of Death.”