[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1349 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1349
Congratulating the United States Air Force on the occasion of its 75th
anniversary.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 14, 2022
Mr. Garamendi (for himself, Mr. Turner, Mr. Kinzinger, and Ms. Castor
of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Congratulating the United States Air Force on the occasion of its 75th
anniversary.
Whereas the United States Air Force celebrates its 75th birthday on September
18, 2022;
Whereas the military has always been a leader in technological innovation, with
aviation roots in the aerial balloons used in the Civil War, inspired to
powered flight by the patent issued to the Wright brothers, and then
evolving to space capabilities;
Whereas the storied history of the Air Force spans milestones over the past
century and around the world, with notable landmarks and advances
breaking new boundaries;
Whereas the Air Force is a strong champion of joint operations and the support
necessary between military branches to effectively sustain modern
combat, and has led the exploration and expansion into space operations;
Whereas, in May 1908, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first officer to
fly solo in an aircraft for a distance of more than 240 feet in the
``White Wing'' in Hammondsport, New York;
Whereas, on March 19, 1910, the Wright Brothers Flying School opened in
Montgomery, Alabama, as a civilian flight school in a location that
eventually became Maxwell Air Force Base;
Whereas, on September 14, 1944, Colonel Floyd B. Wood, Major Harry Wexler, and
First Lieutenant Frank Reckord became the first crew to deliberately fly
into a hurricane to collect scientific data, bringing back findings that
the eye of a hurricane has strong upward currents and the perimeter has
a strong down current;
Whereas, on October 14, 1947, merely a month after the Air Force was officially
created as a separate service, Air Force Captain Charles ``Chuck''
Yeager broke the sound barrier in level flight for the first time;
Whereas, in 1948 and 1949, the Air Force embarked on ``Operation Vittles'', now
known as the Berlin Airlift, to transport more than 1.7 million tons of
supplies and 62,000 passengers into the isolated, Western-controlled
section of Berlin during the 15 months of the largest humanitarian
airlift operation in history;
Whereas, on May 3, 1952, Air Force Lieutenant Colonels Joseph Fletcher and
William Benedict became the first pilots to land an aircraft at the
North Pole, along with navigator First Lieutenant Herbert Thompson and
crew members Staff Sergeant Harold Turner and Airman First Class Robert
Wishard, as they carried out scientific observations of ocean depth and
gravity field strength in the polar area;
Whereas, in December 1958, the Air Force launched the first communications
satellite, which President Dwight Eisenhower used to broadcast a
Christmas message, the first time a human voice was heard from space;
Whereas, in October 1962, at the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis, U-2
pilots Major Richard Heyser and Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr., flew
exceedingly difficult reconnaissance missions over Cuba to prove that
the Soviet Union was constructing missile sites;
Whereas, on June 18, 1981, the F-117 Nighthawk, the world's first stealth combat
aircraft, flew for the first time, representing a new age of innovative
design and construction for fighter and attack aircraft;
Whereas, on April 27, 1994, the Air Force officially declared the satellite
network of the Global Positioning System operational, marking the start
of a new age of useful military electronics that had applicability to
civilian lives;
Whereas, on August 30, 2005, the Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National
Guard dedicated more than 8,000 airmen to begin Hurricane Katrina relief
operations, efforts that expanded to include the evacuation of almost
27,000 displaced persons, medical evacuations of 2,600 patients, and the
airlift of 11,500 tons of relief supplies;
Whereas the Space Force was established on December 20, 2019, ushering in a new
age of a military service focused solely on pursuing superiority in the
space domain;
Whereas the Air Force has long been an organization that attracts successful and
pioneering individuals, including great heroes who sacrificed
significantly for the good of the Nation, proving that a culture of
success is best aided by celebrating diversity within the ranks;
Whereas, on March 11, 1918, Army Air Service Lieutenant Paul Baer became the
first American pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, earning the
Distinguished Service Cross;
Whereas, on April 2, 1939, the National Defense Act of 1940 was signed,
authorizing the Air Corps to train African-American pilots, and the
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama began flight training with 12 African-
American pilot candidates in July of 1941;
Whereas, in August 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jacqueline Cochran was appointed as
the director of the new Women Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASPs,
and was the first woman to break the sound barrier in 1953;
Whereas, on August 13, 1945, First Lieutenant Oscar Perdomo became an ``Ace in a
Day'' and the final Ace of World War II by shooting down 5 enemy
aircraft in a single day, and received a Distinguished Service Cross for
extraordinary heroism in action and an Air Medal with an oak leaf
cluster;
Whereas Major Richard Bong, the top United States Ace of all time and known as
the ``Ace of Aces'', officially shot down 40 enemy aircraft over the
course of WWII while flying a P-38 in the Pacific theater and earning a
Congressional Medal of Honor;
Whereas, following President Truman's Executive Order 9981, the Air Force became
the first branch to enact a plan for racial integration of all personnel
and units;
Whereas, in 1948, the Women's Armed Service Integration Act was enacted,
inspiring Staff Seargent Esther Blake, who had previously experienced
both of her sons being shot down in combat but returned safely by the
end of World War II, to sign up in the first minute of the first day of
eligibility;
Whereas, in 1954, the former Tuskegee Airman General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.,
became the first African-American general in the Air Force;
Whereas, in June 1965, Major Edward White became the first United States
astronaut to conduct an extravehicular ``walk'' in space while embarked
in Gemini 4;
Whereas General Daniel ``Chappie'' James, Jr., a veteran of 3 wars, became the
first African American to reach the rank of four-star general on
September 1, 1975;
Whereas, on June 28, 1976, the Air Force Academy admitted the first female
cadets of whom one member, General Janet Wolfenbarger, would later
become the first female four-star general in the Air Force in 2012;
Whereas, in January 1978, Colonel Ellison Onizuka became an astronaut candidate
and later became the first Asian American in space on the Space Shuttle
Discovery in 1985;
Whereas Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became the first African-American
astronaut to enter spaceflight on the Space Shuttle Challenger on August
30, 1983, for the first of his 4 shuttle missions;
Whereas, on June 10, 1989, Captain Jacquelyn Parker became the first woman to
graduate from the Air Force Test Pilot School;
Whereas, on October 3, 1993, Technical Sergeant Timothy Wilkinson ran through
enemy fire as a pararescueman to extricate dead and wounded special
operations forces in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the longest sustained
fire fight in over 20 years; and
Whereas, on July 23, 1999, Colonel Eileen Collins became the first female
commander of a space shuttle mission when Space Shuttle Columbia
launched: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) commends the stalwart spirit of the Air Force to adapt
to new technology and societal changes;
(2) honors the Airmen past and present who have so
honorably served the Nation and the world; and
(3) congratulates the United States Air Force on the
occasion of its 75th anniversary.
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