1942: 357 men and five officers of the 6th Naval Construction Battalion arrive in Guadalcanal - the first combat deployment of the legendary "Seabees."

1952: While airmen enjoyed the Labor Day holiday, a tornado hits Carswell Air Force Base, destroying two-thirds of the Air Force's B-36 bomber fleet.

1974: A SR-71 "Blackbird" flown by Air Force Maj. James V. Sullivan streaks from New York to London in 1 hour and 55 minutes, setting a record that still stands today. Despite having to slow down to take on fuel from a

specially modified KC-135 tanker, the reconnaissance plane still averages a blistering Mach 2.27.

Sep. 2

1944: An Avenger torpedo bomber - flown Lt. (junior grade) George H.W. Bush - is shot down by intense anti-aircraft fire after the planes attack Japanese positions on the island of Chichijima. The future president is the

only crewmember of his stricken plane to survive, and is picked up by the submarine US S Finback after spending four hours floating in a liferaft.

1945: Japan surrenders to the United States on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.

1958: An Air Force C-130 takes off from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey for a signals intelligence-gathering mission along the border with Soviet Armenia. The crew inadvertently stray off course and are intercepted by four MiG-17 fighters, which take turns shooting the unarmed reconnaissance plane. The C-130 crashes, killing all 17 aboard. When confronted, the Soviet Union says they found a wrecked plane and repatriates the remains of the plane's six crewmembers, but says nothing of the 11 Security Service airmen that were also aboard.

Sep. 4

1967: When two companies of Marines are ambushed in the Que Son Valley south of the de-militarized zone, the 1st Marine Division sweeps in to clear the area of hostiles. During the battle, Navy chaplain Lt. Vincent R. Capodanno leaves the command post to administer last rites to dying Marines and to aid the corpsmen. Although wounded himself, he refuses treatment and returns to his work. Capodanno is killed by machinegun fire as soon as he finishes dragging a wounded comrade to safety. Meanwhile, Sgt. Lawrence D. Peters ignores hostile fire raining down on his exposed position to pinpoint enemy locations and lead his Marines during the fierce battle. Both Capodanno and Peters are posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sep. 5

1944: While escorting a bombing mission to Stuttgart, Lt. William H. Lewisshoots down five Heinkel He-111 bombers taking off from GOppingen, Germany, becoming an ace in one mission. His flight of P-51 Mustangs

would shoot down 16 bombers during the attack.

Sep. 7

1997: Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor, a fifth-generation stealth fighter billed as unmatched by "any known or projected fighter aircraft," makes its first flight. Only 187 of the $150 million Raptors are built before production ends.

2001: Four days before the 9/11 attacks, the State Department issues a warning to U.S. citizens worldwide of a possible "terrorist threat" from "extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization."

Sep. 9

1972: DeBellevue becomes an ace by shooting down two enemy fighters near Hanoi.

Sep. 10

1951: A 3rd Air Rescue Squadron H-5 helicopter picks up Capt. Ward M. Millar, an F-80 pilot that had been shot down and held as a prisoner of war. Millar escaped after spending two months in captivity, and managed to evade his captors for three weeks, despite having broken both of his ankles when ejecting from his jet.

Sep. 11

2001: As air controllers learn that several planes appear to have been hijacked, fighter jets are scrambled but do not arrive in time to disrupt a complex terrorist attack that kills 2,997 Americans and injures some 6,000. At

9:37a.m., a Boeing 757 flown by Al Qaeda terrorists slams into the Pentagon, killing 55 military personnel and 70 civilian employees. The area hit by the plane was undergoing renovations at the time of the attack, which meant only a few hundred of what would normally be around 5,000 occupants were endangered. Structural reinforcements and a sprinkler system had recently been added - in response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing – which increased survivability. Although it is too late for the Pentagon, all U.S. military facilities worldwide are ordered to enter Force Protection Condition "Delta" - the highest level of readiness for a possible terrorist attack. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld increases the military alert level from DEFCON 5 (the lowest state of military preparedness) to DEFCON 3. Although the Russians would typically match the

increase, President Vladimir Putin notifies George W. Bush that he would order his forces to stand down and denounces the terrorist attack. A report of a possible truck bomb attack targeting the North American Aerospace — Command (NORAD) headquarters in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex leads to the first time the facility closes its massive blast doors, which are designed to withstand a nuclear attack. NORAD now controls of all American air space as combat air patrols guarded the skies and enforced a nationwide no-fly-zone.

Sep. 17

1908: 2,500 people gather at Fort Myer, Va. to watch Orville Wright demonstrate his Wright Flyer to the Army Signal Corps. One of the propellers breaks during the flight, sending the aircraft nose-first into the ground, severely wounding Wright and killing his passenger, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge. Although Wright survived the first-ever fatal aircraft incident, he would spend the next seven weeks recovering in an Army hospital

1947: The National Security Act of 1947 enacts sweeping reorganization of the Armed Forces and intelligence service structure. After 40 years of service as a component of the Army, the newly formed Air Force stands up as an independent branch of the military. The act creates a National Military Establishment - renamed the Department of Defense in 1949 - with the Army, Navy, and Air Force now under a unified command. Also established is the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which provides military advice to the president and the new Cabinet position of Secretary of Defense. The act also establishes the Central Intelligence Agency - America's first

peacetime intelligence service - and the National Security Council, which advises the president on matters of national security and foreign policy.

1948: The first delta-winged aircraft prototype - Convair's XF-92 – conducts its maiden flight. The cutting-edge design will pave the way for forthcoming platforms such as the F-102 Delta Dagger, F-106 Delta Dart, and the B-58 Hustler.

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