The first black flying unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, is activated. It becomes one of three squadrons of the 332nd Fighter Group-known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.