The Nuclear Weapons Center activates at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., to oversee nuclear weapon sustainment. The Air Force Materiel Command direct reporting unit was later redesignated the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center on Feb. 29, 2008.
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.