The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare service branch of
the United Armed Forces. It was Initially part of the United States Army, the
USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18,
1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch
of the U.S. military to be formed, as well as the world’s most technologically
sophisticated air force.

The Thunderbirds are the air demonstration squadron of the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

On September 9, 1942, a Japanese submarine was spotted cruising in an easterly direction raising its periscope occasionally as it neared the Oregon Coastline. Based
on the Sub was a small two passenger float plane (above). It’s mission; a test run to
start a devastating forest fire by dropping two 176 pound incendiary bombs. If they
were successful, Japan had hopes of attacking the eastern end of the Panama
Canal to slow down shipping from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

This event, which caused no damage, marked the only time during World War ll that
an enemy plane had dropped bombs on the U.S. mainland. A major fire had been
averted due to the fact the coastal fog, mist and heavy doses of Oregon rain made
the forests so wet they simply didn’t catch fire.

Fifty years later on 1992, the the Japanese pilot, Nobuo Fujita who survived the war, returned to Oregon to help dedicate a historical plaque (below) at the exact spot
where his two bombs had impacted. The elderly pilot then donated his ceremonial
sward as a gesture of peace and closure of the bombings of Oregon on that day
in 1942. Fujita would return to Brookings 3 more times before his death in 1997,
and the following year his daughter buried some of his ashes at the site of his
famous bombing.

Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita

Fujita is shown with his Yokosuka E14Y (Glen) float plane prior to his flight.

The Memorial Plaque located in Brookings, Oregon at the site of the 1942
bombing

Orville Wright along with his older brother Wilbur are credited with inventing
and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled,
powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.

In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their invention into the first
practical fixed-wing aircraft.  Although not the first to build and fly experimental
aircraft, Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to invent aircraft controls that
made fixed-wing powered flight possible. On August 19, 1940 – The new Civil
Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to Orville Wright.

Orville Wright’s famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 17, 1903.

Orville Wright with his brother Wilbur

Humorist Will Rogers, left, and famed aviator Wiley Post, at the Renton
airport before their fatal Alaska trip.    

The crash site