1993-Contin ued

5 May Commander, Helicopter Antisubmarine Light

Wing, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMHSLWINGPAC) was es-

tablished in a ceremony at NAS North Island, Calif.;

Captain John R. Brown was the first commander of the

new type wing.

6 May Lieutenant Commander Kathryn P. Hire, a

Naval Reservist, was selected to be assigned to VP-62.

She was the Navy's first woman to become eligible to

compete for assignments in aircraft engaged in combat

mISSIOns.

7 May Speaking to aviators at the seventh annual

Naval Aviation Symposium in Pensacola, Fla., Vice

Admiral Ronald 1. Zlatoper, Chief of Naval

Personnel, outlined the Navy's plan to open new op-

portunities for women. The first squadron expected

to be assigned women was VAQ-130. CVW-3, em-

barked on Dwight D. Eisenhower and CVW-l1 on

Abraham Lincoln were also scheduled to be as-

signed women.

17 May Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General

Colin Powell, approved the Armed Forces Expeditionary

Medal for Operation Restore Hope veterans.

1 June Commander, Strike Fighter Wing, Pacific,

changed from a flag-level functional wing to a type

wing, as part of the ongoing reorganization of the

wings in the Pacific Fleet.

8 June Commander, Patrol Wing 2 (COMPATWING),

was disestablished after 56 years of service.

11 June Ground breaking took place at NAS

Patuxent River, Md., for the new Aircraft Technology

Laboratory.

26 June U.S. Navy surface vessels launched a suc-

cessful strike on the Iraqi Intelligence Service head-

quarters building in Baghdad. The action was in re-

sponse to Iraq's attempt on former President George

H. W. Bush's life while on a visit to Kuwait in April.

Theodore Roosevelt and Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) were

dispatched to the Red Sea to reinforce the area.

14 July Secretary of Defense Les Aspin approved an

order directing U.S. aircraft to deploy and join NATO's

planned air support to the UN protection force in

Bosnia. In response to this order, Theodore Roosevelt

returned to the Mediterranean in support of Operation

Deny Flight-the enforcement of the "no-fly zone"

over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

387

11 August America deployed from Norfolk, Va., to

relieve Theodore Roosevelt in Operation Deny Flight

missions over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

17 August A VAQ-209 Starwarriors' EA-6B and VP-60

Cobras' P-3 conducted the first successful over-the-hori-

zon HARM and Harpoon War-at-Sea strike using target-

ing data from space delivered directly to the cockpit.

1 September The Clinton Administration unveiled a

new plan for cutting the armed forces based on the

Bush Administration's doctrine that the United States

should be prepared to fight two simultaneous major

regional conflicts and one low intensity conflict. The

plan called for 11 battle groups and one carrier to

serve as both a reserve and training carrier. The Bush

plan had called for 12 battle groups.

3 September AMRAAM achieved initial operating ca-

pability for the Navy with CVW-l1 aboard Abraham

Lincoln.

9 September NAS Jacksonville, Fla., VP-30 merged

with VP-31 based at Moffett Field, Calif., to form the

Navy's largest aviation squadron. The consolidation

was the result of the military's downsizing. It enabled

the Navy to train all P-3 aircraft crews in Jacksonville.

11 September The Navy's first "supercarrier"

Forrestal was decommissioned at Pier 6E at the

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pa. Forrestal was the first

carrier designed and built to land jet powered aircraft.

1 October The NAVCAD program was disestab-

lished. The program was begun during World War II,

and initially called the V-5 and then the V-12 program.

It was disestablished in 1966, but later reinstated in

1986 to help train more pilots for the planned 600-ship

fleet.

1 October U.S. Atlantic Command (USACOM) be-

came responsible for joint training and deploying of all

continental U.S.-based forces. This merged the Army's

Forces Command (FORSCOM), the Navy's Atlantic

Fleet, the Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC) and

the Marine Forces Atlantic into a single combat com-

mand. The Atlantic Command would support all U.S.

involvement in UN peacekeeping operations and re-

spond to natural disasters within the United States. The

command would also plan for the land defense of the

United States.

1 October The Naval Training Systems Center, Orlando,

Fla., was redesignated the Naval Air Warfare Center,

Training Systems Division, with no change of mission.