394
UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995
1995-Contin ued
17 February Ground breaking began at NAS
Patuxent River, Md., for a new facility to house the
Naval Air Systems Command Headquarters to be relo-
cated from Arlington, Va.
28 February-2 March Naval and Marine forces from
Belleau Wood conducted amphibious landings in
Mogadishu, Somalia, to establish a rear guard security
perimeter in support of Operation United Shield, which
ensured a safe and orderly withdrawal of the UN forces
in Somalia. Essex ARG also participated in this operation.
1 March Inchon was redesignated MCS 12 and
scheduled for a 13-month overhaul at Pascagoula,
Miss., and conversion into a mine countermeasures
support ship. Inchon had just completed a year operat-
ing off the coasts of Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti.
2 March Lieutenant
Commander Wendy
Lawrence became the
first female Naval Aviator
in space when she
launched as a crew mem-
ber and mission specialist
on the Space Shuttle
Endeavour. The mission
was commanded by
Commander Stephen
Oswald, USNR, a Naval
Aviator. Lieutenant
Commander Lawrence
was also the first female
Naval Academy graduate
astronaut.
6 March The first F-
117 A stealth fighter en-
gine was inducted into
depot-level repair at
Naval Aviation Depot,
Jacksonville, Fla.
10 April VA-196, NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., ac-
cepted the last rewinged A-6E Intruder (BuNo 159579).
Naval Aviation Depot, Alameda, Calif., had rewinged
23 A-6s since June 1989.
3 May AW3(NAC) Carly Renee Harris became the
first aircrew-qualified woman Aviation Warfare Systems
Operator in the S-3 Viking community. She was as-
signed to VS-22, NAS Jacksonville, Fla.
20 May Theodore Roosevelt and CVW-8 transited the
Suez Canal from U.S. Central Command to the Adriatic
Sea to participate in Operation Deny Flight.
26 May Theodore Roosevelt, with CVW-8's 36 F/A-18
and 14 F-14 aircraft embarked, arrived in the Adriatic
Sea to maintain a presence in response to the in-
creased ethnic tension in Bosnia-Herzegovina, cutting
short her participation in Exercise Trident Express in
the central Mediter-
ranean Sea.
1 June The Depart-
ment of Defense un-
veiled the low-observ-
able Tier III Minus
unmanned aerial vehicle
known as Dark Star in a
ceremony held at
Lockheed's Skunk
Works in Palmdale,
Calif.
8 June CH-53 Sea
Stallions, AH-l W Sea
Co bras
and
A V -8B
Harriers from the 24th
Marine Expeditionary
Unit aboard Kearsarge
rescued Captain Scott
O'Grady, USAF, after he
was shot down while
flying over Bosnia on 2
June in support of
Operation Deny Flight.
Lieutenant Commander Lawrence was the first Navy woman line officer
Naval A viator astronaut.
14 March Naval Aviator
and astronaut Captain
Michael A. Baker, USN,
was assigned as the NASA manager of operational
activities at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
in Star City, Russia, near Moscow. The assignment
coincided with the launching of Naval Aviator
Captain Norman Thagard, USMC, and two cosmo-
nauts aboard a Soyuz rocket for a three-month stay
aboard Russia's space station Mir.
27 June-7 July Naval Aviator and astronaut Cap-
tain Robert Gibson, USN, commanded the Space
Shuttle Atlantis on the first U.S. shuttle-Russian
space station docking mission, STS-71. The mission
was the first joint docking mission between the two
countries since the Apollo-Soyuz test project flight
in 1975.

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