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Milestones in U. S. Naval Aviation

1961 - Present




Year Ships & Aircraft Events
 [ explosion icon ] Battle [ quill pen icon ] Political/Administrative action

Vietnam War begins December 1961


1961

Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962


1962

1963

1964

1965

1966  [ bunting icon ]
Grumman C-2 Greyhound COD transport enters service

1967

1968

1969  [ gold watch icon ]
30 June: CV-9 USS Essex decommissioned



Year Ships & Aircraft Events
 [ explosion icon ] Battle [ quill pen icon ] Political/Administrative action

1970

1971

1972

1973  [ eraser icon ]  [ welding torch icon ]
1 June: CV-9 ex-Essex struck from the Navy List and subsequently scrapped

1974

1975

Vietnam War ends 30 April 1975


1976

1977

1978

1979



Year Ships & Aircraft Events
 [ explosion icon ] Battle [ quill pen icon ] Political/Administrative action

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985  [ bunting icon ]
12 January: Boeing/BAE AV-8 Harrier multi-role attack aircraft enters service

1986

1987

1988

1989



Year Ships & Aircraft Events
 [ explosion icon ] Battle [ quill pen icon ] Political/Administrative action

1990

Gulf War I ("Desert Storm") January - March 1991


1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998 19 May: Noted ocean explorer Dr. Robert Ballard locates the wreck of CV-5 USS Yorktown at a depth of 16,650 feet near Midway Island. She sits, proudly upright, in remarkably clear water. Read about the Ballard Yorktown expedition at the National Geographic website.

1999  [ quill pen icon ]
The Carrier Project created



Year Ships & Aircraft Events
 [ explosion icon ] Battle [ quill pen icon ] Political/Administrative action

2000

2001  [ explosion icon ]
11 September: Terrorists take over four commercial airliners, crashing two into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth airliner crashes into a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers, alerted by cell- and sky-phone, rush the terrorists and attempt to retake the aircraft. The World Trade Center and several nearby buildings are destroyed, the Pentagon is severely damaged. Almost three thousand people are killed in the aircraft and the buildings. The terrorists are later identified as Islamic extremists.

2002

Gulf War II ("Global War on Terror")


2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010