From the Revolutionary War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. military history includes the development of air power from the Aeronautical Division of the US Army Signal Corps in 1907 to the independent US Air Force on September 18, 1947. Key milestones include the first military airplane specification and first military airplane ordered in 1907 and 1908, Orville Wright's first test flight of a military airplane in 1908, the Lafayette Escadrille and the first Aero Squadron in 1916, the first use of U.S. Army military airplanes during the Mexican Punitive Expedition, the first combat mission by the 103d Aero Squadron in 1918, creation of the Air Service in 1920 and the Army Air Corps in 1926, formation of the 99th Pursuit Squadron in 1941 as the first black flying unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Army Air Corps becoming the Army Air Force on June 20, 1941. During and after World War II, the Bell P-59 became the first jet powered aircraft tested in 1942, the Doolittle Raiders bombed Japan from an aircraft carrier that same year, the Women Airforce Service Pilots was formed in 1943, and after the US Air Force was established in 1947, the service took part in events and advances including the Berlin Airlift, the first jet bomber entering USAF service, the first jet aerial combat victory, a Mach 2 test flight, the first B-52 bomber entering service, the first Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile launch, the Discovery I satellite launch into polar orbit, retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam, the moon landing by USAF officers Col. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Col. Neil Armstrong in 1969, the first Navstar Global Positioning System test flight launched into Earth orbit in 1978, participation in Operation Urgent Fury, air strikes against Libya, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Deny Flight, humanitarian aid to Uzbekistan in Operation Provide Hope, a critical role in Operation Enduring Freedom, and decommissioning the last Peacekeeper intercontinental missiles in 2005.