<p>Another 'wake-up call' for the USAF came with Operation Urgent Fury, the October 1983 combined arms invasion of Grenada. Airlift and tanker forces played a major role in the initial assault and the follow-up campaign, supporting Rangers, airborne troops and Marines. A-10s were deployed to the region but not used. AC-130 Hercules gunships were employed. The US was heavily involved in the Middle East at the time—a terrorist bombing killed 240 Marines in Lebanon, and a US Navy combat sortie followed soon afterward—but in both trouble spots, for once, the Air Force was outshone by the other armed service branches.
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<p>President Reagan became (in 1984) the first chief executive to win a second term since Eisenhower. A continued tough line on the Soviet Union led to more weapons development, even as arms agreements were being inked. But Reagan also took on terrorists; or, at least, where it was convenient to do so, some terrorists. The handiest target for American wrath was Libya's Colonel Muamar Khadaffi. F-111Fs based in Britain spearheaded Operation Eldorado Canyon, the strikes against Libya in April 1986.
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<p>1986 was also the year the B-1B bomber entered service. The B-1B was not expected to have a conventional bombing role. USAF planners wanted it to penetrate Soviet air space and strike high-value relocatable targets, such as railway-based ICBMs. Most of the people working on the B-1B had no clue that the stealth B-2 was secretly taking shape.
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<p>Again, the Third World offered the locale for Americans to bleed and die. Except for reconnaissance crews, no US Air Force member was ever killed fighting the Soviet Union. President Bush took office (in 1989) at a time when the Berlin Wall had crumbled, the Soviet Union was beginning to come apart, and trouble was brewing south of the border.
