Former U.S. Army
Cpl. Rodolfo P.
Hernandez wears
his Medal of Honor,
earned in Korea in
1951, while waiting
to perform the coin
toss at the start
of the West Point/
Louisiana Tech
football game at
Cotton Bowl Stadium,
Sept. 29, 2013.
The U.S. Army
Me...

July 7, 1970: U.S. Army Maj. Gen. George W. Casey Sr., father of former Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr., is killed in a helicopter crash while serving in Vietnam, according to American Military History, Volume II: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2008. The younger Casey was commissioned that same year into the infantry via Georgetown University's Reserve Officer Training Corps program.

July 8, 1960: U.S. Air Force units begin evacuating U.S. citizens and delivering food by air to the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo after chaos threatened the new nation's stability, according to the Air Force History, One Hundred Ten Years of Flight. Later, the Air Force spent the next four years transporting U.N. troops from all over the world to the country for peacekeeping missions.

July 9, 1947: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield, superintendent of Army nurses, to the rank of lieutenant colonel during a Pentagon ceremony, according to the This Day in Military History website. The promotion made her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent commission in the regular Army.

July 10, 1950: The first tank battle between U.S. and North Korean forces occurs near Chonui in what is western South Korea today, according to the This Day in Military History website. Only one enemy tank was destroyed, while two U.S. tanks were lost in the battle.

July 11, 1953: Marine Maj. John F. Bolt becomes the first jet ace in Marine Corps history when he shoots down his fifth and sixth enemy MIG 15s while leading a four-plane flight in an attack on four MIG's east of Sinui-Ju, Korea, according to an entry on Navy.mil.

July 12, 1862: The U.S. Army Medal of Army is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, according to the This Day in Military History website. The award is signed in the name of Congress, "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection."

July 13, 2011: A drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan begins when some 650 U.S. troops leave Afghanistan under President Barack Obama's planned drawdown, according to the This Day in Military History website.