When you click to view the above video, remember to turn up your sound!  Try viewing the video in Full-Screen mode.  Just click the small icon in the Video Frame’s lower right corner.

On the Centennial of the birth of the First Aero Squadron (“FAS”) held at Beale AFB in Northern  California in 2013, then current commander of the FAS, FASF member, Lt. Colonel Chi Chi Rodriguez, created a short (2:39 Minute) video depicting how his squadron evolved from its humble beginnings a century earlier, into its present day high-powered global reconnaissance role, in which it actively helps defend the United States and its military personnel from any potential or active foreign adversary.

It is interesting to note that the FAS initially engaged in that same combat reconnaissance and surveillance role, when first deployed from Columbus, NM, only three years after is was first organized (during March of 1916).  However its initial combat action was restricted to Mexico. That fledgling First Aero Squadron was hardly capable of any sort of global activity.  In fact, its pilots and airmen had all they could do just to safely fly those early primitive biplanes from their Columbus airfield.

Interestingly, as some of you know, but others do not, Chi Chi is the only Commanding Officer (“CO”) in the history of the FAS to ever return to Columbus, NM, the birthplace of American Air Power.  Chi Chi honored the FASF with a personal visit on June 27 and 28, 2013, when he and his entire family detoured from his scheduled Northern route to Washington, DC, the site of his new assignment, just so he could visit the FASF, its officers and members.  You can Explore this visit right here.