10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and
Capt. Michael T. Adams was born on March 28, 1946, and lived in Albuquerque, NM. He was a member of the New Mexico Air National Guard serving with the 188TH TAC FTR SQDN/31ST TAC FTR WING/7TH AF, United States Air Force. The squadron had been activated in January of 1968 and deployed to Vietnam later that year.
Adams officially began his tour on June 4, 1968. He had completed 11 months of his tour when he was shot down over Laos, in the vicinity of Ban Nathon Mai, 40 miles west of the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) between North Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam. He came into contact with heavy automatic weapons/small arms and was Killed in Action.
Mike is buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
