Technical schools for officers and enlisted men were at Chanute Field, Ill. The Air Service later, Air Corps Tactical School trained officers to command higher units and taught the employment of military aviation.
First located at Langley Field, Va. The Air Corps had at this time officers and 8, enlisted men, and its "modern aeronautical equipment" consisted of 60 pursuit planes and observation planes; total serviceable aircraft of all types numbered less than 1, A few weeks later, on Oct.
A year later this division moved to nearby Wright Field, thereafter the primary base for air logistics. Tactical units, less some observation squadrons scattered throughout the nine Army corps areas, transferred to this initial air force. The GHQAF Commander directed tactical training and operations, while the Chief of the Air Corps maintained control over procurement, supply, training schools and doctrine development.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt acknowledged the growing importance of airpower, recognized that the United States might be drawn into a European war. Assured of a favorable reception in the White House, the Air Corps prepared plans in October for a force of some 7, aircraft.
Soon afterwards, President Roosevelt asked the War Department to prepare a program for an Air Corps composed of 10, airplanes, of which 7, would be combat aircraft. In a special message to Congress on January 12, , the President formally requested this program. Beginning in September , the German army and the German air force rapidly conquered Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France and within one year had driven the British off the continent.
Leaders of the Air Corps now found themselves in the novel position of receiving practically anything they requested. Plans soon called for 54 combat groups. This program was hardly underway before revised plans called for 84 combat groups equipped with 7, aircraft and manned by , troops by June 30, All told, U. Army air forces strength in World War II would swell from 26, men and 2, aircraft in to 2,, men and women and 63, aircraft in Both necessity and desire thus caused a blitz of organizational changes from through Seven months later, these air combat forces returned to the command of air leaders as Gen.
George C. Marshall, U. Early in , the War Department instituted a series of actions to create a hierarchy for noncombat activities. It set up a command eventually designated Flying Training Command to direct new programs for training ground crews and technicians. The next year, the new command assumed responsibility for pilot and aircrew training. The War Department reorganization on March 9, , created three autonomous U.
This administrative reorganization did not affect the status of the Air Corps as a combatant arm of the US Army. Before the Army's air arm was a fledgling organization; by the end of the war the Army Air Forces had become a major military organization comprised of many air forces, commands, divisions, wings, groups, and squadrons, plus an assortment of other organizations.
These three commands and the older Air Transport Command represented respectively the strategic, tactical, defense, and airlift missions that provided the foundation for building the postwar, independent Air Force. The National Security Act of became law on July 26, This meant controlling its own promotion list and presenting its own budget to Congress.
In early , General Norstad and Vice Adm. Arthur W. Radford worked closely as advisors to the Senate Military Affairs subcommittee drafting unification legislation. The bill called for a single Department of Common Defense, three co-equal services, and a Chief of Staff of Common Defense as military advisor to the President. The Navy however, continued to oppose this legislation.
Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal and the uniformed naval leaders remained wary of establishing an Office of the Secretary of Common Defense as well as an independent Air Force. However, President Truman wanted action. Patterson to resolve their differences over the legislation by the end of May , noting that he had decided not to propose a military Chief of Staff of the Defense Department. General Norstad and Symington went to work and were careful to keep Patterson informed.
However, they failed to resolve the difficult questions of a single department, a separate Air Force, the future of land-based aviation, and the status of the Marine Corps. President Truman reacted by meeting with Patterson, Forrestal, Norstad, and Radford, stressing that a Department of National Defense should be created, headed by a civilian.
Each military department would be administered by a civilian secretariat. The Navy would be able to keep the Marine Corps, Truman said, and also aircraft essential for naval operations. The internal administration of the three services should be preserved in order that the high morale and esprit de corps of each service can be retained.
Forrestal then implemented an important change in the unification negotiations by replacing Admiral Radford with Vice Adm. Forrest Sherman.
Chester Nimitz, the Chief of Naval Operations, concluded that Admiral Sherman could negotiate more effectively, and it was now clear that President Truman would not tolerate any stalling. As head of Plans and Operations, General Norstad held a position that more than a decade earlier had been filled by Brig. Andrews, the first airman to hold the post. Eisenhower had specifically requested General Norstad, indicating his confidence in the airman and simultaneously signaling the War Department as to where he stood on unification.
General Eisenhower and AAF leaders desired unity of command based on functions, whereas the Navy wanted to establish commands according to geographic areas. General Norstad and Admiral Sherman wanted to create a system of unified commands in which every theater would have a commander responsible to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Every unified commander would have a joint staff with three service commanders under him. Each theater commander would control land, sea, and air operations in a specific area. The problem in the Pacific which had made for a sometimes sticky situation during the war was solved by forming two commands-Far East Command and Pacific Command. General Norstad and Admiral Sherman agreed that they would always appear together before the committee.
Admiral Sherman and I were invited every time. It was clear that there were differences between us, but they never really split us on the principles.
We never wasted time re-arguing differences between the services. The Marine Corps would remain part of the Navy Department, and naval aviation would handle naval reconnaissance, antisubmarine warfare, and protection of shipping.
A conference committee crafted final legislation, and on July 26, , President Truman approved the National Security Act of , establishing the Office of the Secretary of National Defense and co-equal services-including a United States Air Force. The National Security Act allowed the Air Force flexibility in organizing its headquarters and field structure. Like the Army and Navy, the Air Force would be constituted as an executive department.
Patterson, Secretary of War, but he turned the post down, saying that his finances dictated that he leave government service. President Truman then chose James Forrestal, who might have been expected to influence those naval officers who all along had opposed unification and the formation of an independent Air Force.
Stuart Symington, assistant secretary of war for Air, who had spearheaded the unification drive in Congress, was named by President Truman as the first Secretary of the Air Force. Thus, the creation of the Air Force in marked the culmination of a long journey.
However, as Secretary Symington noted, it was also only the first chapter in a longer story. Much remained to be done, and many challenges would have to be confronted. Although service roles and missions had been detailed by President Truman via executive order, a long struggle over functions was inevitable.
As Mr. Symington observed, the Secretary of National Defense had been dealt a weak hand, and this office would have to be strengthened, as indeed it would be in In the year preceding the amendments to the National Security Act, Defense Secretary Forrestal had been unable to resolve roles-and-missions conflicts among the services. In deep mental distress, he resigned in March and subsequently took his own life. The Air Force has often been described as the most technologically advanced of the military services.
This was as true in as it is in Underlying the technology, however, and the doctrine, plans, and organizations, were the people who shaped the vision and the optimism over long decades, culminating in a United States Air Force. These were courageous pioneers, and their images remain vivid in our minds: flying crude machines in rough weather, putting their lives on the line; accomplishing record long-distance flights and breaking speed records in the s and s; expressing unpopular ideas, putting their careers in jeopardy; and building global air forces in World War II that defeated totalitarianism.
The airmen who led the Army Air Forces in a war that spanned the globe were the same visionaries who formed the Air Force before giving way to a new generation. Their perspective remains relevant. Whereas in the past it has been largely a corps of flying men, in the future.
Perhaps no airman possessed as brilliant and farsighted a vision as General Arnold. Present equipment is but a step in progress, and any air force that does not keep its doctrines ahead of its equipment, and its vision far into the future, can only delude the nation into a false sense of security. Air Force employ heraldic emblems as a means of identification and for esprit de corps.
Air Force airpower has been a major element of our nation's defense dating back to the earliest days of the Army Air The Air Force chain of command is a tightly regulated structure that determines how personnel and resources are organized.
Air Force Birthday. Air Force Birthday Slideshow. Air Force History: Featured Articles. My Profile News Home Page. Air Force News. Gregory Guillot spoke to journalists ahead of the Dubai Airshow.
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