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Sep 183 min read

This Day in History: Air Force birthday

On this day in 1947, the United States Air Force is established. Did you know that the aviation arm of our military was part of the Army during World Wars I and II?  It did not become a separate and independent branch of the military until 1947.

 

The Army obtained its first airplane—a Wright Flyer—in 1909. That aircraft was called, quite simply, “Army Aeroplane No. 1” or “Signal Corps No. 1.”


“There is much work ahead if the military authorities carry out their present program with reference to aeronautics,” newspapers soon reported. “The instruction of the two premier army aeronauts—Lieutenant Lahm and Lieutenant Humphries—by Wilbur Wright was but a beginning. These two officers in turn are to teach their brother officers of the [Army] Signal Corps how to manage aeroplanes aloft.”

 

By 1913, the program was big enough that a new squadron was created. This “1st Provisional Aero Squadron” would be the first unit of the U.S. Army devoted entirely to aviation. It remains in existence today, albeit by another name.

 

The pilots of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron still proudly note their status as the “United States military’s oldest flying unit.”

 

Aviation, in general, was growing by leaps and bounds, and the military kept up with it. By the end of World War I, the aviation arm of our military was known as the United States Army Air Service. During that war, its pilots had conducted 150 separate bombing attacks, and they’d also shot down 756 enemy planes and 76 enemy balloons.

 

Air power became even more important during World War II, of course.

 

In 1939, the United States Army Air Corps had 26,500 men and 2,200 aircraft.  By 1945, the name of the aviation arm had changed (again) to the United States Army Air Forces, and it boasted more than 2.2 million men and women and nearly 64,000 aircraft.

 

By this point, air power had become so pervasive that no single definitive number can be given for the number of WWII bombing runs, in sharp contrast to World War I.

 

Indeed, it was widely agreed that the Army Air Forces had played a critical role in winning World War II. General Dwight Eisenhower would testify to Congress, arguing that aviation could no longer be housed within the Army: An independent Air Force was needed.

 

“The Normandy invasion was based on a deep-seated faith in the power of the Air Force,” he told Congress, “in overwhelming numbers to intervene in the land battle . . . making it possible for a small force of land troops to invade a continent.”

 

Without air superiority, he concluded, the D-Day invasion would have been impossible.

 

General Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group Air Effects Committee agreed, noting the demoralizing effect of U.S. air superiority on the German people, especially at the end of the war. “From the high command to the soldier in the field,” the committee concluded, “German opinion has been agreed that airpower was the most striking aspect of Allied superiority.”

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the National Security Act of 1947 reorganized aviation within our military, finally making it independent of the Army. The Department of the Air Force was created, and W. Stuart Symington became the first Secretary of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.

 

The mission of today’s Air Force is “to fly, fight and win—airpower anytime, anywhere.”  “We are warriors,” an Air Force ROTC website concludes. “We will fight and win wherever our nation needs us.”

 

Happy birthday to the men and women of the United States Air Force!


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