Download or read book Toward Independence The Emergence of the United States Air Force 1945 1947 written by and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Wright Brothers’ first flight, a long convoluted road led to the creation of the modern independent United States Air Force. Despite frustrating bureaucratic delays and political maneuvering, the ultimate goal was clear. Two world wars had devastated whole continents and threatened long term global peace. Only a well-prepared American military establishment, fully utilizing its Air force could provide a strong national defense and help ensure world peace. As aerospace technology took off, an independent Air Force would lead the way into the atomic age, and a new military structure would be required. Just as important and technology, however would be the vision and energy of air power advocates. Over five decades, Air Force people would build the world’s finest air organization by following a simple creed: putting service above self. This nearly 40 page booklet tells a brief history of the Air Force’s beginnings and impact on World War I and World War II to share the strategic role of air power and the changes in warfare including planning for the Postwar military. Within the pages of this booklet, the unification and creation of a Department of National Defense is addressed with the its organization and emphasis under President Truman’s leadership. In 1949 several amendments to the National Security Act gave the Secretary more authority, personnel and power and downgraded the services from executive to military departments. The service secretaries would no longer attend meetings of the National Security Council, but would advise the Secretary of Defense. In the five decades since the creation of the Department of Defense and the separate United States Air Force, controversies over roles and missions have continued to divide the services, especially when they competed for shrinking defense funds. Yet the national security chain of command and the unique role of the Air Force have remained intact. In the 1990s, it would be difficult to imagine a “Revolt of the Admirals.” Throughout Korea, Vietnam and now in the post-Cold War era of joint operations and independence, the revolution in defense organization that occurred fifty years ago has continued to serve the nation well.

Download or read book Toward Independence written by Herman S. Wolk and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Wright Brothers' first flight, a long, convoluted road led to the creation of the modern independent United States Air Force. Despite frustrating bureaucratic delays and political maneuvering, the ultimate goal was clear. Two world wars had devestated whole continents and threatened long-term global peace. Only a well-prepared American military establishment, fully utilizing its Air Force, could provide a strong national defense and help ensure world peace. As aerospace tecnnology took off, an independent Air Force would lead the way into the atomic age, and a new mililtary structure would be required. Just as important as technology, however, would be the vision and energy of air power advocates. Over five decades, Air Force people would build the world's finest air organization by following a simple creed: putting service above self.

Download or read book Toward Independence written by Herman S. Wolk and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Toward Independence the Emergence of the U S Air Force 1943 1947 written by Office of Air Force History and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Wright Brothers' first flight, a long, convoluted road led to the creation of the modern independent United States Air Force. Despite frustrating bureaucratic delays and political maneuvering, the ultimate goal was clear. Two world wars had devastated whole continents and threatened long-term global peace. Only a well-prepared American military establishment, fully utilizing its Air Force, could provide a strong national defense and help ensure world peace. As aerospace technology took off, an independent Air Force would lead the way into the atomic age, and a new military structure would be required. Just as important as technology, however, would be the vision and energy of air power advocates. Over five decades, Air Force people would build the world's finest air organization by following a simple creed: putting service above self.

Download or read book Reflections on Air Force Independence written by Office of Air Force History and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost twenty-five years after publishing Planning and Organizing the Postwar Air Force, 1943–1947, and a decade after publishing his definitive work, The Struggle for Air Force Independence, 1943–1947, Herman S. Wolk, retired Air Force senior historian, returns to the subject that capped his nearly fifty-year career with the Air Force history program. As Wolk explains, this briefwork is a reflective analysis.The United States Army's air arm waged a frustrating and uncertain battle during the interwar years to gain greater autonomy from the War Department. For the air arm, the key transition was the establishment in 1935 of the General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force under Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews. The GHQ Air Force was the first American air force that consolidated all striking forces.For several years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which triggered U.S. entry into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt foresaw the major role that air power would play in the conflict, and he called for a massive buildup. The president wanted the major share of aircraft produced to go to the Allies. Consequently, he was sometimes at cross purposes with his Air Corps chief, Maj. Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, who was hard at work trying toincrease the Army's air capability. The formation in June 1944 of the Twentieth Air Force was a landmark event in the Army air arm's drive for independence. With B–29s to send against the Japanese home islands, the Twentieth gave the Army Air Forces (AAF) what Arnold termed “a Global Air Force.” Its formation set the precedent for that of the postwar Strategic Air Command, which provided the United States with its nuclear deterrence force in the Cold War.The lessons of World War II were many. Many also were the significant contributions of the AAF—tactical, strategic, support, humanitarian—that convinced President Harry S. Truman, Congress, and the American people that the creation of the United States Air Force (USAF) was necessary in the postwar era. Wolk makes the pivotal connections between politics and the searing experience of war to explain how and why the USAF was established. His analysis addresses not only technology, bureaucracy, and politics, but also people. The service's founding airmen were more than flyers and technologists; they were,above all, men of faith who believed in what they were doing. For many years they fought against long odds. The nation owes them a great debt.

Download or read book The Struggle for Air Force Independence written by Herman S. Wolk and published by Government Reprints Press. This book was released on 2001-06-01 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series introduces the core areas of chemical science, covering important concepts in an easy, accessible style. Each title contains a number of experiments and demonstrations, approached through the process of problem, hypothesis, experiment and conclusion. All the books support the QCA schemes of work and contain: definitions of important terms and explanations of key concepts; formulae and word equations; and the periodic table with explanatory notes. This title explores the concepts of the states of matter.

Download or read book Autonomy of the Air Arm The Question of Autonomy for the United States Air Arm 1907 1945 Impact of the World War I Years Army Air Corps Creation GHQ Air Force World War II written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique USAF publication describes early efforts to create an independent Air Force. The Air Service became a combatant arm of the Army in 1920, and in 1926 the Air Corps was created. Over the years, proposals to establish an independent air arm met stout resistance from the War Department General Staff. The Army reorganized after Pearl Harbor, and the Army Air Forces gained autonomy within the framework of the War Department. This book was originally published by Air University as The Question of Autonomy for the United States Air Arm, 1907-1945. In January 1954 it was reissued as an Air University Documentary Research Study entitled Autonomy of the Air Arm. This reprints the text of the 1954 edition, and contains the original's inconsistencies of capitalization, usage, and style. The only editing performed corrects incorrect spelling or punctuation. The question of how best to organize the United States Army's air arm had been contentious from the time of the First World War. Legislation to give the air arm greater autonomy or even independence had been introduced in the Congress in the interwar years. Although independence would not be achieved until after World War II, the air arm during the interwar period made remarkable progress towards this goal. In 1926 the Army Air Corps was established, and in 1934 the Baker Board directed the formation of the General Headquarters Air Force, giving the Army air arm a measure of autonomy. On the eve of the Second World War, the War Department created the Army Air Forces. Although falling short of independence, these were important steps forward on the road to the creation of today's global Air Force. R. Earl McClendon's classic Autonomy of the Air Arm describes the Army air arm's struggle for autonomy over almost forty years, from 1907 to the close of World War II. McClendon's narrative details the contentious evolution of the Army Air Forces (AAF) in March 1942 as a fully coequal branch with the Army Ground Forces (AGF). Following the end of the war, President Harry S. Truman firmly positioned himself in favor of "air parity" and an independent Air Force. McClendon emphasizes that "for the first time in the history of American aviation the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces definitely took a stand in favor of an independent military air arm." Truman's firm leadership on this issue ultimately resulted in passage of the National Security Act of 1947. After four decades of prolonged gestation, the United States Air Force was born. Chapter 1 - Introduction * Chapter 2 - Early Developments, 1913-1917 * Chapter 3 - The Impact of the War Years, 1917-1918 * Chapter 4 - Preliminary Adjustments Following World War I * Chapter 5 - Creation of The Army Air Corps * Chapter 6 - The Establishment of the General Headquarters Air Force * Chapter 7 - The Air Corps and the GHQ Air Force, 1935-1941 * Chapter 8 - Autonomy for the Army Air Forces

Download or read book Toward Independence written by Herman S. Wolk and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Wright Brothers' first flight, a long, convoluted road led to the creation of the modern independent United States Air Force. Despite frustrating bureaucratic delays and political maneuvering, the ultimate goal was clear. Two world wars had devestated whole continents and threatened long-term global peace. Only a well-prepared American military establishment, fully utilizing its Air Force, could provide a strong national defense and help ensure world peace. As aerospace tecnnology took off, an independent Air Force would lead the way into the atomic age, and a new mililtary structure would be required. Just as important as technology, however, would be the vision and energy of air power advocates. Over five decades, Air Force people would build the world's finest air organization by following a simple creed: putting service above self.

Download or read book Planning and Organizing the Postwar Air Force 1943 1947 written by Office of Air Force History and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the longest and most bitter disputes in twentieth century military affairs has been over the organization of the armed forces, particularly the question of independence for the air forces. From the early period of powered flight apostles of air power, such as the Italian General GuilioDouhet, argued that the proper employment of aviation in war required the massing of air armadas independent of ground or naval forces. As it developed in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, the dispute was not simply self-serving or bureaucratic-for power or prestige, rank or budget. The argument over an independent air force cut to the very heart of national defense, for who controlled air policy, air doctrine, buying of aircraft, military training, and the structure of the air forces determined the type of military forces the nation would possess and how aviation would be used in war. Ultimately, organization would determine whether the United States would succeed in the air battle and, in the minds of the protagonists, whether the United States would win in In this excellent work of narrative and analysis, Herman Wolk of the Office of Air Force History untangles the complex history that led to the birth of the United States Air Force after World War II. After surveying the struggle for independence to 1941, and planning during World War II for a postwar air force, Mr. Wolk details the events that resulted in the formation of a separate Air Force in September 1947. Significantly, the new Air Force at its birth already possessed a long history and a rich heritage: some forty years as part of the Army, service in two world wars, and a fully developed understanding of its usefulness in war. The new Air Force possessed leaders who knew that how the service was constructed and how it was led and administered would affect how air power could be used, and whether it could contribute fully to the nation's security. Furthermore, the author puts this important story into the broader context of late World War II thinking about postwar defense, and the fierce struggles between 1945 and 1947 over service roles and missions, budgets, and the shape of military policies and forces. There is also another story in these pages, less dramatic but equally important: the birth of a military service. Few times are more crucial for an institution than the era of its birth, when the basic structure of the organization is established and procedures worked out for the conduct of routine organizational activity. The precedents established often survive far into the future. They provide benchmarks against which change is considered or implemented, and from the beginning that first structure and set of procedures shape the life of the institution, from the making of high policy down to the most mundane details of administrative routine.

Download or read book United States Air Force History Publications written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book West Point Graduates and the United States Air Force written by Charles F.G. Kuyk, Jr. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: West Point graduates played a central role in developing U.S. military air and space power from the earliest days of mechanized flight through the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, and continuing through the Persian Gulf War. These graduates served at a time when the world's greatest wave of technological advancement occurred: in aviation, nuclear weapons, rocketry, ICBMs, computers, satellite systems in inner space and man in outer space. This history traces the advancement of weapons and space technology that became the hallmark of the U.S. Air Force, and the pivotal role that West Point graduates played in integrating them into a wide variety of Air Force systems and programs. Many became aircraft commanders, test pilots, astronauts and, later in their careers, general officers who helped shape and implement technologies still in use today.

Download or read book Air Force History Publications written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Concise History of the U S Air Force written by Stephen Lee McFarland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1997 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.

Download or read book The United States Air Force written by Herbert Molloy Mason (Jr) and published by In the Hands of a Child. This book was released on 1976 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Allies in Air Power written by Steven Paget and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-01-04 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past century, multinational military operations have become the norm; but while contributions from different nations provide many benefits—from expanded capability to political credibility—they also present a number of challenges. Issues such as command and control, communications, equipment standardization, intelligence, logistics, planning, tactics, and training all require consideration. Cultural factors present challenges as well, particularly when language barriers are involved. In Allies in Air Power, experts from around the world survey these operations from the birth of aviation to the present day. Chapters cover conflicts including World War I, multiple theaters of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Kosovo, the Iraq War, and various United Nations peacekeeping missions. Contributors also analyze the role of organizations such as the UN, NATO, and so-called "coalitions of the willing" in laying the groundwork for multinational air operations. While multinational military action has become commonplace, there have been few detailed studies of air power cooperation over a prolonged period or across multiple conflicts. The case studies in this volume not only assess the effectiveness of multinational operations over time, but also provide vital insights into how they may be improved in the future.

Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Army Air Forces in World War II Men and planes written by and published by . This book was released on 1948 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: