Air Force Association  The Air Force Association (AFA) is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit, professional military and aerospace education association that promotes American aerospace power. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. AFA publishes "Air Force" "Magazine" and the "Daily Report". It also runs the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and conducts social networking, public outreach, and national conferences and symposia. It sponsors professional development seminars and has an awards program. AFA has a scholarship program for Air Force active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve members and their dependents. It also provides grants to promote science and math education at the elementary and secondary school level. The association lists its mission as educating the public about the critical role of aerospace power in defense, advocating power and strong national defense and supporting the United States Air Force, the Air Force family and aerospace education. The genesis for the Air Force Association occurred in August 1945 when United States Army Air Forces General Henry H. Arnold asked an executive of Eastman Kodak, Edward Peck Curtis, to create an organization among veterans returning from World War II that would promote airpower and the cause of a separate Air Force. Curtis held an organizing meeting in New York City on October 12, 1945, to create a nonprofit organization to meet Arnold's goals. Other significant founders of AFA in attendance were John Allard, Everett Cook, James H. Doolittle, Deering Howe, Rufus Rand, Sol Rosenblatt, Julian Rosenthal, James M. "Jimmy" Stewart, Lowell P. Weicker (Senior), Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, and John Hay Whitney. The establishment of Air Force Association was made public by Doolittle in January 1946, who explained that it would be based on a "grass-roots structure", with affiliates on local, state, and regional levels, would publish a national magazine and would provide sponsorship for educational programs about the development of airpower. The Association was incorporated in the District of Columbia on February 4, 1946. AFA's first national president was Doolittle, an aviation pioneer and recipient of the Medal of Honor. In July, "Air Force" Magazine, then the official service journal of the Army Air Forces, became AFA's official journal at Arnold's behest. The next month a nationwide radio broadcast in observance of Air Force Day on August 1, 1947, was organized by AFA and featured charter members Jimmy Stewart, Jack L. Warner and Ronald Reagan. In 1948 Doolittle took a year's leave of absence from Shell Oil, where he was a vice president, to establish AFA chapters nationwide.