When was the U.S. Air Force Academy established?
List of United States Air Force Academy alumni
The United States Air Force Academy is an undergraduate college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the United States Air Force. The Academy was established in 1954, entered its first class in 1955, and graduated its first class in 1959. All students hold the Air Force rank of "Cadet." Sports media refer to the Academy as "Air Force"; this usage is officially endorsed. Most cadets are admitted through a congressional appointment system. The curriculum is broad-based but has traditionally emphasized science and engineering. Before the Academy's first graduating class in 1959, the United States Military Academy and United States Naval Academy were the primary sources of officers for the Air Force and its predecessors, the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces. Though the primary focus of the Academy is for the Air Force, some graduates are given the option of "cross-commissioning" into the United States Army, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, or United States Coast Guard.
Air Force Systems Command
The origins of Air Force Systems Command date at least to the establishment of the Airplane Engineering Department by the Chief Signal Officer, U.S. Army, on 13 October 1917 at McCook Field, Ohio. Re-designated the Engineering Division of the U.S. Army Air Service in March 1919, this organization carried out the research, development and testing of military aircraft, engines, airships and accessories. Renamed the Materiel Division of the newly established Army Air Corps in October 1926, it undertook the procurement, supply and maintenance activities of Army aviation.
Henry H. Arnold
The division of authority between the Air Corps and the GHQ Air Force was removed with promulgation of Army Regulation 95–5, creating the United States Army Air Forces on June 20, 1941, only two days before Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Arnold became Chief of the Army Air Forces and acting "Deputy Chief of Staff for Air" with authority over both the Air Corps and Air Force Combat Command (successor to GHQAF). While this provided the air arm with a staff of its own and brought the entire organization under the command of one general, it failed to grant the degree of autonomy sought. By consensus between Marshall and Arnold, debate on separation of the Air Force into a service co-equal with the Army and Navy was postponed until after the war.
Air University (United States Air Force)
The Wright Brothers established the first U.S. civilian flying school in Montgomery, Alabama in 1910. By the 1920s, Montgomery became an important link in the growing system of aerial mail service. It was in the early 1930s when the Army Air Corps Tactical School moved to Maxwell Field and Montgomery became the country's intellectual center for airpower education.
United States Air Forces Central Command
Ninth Air Force had been first constituted as V Air Support Command, part of Air Force Combat Command, at Bowman Field, Kentucky on 11 September 1941. Its responsibility was to direct and coordinate the training activities of National Guard observation squadrons inducted into federal service with those of light bomber units training with the Army Ground Forces. However a lack of unity of command in the organizational set-up led to an early discontinuation of the "air support commands" and V Air Support Command was redesignated as Ninth Air Force in April 1942.
Hispanics in the United States Air Force
The United States Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. That same year Quesada was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed as the first commander of the Tactical Air Command (TAC). However, Quesada quickly became disillusioned as he saw how TAC was being ignored while funding and promotions were largely going to the Strategic Air Command. In December 1948, Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg stripped TAC of its planes and pilots and reduced its status to that of a planning headquarters under the newly formed Continental Air Command. Quesada protested and asked for a reassignment. In 1951, Quesada requested an early retirement from the Air Force.
History of the United States Air Force
The United States Air Force became a separate military service on 18 September 1947 with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947. The Act created the National Military Establishment, later renamed the United States Department of Defense, which was composed of four of the five branches, the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and a newly created Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was divided between the Army for land-based operations and the Navy and Marine Corps for sea-based operations from aircraft carrier and amphibious aircraft. The Army created the first antecedent of the Air Force on 1 August 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual separation 40 years later. The predecessor organizations leading up to today's U.S. Air Force are:* The Air Corps became a subordinate element of the Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, and was abolished as an administrative organization on 9 March 1942. It continued to exist as a branch of the Army (similar to the infantry, quartermaster, or artillery) until reorganization provisions of the National Security Act of 1947 (61 "Stat". 495), 26 July 1947.
United States Air Force Academy
The American college tradition of the class ring began with the class of 1835 at the U.S. Military Academy. From there, it spread to the U.S. Naval Academy in the class of 1869. The Air Force Academy continued the tradition, beginning with the first class, 1959, and so is the only service academy to have had class rings for every class since its founding. The Air Force ring is distinctive for being white gold instead of the yellow gold used at the other academies. Each class designs its own class crest; the only requirements being that each crest include all the elements on the Class of 1959's crest: the class number, the class year, the Polaris star, and the eagle. One side of the ring bears the academy crest, while the other side bears the class crest; the center bezel bears the words United States Air Force Academy. Cadets choose their own stones for the center of the ring. The rings are received at the Ring Dance at the beginning of the Graduation Week festivities for the class ahead of the ring recipients. The rings traditionally are placed in glasses of champagne and are caught in the teeth following a toast. During the cadet's first class (senior) year, the ring is worn with the class crest facing the wearer; following graduation, the ring is turned so that the class crest faces out. The rings of all the academies were originally designed to be worn on the left hand, so that the wearer reads the name of the academy on the bezel while a cadet or midshipman and others can read it after graduation, the rings are now worn on either hand. The Academy's Association of Graduates (AOG) accepts rings of deceased graduates which are melted down to form an ingot of white gold from which a portion of all future rings are made. Both the academy's Association of Graduates and the Academy Library maintain displays of class rings.
Hellenic Air Force Academy
In 1950, the first RHAF pilot squadron returned from the United States, where it had been trained. Since then, flight education was influenced from the American educational system. In 1952 starts a new era for the Air Force Academy, the era of jets. Training of pilots in jet aircraft started in 1953. That same year the whole structure of the academy was revised and organised according to a typical U.S. fighter wing and it was renamed to "121 Training Wing" ("121 Πτερυγα Εκπαίδευσης Αέρος" - "121 ΠΕΑ"). One year earlier, the "Training Centre of Conscript Pilots" had been founded, following British and U.S. prototypes and until September 1958, eight rows of conscript pilots had been trained.
The Air Force School (TAFS)
It was founded in 1955 by the Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, the Chief of Air Staff. It was established in temporary wartime barracks at Wellingdon Camp, Club Road, New Delhi on 18 July 1955 to educate children of Officers and Airmen of the Indian Air Force. In May 1967, the school shifted to its present location Aravali Campus location in Subroto Park, Delhi Cantonment. Earlier the school was located in New Delhi near the present residence of the Prime Minister of India. The school celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1980 when the word "Central" was dropped from the name. The school is a co-educational public institute affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). It has boarding facilities for boys of classes VI to XII. It has classes from Kindergarten to Class XII. The school is situated on the Aravali ridge.
Air University (United States Air Force)
Assuming responsibilities comparable to those of the Army and Navy advisers on the HQ AU staff, the Royal Air Force Liaison Officer also became a part of the HQ AU staff on 1 June 1946. When members of the Air University Board of Visitors concluded their first meeting with such dignitaries as General Carl Spaatz, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces; Air Marshall Hugh Pughe Lloyd of the Royal Air Force; and the class members of the Air War College and the Air Command and Staff School participating, the Air University was officially dedicated during a ceremony at Maxwell Field.
History of the United States Air Force
Over the continuing objections of the Navy, which feared losing its air arm and strategic role to the new service, the United States Department of the Air Force was created by the National Security Act of 1947. That act became effective 18 September 1947 when the first secretary of the Air Force, Stuart Symington, took office. In 1948, the service chiefs agreed on usage of air assets under the Key West Agreement.
Air University (United States Air Force)
On 12 July 1949, HQ USAF established the Air University Human Resources Research Institute. It was one of three USAF field agencies created to conduct research on the human factor in Air Force planning and operations. Air University established the 3894th AU School Squadron to provide administrative support to Air Force instructors and students at the various service schools operated by the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Missouri Military Academy
The Missouri Military Academy (MMA) is a private preparatory school established on November 22, 1889, in Mexico, Missouri, U.S. It is a selective, all male, boarding school, grades 7 to 12. As a U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Honor Unit With Distinction (as designated by the Department of the Army), it has the privilege of nominating cadets to the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy, and U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
Frequent bad weather and increased air traffic congestion at Wright-Patterson often prevented students from completing their course work on time. In addition, most USAAF airplanes were by then being manufactured and tested by contractors on the West Coast of the United States. For these and other reasons, Col. Boyd began the transfer of all flight test operations, including the test pilot school, to Muroc Army Air Field. next to Rogers Dry Lake in the desert of southern California. The school continued operations at Patterson Field, and 1947 saw the first United States Air Force class and the first class to fly jets. The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star would provide jet performance training at the school until 1954.
In 1949, this school was renamed the Air Material Command Experimental Test Pilot School, and the soon-to-be Brigadier General Boyd assumed command of Muroc Air Force Base. Boyd chose Major John Amman, an instructor at the school, to go to Muroc AFB, and implement the details of the school's move westward. On 8 December 1949, Muroc AFB was renamed the Edwards Air Force Base in honor of Glen Edwards, TPS class 45, who was killed in the crash of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing bomber. Captain Edwards, who had recently earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton, typified the new breed of test pilot of which Cardenas had written — one who combined the talents of a highly skilled pilot with the technical expertise of an engineer. Amman completed his work and on 4 February 1951 the school was officially transferred to Edwards Air Force Base. The enormous dry lake bed, extremely long runways, and clear weather would serve the USAF and the school well as aircraft performance continued to increase.
James E. Briggs
Briggs became the second superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy on August 1, 1956, when he succeeded Lieutenant General Hubert R. Harmon. He guided the operation of the new academy during two of its three years at the interim site on Lowry Air Force Base, near Denver, Colorado, and the move in August 1958 to the permanent home of the academy north of Colorado Springs Colorado.
United States Military Academy
"Cadets" underwent training in artillery and engineering studies at the garrison since 1794. In 1801, shortly after his inauguration as president, Thomas Jefferson directed that plans be set in motion to establish at West Point the United States Military Academy. He selected Jonathan Williams to serve as its first superintendent. Congress formally authorized the establishment and funding of the school with the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802, which Jefferson signed on 16 March. The academy officially commenced operations on 4 July 1802. The academy graduated Joseph Gardner Swift, its first official graduate, in October 1802. He later returned as Superintendent from 1812 to 1814. In its tumultuous early years, the academy featured few standards for admission or length of study. Cadets ranged in age from 10 years to 37 years and attended between 6 months to 6 years. The impending War of 1812 caused the United States Congress to authorize a more formal system of education at the academy and increased the size of the Corps of Cadets to 250.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
The Flying / Aviation Cadet Pilot Training Program was originally created by the U.S. Army to train its pilots. Originally created in 1907 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, it expanded as the Army's air assets increased. Candidates originally had to be between the ages of 19 and 25, athletic, and honest. Two years of college or three years of a scientific or technical education were required. Cadets were supposed to be unmarried and pledged not to marry during training. From 1907 to 1920, pilot officers were considered part of the Signal Corps or the Signal Officer Reserve Corps. After 1920, they were considered part of their own separate organization, the U.S. Army Air Service (1918–1926).
Commandants of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
The school's mission is to produce experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to lead and conduct test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. The school was established on September 9, 1944 as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies and superb flying weather, the school was moved on February 4, 1951 to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Edwards AFB is the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center and has been an integral part of flight testing for over fifty years.
Army Air Forces Training Command
The US Army Air Forces in WWII had major subordinate Commands below the Air Staff level. These Commands were organized along functional missions. One such Command was the Flying Training Command (FTC). It began as Air Corps Flying Training Command on 23 January 1942, was redesignated Army Air Forces Flying Training Command (AAFTC) on 15 March 1942, and merged with Army Air Forces Technical Training Command to become Army Air Forces Training Command on 31 July 1943. Continuing service after the war, it was redesignated Air Training Command on 1 July 1946. During the consolidation of Air Force Major Commands in the retrenchment of the 1990s, Air Training Command assumed control of Air University and became Air Education and Training Command on 1 July 1993—today's Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which celebrated its 75th anniversary 23 January 2017. 
see the Lineage and honors statement for AETC.
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
History of the United States Air Force
"In 1947 President Truman signed the National Security Act which established this new defense organization, and along with it the creation of the US Air Force as an independent service, equal to the US Army and US Navy. The official birthday of the US Air Force is 18 September 1947."
Marine Corps Air Facility Walnut Ridge
The origins of the facility date to the 1942 when Walnut Ridge was selected by the United States Army Air Corps for the establishment of a basic flying school as part of the 70,000 Pilot Training Program. It was one of many air fields created in the country’s interior during the war. Constructed though the late spring and summer, the facility was opened on 15 August 1942 as Walnut Ridge Army Airfield (AAF).
United States Army Air Service
A formal training establishment was also created by the Air Service on February 25, 1920, when the War Department authorized the establishment of service schools. Flying training, originally at Carlstrom Field in Florida and March Field in California, moved to Texas, divided between the 11th School Group (primary flying training) at Brooks Field and the 10th School Group (advanced flying training) at Kelly Field. A technical school for mechanics was located at Chanute Field, Illinois. The Air Service Tactical School was set up at Langley Field, Virginia, to train officers for higher command and to instruct in doctrine and the employment of military aviation. The Engineering Division created an air engineering school at McCook Field and moved it to Wright Field when that base was established in 1924.
United States Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps
The Air Force Judge Advocate General's School was founded in 1950 and has been located in the William Louis Dickinson Law Center, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama since 1993. The school provides instruction to new judge advocates and paralegals, in addition to offering approximately 30 continuing legal education courses. The school publishes scholarly legal journals such as "The Air Force Law Review", semiannually and "The Reporter", quarterly. The school also produces "The Military Commander and the Law", a publication that is invaluable not only to judge advocates, but commanders and first sergeants in handling the myriad of legal issues that arise with a squadron or wing, and for the continued enforcement of good order and discipline.
History of the Civil Air Patrol
On 1 July 1946, Public Law 79-476 was enacted. The law incorporated the Civil Air Patrol and stated that the purpose of the organization was to be "solely of a benevolent character". In other words, the Civil Air Patrol was to never participate in combat operations again. With the creation of the United States Air Force on 26 July 1947, the command of the Civil Air Patrol was transferred from the United States Army to the newly created Air Force. In October 1947, a CAP board convened to meet with USAF officials and plan the groundwork of the Civil Air Patrol as the USAF auxiliary. After several meetings the USAF was satisfied and a bill was introduced to the United States House of Representatives. On 26 May 1948, Public Law 80-557 was enacted and CAP became the official auxiliary to the United States Air Force.
Aloe Army Airfield
Aloe AAF was established by the United States Army Air Forces as an advanced flying school, first known as Victoria Field #2 on 28 July 1942. It was redesignated as Aloe Army Airfield on 27 October 1942.
Its mission was an advanced single-engine training field for fighter pilots. Aloe also became the new home of the Lake Charles Army Flying School, which relocated from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
The first enlisted U.S. Army pilot was Corporal Vernon L. Burge, a crew chief at the U.S. Army's flight school in the Philippines. When Captain Frank P. Lahm, the school's commander, couldn't find enough commissioned officer applicants, he trained Burge, who received his FAI pilot's license on 14 June 1912. Although the practice was officially condemned, the Army later relented, as Burge was already a trained aviator.
List of United States Naval Academy alumni
The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Academy was founded in 1845 and graduated its first class in 1846. The Academy is often referred to as Annapolis, while sports media refer to the Academy as "Navy" and the students as "Midshipmen"; this usage is officially endorsed. During the latter half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, the United States Naval Academy was the primary source of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers, with the Class of 1881 being the first to provide officers to the Marine Corps. Graduates of the Academy are also given the option of entering the United States Army or United States Air Force. Most Midshipmen are admitted through the congressional appointment system. The curriculum emphasizes various fields of engineering.
Air University (United States Air Force)
Air University (AU), established in 1946, continues the proud tradition of educating tomorrow's planners and leaders in air and space power for both the U.S. Air Force as well as other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, federal government civilians and many international organizations. Today, AU has a reach worldwide affecting the careers of every member of the United States Air Force.
Oregon State University Army ROTC
The US Air Force was established in 1948, with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. On 1 July 1949, the US Army Air Corps training branch became a separate officer training unit now known as Aerospace Science. The Air Force ROTC draws more freshmen scholarships than any other AFROTC unit in the nation and has had over 1,000 officers commissioned, including the first women in 1970. In 1977, two graduates of the OSU AFROTC became the first women pilots in the Air Force. Today, the Army and Air Force ROTC programs at the University share the McAlexander Fieldhouse.
Surgeon General of the United States Air Force
In September 1947 the combat elements of the Army Air Forces separated from the U.S. Army, forming the United States Air Force. But a few Air Force support functions, such as medical care, remained U.S. Army responsibilities for the next two years. Starting in 1948, the Air Force and the Air Surgeon, Maj. Gen. Malcolm C. Grow (1887-1960), began to convince the U.S. Army and the administration of President Harry S. Truman that the Air Force needed its own medical service. In the summer of 1949, Air Force General Order No. 35 established a medical service with the following officer personnel components: Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Veterinary Corps, Medical Service Corps, Air Force Nurse Corps, and Women’s Medical Specialist Corps.
Far East Air Force (United States)
In August 1907, Brigadier General James Allen, the United States Army's Chief Signal Officer, established the Aeronautical Division as the nation's air service and oversaw the introduction of powered heavier-than-air flight as a military application. Four years later Allen recommended the establishment of an air station in the Philippines. Military aviation began there on 12 March 1912, when 1st Lt. Frank P. Lahm of the 7th Cavalry, detailed to the Division, opened the Philippine Air School on the polo field of Fort William McKinley, using a single Wright B airplane to train pilots. Ultimately attriting four of the Army's first 18 airplanes, aviation went temporarily out of business when the last plane crashed into Corregidor's San Jose Bay on 12 January 1915.
United States Army Air Forces
The Army Air Forces was created in June 1941 to provide the air arm a greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force, and to end an increasingly divisive administrative battle within the Army over control of aviation doctrine and organization that had been ongoing since the creation of an aviation section within the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1914. The AAF succeeded both the Air Corps, which had been the statutory military aviation branch since 1926, and the GHQ Air Force, which had been activated in 1935 to quiet the demands of airmen for an independent Air Force similar to the Royal Air Force which had already been established in the United Kingdom / Great Britain.
United States Army Aviation Branch
Both Department of the Army and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command conducted extensive studies of the separate-branch question during the 1970s through 1982. In March 1983, the Chief of Staff of the Army recommended forming a separate aviation branch. The Secretary of the Army approved that recommendation on 12 April 1983– the date celebrated as the Branch’s birthday. Aviation Officer Basic and Advanced Courses began at Fort Rucker in 1984, and a gradual consolidation of aviation-related activities followed. In 1986, the U.S. Army Air Traffic Control Activity became part of the branch. In the following year, a Noncommissioned Officers Academy was established at Fort Rucker. In 1988, the Army Aviation Logistics School, which had been dependent on the Transportation Center at Fort Eustis, was incorporated into the Aviation Branch.
History of the United States Air Force
The Air Force came of age in World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the lead, calling for a vastly enlarged air force based on long-range strategic bombing. Organizationally it became largely independent from the Army in 1941, when the Army Air Corps became a part of the new U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF), and the GHQ Air Force was redesignated the subordinate Combat Command. In the major reorganization of the Army by War Department Circular 59, effective March 9, 1942, the newly created Army Air Forces gained equal voice with the Army and Navy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and complete autonomy from the Army Ground Forces and the Services of Supply, serving as a separate service in all but name. The reorganization also eliminated both Combat Command and the Air Corps as organizations (the latter remained a combat branch of the Army until 1947) in favor of a streamlined system of commands and numbered air forces for decentralized management of the burgeoning Army Air Forces.
United States Air Force Academy
One of the most significant events in the history of the Academy was the admission of women. On 7 October 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation permitting women to enter the United States service academies. On 26 June 1976, 157 women entered the Air Force Academy with the Class of 1980. Because there were no female upper class cadets, the Air Training Officer model used in the early years of the Academy was revived, and fifteen young female officers were brought in to help with the integration process. The female cadets were initially segregated from the rest of the Cadet Wing but were fully integrated into their assigned squadrons after their first semester. On 28 May 1980, 97 of the original female cadets completed the program and graduated from the Academy—just over 10% of the graduating class. Women have made up just over 20% of the most recent classes, with the class of 2016 having the highest proportion of any class, 25%.
Arnold W. Braswell
From September 1952 to September 1955, he was a flight commander and squadron operations officer in the 3600th Combat Crew Training Group at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. When the U.S. Air Force Academy opened in 1955 in temporary facilities at Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado, Braswell was assigned as commander of one of the original four cadet squadrons and served in that capacity for three years.
United States Air Force
The U.S. War Department created the first antecedent of the U.S. Air Force, as a part of the U.S. Army, on 1 August 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual independence 40 years later. In World War II, almost 68,000 U.S. airmen died helping to win the war, with only the infantry suffering more casualties. In practice, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) was virtually independent of the Army during World War II, and in virtually all ways functioned as an independent service branch, but airmen still pressed for formal independence. The National Security Act of 1947 was signed on 26 July 1947 by President Harry S Truman, which established the Department of the Air Force, but it was not until 18 September 1947, when the first secretary of the Air Force, W. Stuart Symington, was sworn into office that the Air Force was officially formed as an independent service branch.
United States Aeronautical Reserve
The United States Aeronautical Reserve (U.S.A.R.) was an early aviation organization created by Harvard University’s Aero Club on September 8, 1910. The founder was John H. Ryan, and the General Secretary Richard R. Sinclair. The earliest aviators and others to enroll near the founding date were: “Glen H. Curtiss, Wilbur Wright, Harry S. Harkness, Augustus Post, Clifford B. Harmon, Allan R. Ryan, Herbert L. Saterlee, ex-governor Curtis Guild, Jr., Edwin Gould, Charles K. Hamilton, Horace F. Karnay, John G. Stratton, George M. Cox, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Commodore John H. Hubbard, Charles F. Willard, Charles J. Glidden, Walter Brookins, Ralph J. Stone, William Hilliard, Cromwell Dixon, Samuel F. Perkins, Capt. Thomas F. Baldwin, Greeley S. Curtiss, General W. A. Bancroft, and Adams D. Clafton.”, Recruiting stations were at Harvard University, in Boston, Massachusetts; Mineola, Long Island; and Belmont Park, Long Island (Belmont Park is most known for its racetrack but it also has quite an early aviation history that became U.S.A.R.'s earliest members such as Glenn Curtiss and Wilber Wright of the Wright Bros).
Flying Division, Air Training Command
By 1946, all the wartime Flying Training Wings were disbanded, and command and control was consolidated into the Flying Training Division. The flight schools at the bases which remained open were consolidated into the Army Air Forces (later Air Force) base units. After the establishment of the United States Air Force in September 1947 and the implementation of the Hobson Wing-Base plan in 1948, the Base Units were discontinued, and ATC established new Pilot Training Wings at each base. This new plan made the training organizations uniform with the other major commands throughout the Air Force.
United States Air Force
The act created the "National Military Establishment" (renamed Department of Defense in 1949), which was composed of three subordinate Military Departments, namely the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the newly created Department of the Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was shared between the Army Air Forces and its predecessor organizations (for land-based operations), the Navy (for sea-based operations from aircraft carriers and amphibious aircraft), and the Marine Corps (for close air support of Marine Corps operations). The 1940s proved to be important for military aviation in other ways as well. In 1947, Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, beginning a new era of aeronautics in America.
U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School
The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) is the Air Force's advanced flight training school that trains experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to carry out tests and evaluations of new aerospace weapon systems and also other aircraft of the U.S. Air Force. This school was established on 9 September 1944 as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies, usually superb flying weather, and the lack of developed zones in the event of crashing, the test pilot school was officially moved to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the northwestern Mojave Desert of Southern California on 4 February 1951.
Air Force Association
The genesis for the Air Force Association occurred in August 1945 when Chief of the Army Air Forces General Henry H. Arnold asked an executive of Eastman Kodak, Edward 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.
United States Army Air Service
The United States Army Air Service (also known as the ""Air Service"", ""U.S. Air Service"" and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ""Air Service, United States Army"") was the aerial warfare service of the United States between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of the U.S. War Department during World War I by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation Section, Signal Corps as the nation's air force; and March 19, 1919, establishing a military Director of Air Service to control all aviation activities. Its life was extended for another year in July 1919, during which time Congress passed the legislation necessary to make it a permanent establishment. The National Defense Act of 1920 assigned the Air Service the status of "combatant arm of the line" of the United States Army with a major general in command.
Lowry Air Force Base
Lowry Air Force Base (Lowry Field 1938-1948) is a former United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) training base during World War II and a United States Air Force (USAF) training base during the Cold War, serving as the initial 1955-1958 site of the U.S. Air Force Academy. It is a U.S. Formerly Used Defense Site (B08CO0505).
List of astronauts educated at the United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA) is an undergraduate college in West Point, New York that educates and commissions officers for the United States Army. Eighteen graduates of the Military Academy were eventually selected for astronaut training by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first alumnus to graduate and go on to become an astronaut was Frank Borman, class of 1950. As of March 2009, the most recent alumnus to become an astronaut was Robert S. Kimbrough, class of 1989. Five alumni were part of Project Gemini, six part of the Apollo program, two have walked on the Moon, and twelve were part of the Space Shuttle program.
United States Air Force Academy
Following the recommendation of the Board, Congress passed legislation in 1954 to begin the construction of the Air Force Academy, and President Eisenhower signed it into law on 1 April of that year. The legislation established an advisory commission to determine the site of the new school. Among the panel members were Charles Lindbergh, General Carl Spaatz, and Lieutenant General Hubert R. Harmon, who later became the Academy's first superintendent. The original 582 sites considered were winnowed to three: Alton, Illinois; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; and the ultimate site at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Secretary of the Air Force, Harold E. Talbott, announced the winning site on 24 June 1954. Meanwhile, Air Training Command (ATC) began developing a detailed curriculum for the Academy program.
Republic of China Air Force Academy
The Republic of China Air Force Academy was initially established in 1928 in Nanjing as the Central Army Academy's Aviation Corps, then reorganized as the Central Army Academy's Aviation Class in 1929. In 1931, it was moved to Jianqiao, Jianggan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. A year later in 1932, the name was changed to Central Aviation School. And in 1938, it was finally changed to Air Force Academy.
United States Air Force Special Operations School
The U.S. Air Force Special Air Warfare School was activated at Hurlburt Field in April 1967 under the Special Air Warfare Center, then located at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The school was redesignated the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School in 1968. The School’s initial course was the Special Air Warfare Indoctrination Course designed to prepare Air Force personnel for duty in Southeast Asia. Since then, the curriculum has changed continuously to meet the emerging educational needs of special operations warriors as they respond to complex world situations.
Air University (United States Air Force)
Classes began at the Air War College and the Air Command and Staff School on 4 September 1946, fulfilling the "dream for education in airpower" of most post-war AAF leaders and planners. The Air Tactical School, the junior officer PME program of the AU educational system, began classes at Tyndall in January 1947. Later that year, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent its first group of students to the two-week indoctrination course at Maxwell. With Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson as the guest speaker, the Air War College and the Air Command and Staff School conducted a combined graduation ceremony for 185 senior and field grade officers.
Air University (United States Air Force)
The Agency's collection, begun during World War II in Washington, DC, moved in 1949 to Maxwell Air Force Base, the site of the present-day Air University, to provide research facilities for professional military education students, the faculty, visiting scholars, and the general public.
During the years 1943–1945, the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida operated a massive air-to-air and air-to-ground combat simulation facility across Central Florida. Units and various main operating bases and auxiliary airfields were established throughout an area of central Florida designated as a mock "war theater" and stretching roughly from Tampa through Orlando, east to Titusville, north to Starke, and northwest to Apalachicola in which air war games were conducted. Following the end of World War II, the simulation facility ceased operation and most of the operating air bases and auxiliary airfields were either placed in military caretaker status or returned to local civilian control. On 1 Jun 1945, the AAFSAT was redesignated as the Army Air Forces School (AAFS). On 29 Nov 1945, the AAFS relocated from Orlando AAB, Florida to Maxwell Field, Alabama.
United States Air Force Honor Guard
United States Air Force Honor Guard origins can be traced to May 1948 when Headquarters Command, United States Air Force, directed the creation of an elite ceremonial unit comparable to that of the other services. A ceremonial unit was activated within the 1100th Air Police Squadron at Bolling AFB with the responsibility of maintaining an Air Force ceremonial capability in the National Capital Region. The USAF HG officially became an Air Force squadron in 1972.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
The U.S. Army created almost 3,000 enlisted pilots from 1912 to 1942. Seven pre-War enlisted pilots and four World War II enlisted pilots became U.S. Air Force generals.
United States Army Air Forces
Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of their army or navy (such as the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe), the AAF remained a part of the Army until a defense reorganization in the post-war period resulted in the passage by the United States Congress of the National Security Act of 1947 with the creation of an independent United States Air Force in September 1947.
History of the United States Air Force
On 18 September 1947, the Army Air Forces became the United States Air Force as a separate and equal element of the United States Armed Forces. The fledgling Air Force quickly established its own identity. Army Air Fields were renamed Air Force Bases and personnel were soon being issued new uniforms with new rank insignia. Once the new Air Force was free of army domination, its first job was to discard the old and inadequate ground army organizational structure. This was the "Base Plan" where the combat group commander reported to the base commander, who was often regular army, with no flying experience.
United States Air Force Academy
The Class of 1959 established many other important traditions that continue until the present. The first class adopted the Cadet Honor Code, and chose the falcon as the Academy's mascot. On 29 August 1958, the wing of 1,145 cadets moved to the present site near Colorado Springs, and less than a year later the Academy received accreditation. The first USAFA class graduated and was commissioned on 3 June 1959.
United States Army Air Service
The "Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces" was formally created on 3 September 1917 by the publication of AEF G.O. No. 31 and remained in being until demobilized in 1919. Kenly, an artillery officer, had been a student the previous winter in the Field Officers Course at the Aviation School in San Diego, then served as executive officer of the school to gain administrative experience in aviation matters. Mitchell, Bolling and Dodd were promoted to colonel and given senior positions in the Air Service hierarchy. Bolling was made Director of Air Service Supply (DASS) to administer the "Zone of the Line of Communications" (sic), later called the Service of Supply, and Dodd was named Director of Air Service Instruction (DAI). Kenley proved to be only an interim commander, as Brig. Gen. Benjamin Foulois replaced him on 27 November 1917, arriving in France with a large but untrained staff of non-aviators. This resulted in considerable resentment from Mitchell's smaller staff already in place, many of whom in key positions, including Bolling, Dodd and Lt. Col. Edgar S. Gorrell, were immediately displaced. Mitchell, however, was not replaced and became a source of persistent discord with Foulois.
Hispanics in the United States Air Force
On October 7, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation permitting women to enter the United States service academies. On June 26, 1976, Captain Linda Garcia Cubero was among 157 women that entered the Air Force Academy with the Class of 1980. In 1980, Cubero made history when she became a member of the first class of women to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy. There she earned her BS degree in Political Science and her free-fall parachute wings. Upon her graduation she was commissioned a second lieutenant.
Air Force Training Ribbon
The Air Force Training Ribbon was authorized by the Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force on October 12, 1980. It is awarded to U.S. Air Force service members on completion of initial accession training after August 14, 1974. Initial accession training in USAF is defined as Basic Military Training (BMT) for enlisted personnel, Basic Cadet Training (BCT) at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), or commissioning through Air Force ROTC (AFROTC), Officer Training School (OTS) or other specialized USAF officer accession programs.
United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine
The United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) is the United States Air Force (USAF) organization focused on education, research, and worldwide operational consultation in aerospace and operational medicine. USAFSAM was founded in 1918 to conduct research into the medical and physiologic domains related to human flight, and as a school for medical officers trained to support military aviation operations, later coined as flight surgeons. The school supported early military aviation from World War I through the evolution of aviation and into the modern era. USAFSAM conducted medical research and provided medical support for the initial US space operations beginning in 1947 through the establishment of NASA in 1958. After the creation of NASA, USAFSAM continued to actively support civilian and military manned space missions through clinical and physiologic research. USAFSAM is the oldest continually operating school for flight surgeons and other operational medical personnel of its kind in the world. USAFSAM is located in Dayton, Ohio at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and is part of the 711th Human Performance Wing (711 HPW) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Air University (United States Air Force)
Following the decision to let all Air Service officers attend the institution in 1922, the Air Service redesignated the Air Service Field Officers' School as the Air Service Tactical School. In conjunction with the 1926 redesignation of the Army Air Service as the Army Air Corps, the Air Service Tactical School became the Air Corps Tactical School. To take advantage of the propitious climate and facilities expansion potential, the Army Air Corps began moving the Air Corps Tactical School from Langley Field in Virginia in 1931 to Maxwell Field, Alabama.
Air Force Institute of Technology
Founded in 1919 and degree-granting since 1954, the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is the Air Force's graduate school of engineering and management as well as its institution for technical professional continuing education. AFIT is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB), Dayton, Ohio. Dayton's heritage and industrial base in aeronautics and aviation, coupled with the close proximity to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) provide a scientific and engineering research and educational experience focused on producing future leaders of the Air Force. A component of Air University and Air Education and Training Command, its primary purpose is to provide specialized education to select officer and enlisted U.S. military personnel and civilian employees. The United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is the undergraduate counterpart of AFIT for the Air Force.
United States Air Forces Southern Command
A second permanent army airfield, Albrook Field, opened in 1932 due to France Field becoming too small for the numbers of aircraft being assigned to the Canal Zone, as well as having a poor landing surface; offering no room for expansion, and providing little defense for the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. A third airfield, Howard Field was built on the Canal Bruja Point Military Reservation, opening on 1 December 1939. By 1940, a rapid increase in the number of flying squadrons in both the Canal Zone as well as in Panama as a result of the pre–World War II mobilization of the Air Corps warranted a new organization, and the Panama Canal Air Force was created as a major command. After several organizational changes and the establishment of the United States Army Air Forces in 1942, Sixth Air Force became the controlling Air Force command authority for USAAF activities in the Caribbean, as well as in Central and South America. Through all these redesignations it was part of the Caribbean Defense Command, (10 February 1941 – 1 November 1947), which was the senior United States Army headquarters in the Canal Zone. The Caribbean Interceptor Command, was the Air Force component (10 February 1941 – 17 October 1941) of the CIC until being inactivated and replaced by VI Interceptor Command.
Air University (United States Air Force)
In the first conclave of its kind since the end of World War II, the AAF Educational Conference ended after a three-day meeting on 20 Feb 1945 to discuss the post-war AAF educational structure. The Army Air Forces began the first instructor training course in March 1946 for preparing instructors to teach at the post-war AAF educational institutions.
Department of Air Training
They were originally trained at the Department of Air Training of the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma from 1942 to 1954. July 6, 1942, the day the Air Training Department was established, is seen as the birthday of Army Aviation. After the Air Force became its own separate arm of service in 1947, the Air Training Department came under the control of the Army Transportation Corps. (Army Aviation would not receive its own branch until 1983). They were restricted to reconnaissance and casualty evacuation duties under the Key West Agreement of 1948. The Army's Warrant Officer Pilot Program was begun in 1949 and the first pilots graduated in 1951. The Air Training Department was renamed the Army Aviation School in 1953 and was moved to Camp Rucker in 1954 (later renamed Fort Rucker in 1956). In 1956 the Gary and Wolters Air Force Bases in Texas were transferred from the Air Force to the Army.
Air Armament Center
On 27 October 1942 the United States Army Air Forces established the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida. The next year, it was redesignated as the Army Air Forces Tactical Center, on 16 October 1943. In the last days of the war, it was redesignated the Army Air Forces Center, and documentation of the period appears to indicate that the AAF Proving Ground Command at Eglin Field, Florida and the Army Air Forces Center at Orlando AAB were merged as Army Air Forces Center on 1 June 1945.
United States Air Force Academy
The early Air Force Academy leadership had the model of West Point and Annapolis in designing an appropriate curriculum, faculty, and campus. The Academy's permanent site had not yet been completed when the first class entered, so the 306 cadets from the Class of 1959 were sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver on 11 July 1955. While at Lowry, they were housed in renovated World War II barracks. There were no upper class cadets to train the new cadets, so the Air Force appointed a cadre of "Air Training Officers" (ATOs) to conduct training. The ATOs were junior officers, many of whom were graduates of West Point, Annapolis, VMI, and The Citadel. They acted as surrogate upper class cadets until the upper classes could be populated over the next several years. The Academy's dedication ceremony took place on that first day and was broadcast live on national television, with Walter Cronkite covering the event. Arnold W. Braswell, a native of Minden, Louisiana, was commander of the original four cadet squadrons at the academy 1955 to 1958.
United States Air Force Academy
The Prop and Wings insignia of the Air Service (1918–26), Air Corps (1926–41), and Army Air Forces (1941–47) became the insignia of upperclass cadets at the Air Force Academy beginning with the first class, 1959. The insignia is given to fourth class (freshmen) cadets at the Recognition Ceremony near the end of their first year rite of passage. The standard insignia uses the design of the Air Corps Prop and Wings, except that it is all silver instead of the gold wings and silver prop of the earlier design. Cadets who have ancestors who served in the Air Service, Air Corps, or Army Air Forces, or those who are direct descendants of Air Force Academy graduates, are eligible to wear a silver prop and gold wings set of prop and wings.
History of the United States Air Force
In practice, the Army Air Forces became virtually independent of the Army during World War II, but its leaders wanted formal independence. In November 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower became Army Chief of Staff, while General Carl Spaatz began to assume the duties of Commanding General, Army Air Forces, in anticipation of General Arnold's announced retirement. One of General Eisenhower's first actions was to appoint a board of officers, headed by Lieutenant General William H. Simpson, to prepare a definitive plan for the reorganization of the Army and the Air Force that could be effected without enabling legislation and would provide for the separation of the Air Force from the Army. On 29 January 1946 "Generals Eisenhower and Spaatz agreed on an Air Force organization composed of Strategic Air Command, Air Defense Command, Tactical Air Command, Air Transport Command, Air Technical Service Command, Air Training Command, the Air University, and the Air Force Center."
Forward air control
When the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was founded on 20 June 1941, it included provisions for Air Ground Control Parties to serve with the United States Army at the division, corps, and Army headquarters. The Air Ground Control Parties functions were to regulate bombing and artillery in close conjunction with the ground troops, as well as assess bomb damage. They were thus the first of similar units to try to fulfill the functions of the FAC without being airborne. However, these units were often plagued by turf wars and cumbersome communications between the respective armies and air forces involved. As a result, it could take hours for an air strike requested by ground troops to actually show up.
United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School
The U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School—usually referred to as "the Prep School" or "The P School"—was established in May 1961. The school's founder and first commander was Colonel Lee Charles Black. It is located on the campus of the United States Air Force Academy near the Community Center. The Prep School's mission is to prepare, motivate, and evaluate for admission to and success at the Air Force Academy. Students at the prep school are referred to as "cadet candidates" or more informally as "preppies."
2003 United States Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal
President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation 7 October 1975 permitting women to enter the military academies; the United States Air Force Academy began admitting female officer cadets for the first time on 28 June 1976. The first class with women graduated in May 1980, and were nicknamed "80s Ladies".
Air Force Junior Recruitment Officer Training Corps
Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps was founded in 1911 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, by Army Lt. Edgar R. Steevers. He created the program with the idea in mind to create more enlightened and higher quality citizens for the United States of America as well to educate young people about the military and its functions. AFJROTC is found at approximately 800 high schools across the nation as of 2014 and that number continues to grow.
United States Air Force in the United Kingdom
The origins of the United States Air Force in the UK can be traced to a series of agreements made between 27 January and 27 March 1941 which provided for American naval, ground and air support for campaigns against Nazi Germany. As a result, a special U.S. Army Observer Group was activated in London on 19 May 1941. One of the first tasks of that unit was to reconnoitre areas regarded as potential sites for United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) installations.
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (also known as USNA, Annapolis, or simply Navy) is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, east of Washington, D.C. and southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus (known to insiders as "the Yard") is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.
United States Air Force Academy
The Air Force Academy is an accredited four-year university offering bachelor's degrees in a variety of subjects. Active-duty Air Force officers make up approximately 70 percent of the faculty, with the balance long-term civilian professors, visiting professors from civilian universities and instructors from other U.S. and allied foreign military services. In recent years, civilians have become a growing portion of senior faculty.
Hellenic Air Force Academy
Many decades have passed since the founding of the Air Force Academy. Since then, from the academy have graduated at least 2600 pilots, 1200 aircraft engineers and other specializations according to the Air Force needs. It was founded in 1919 as the Military School of Aeronautics (). The "Icarus School" is actually the successor of the "Air Force School", founded in 1931 at the airport of Dekeleia, Tatoi in Athens.
List of U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni
The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) graduated the following notable alumni who made significant contributions to the aerospace field. The school's mission is to produce experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to lead and conduct test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. The school was established on September 9, 1944, as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies and superb flying weather, the school was moved on February 4, 1951, to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Edwards AFB is the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center and has been an integral part of flight testing for over fifty years.
United States National Guard
Following World War II, the National Guard aviation units that had previously been part of the U.S. Army Air Corps and its successor organization, the U.S. Army Air Forces, became the Air National Guard (ANG), one of two Reserve Components of the newly established United States Air Force.
On September 24, 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the entire Arkansas National Guard to ensure the safe entry of the Little Rock Nine to Little Rock Central High School the following day. Governor Orval Faubus had previously used members of the guard to deny the students entry to the school.
Army Air Forces Western Flying Training Command
The West Coast Air Corps Training Center was established on 8 July 1940 by the Office of the Chief of Air Corps as part of the expansion of the training department of the Air Corps. After the Fall of France in May 1940, the United States began rapidly expanding its military forces, and with the large numbers of men entering the military, the training requirements of the Air Corps were drastically expanded.
98th Flying Training Squadron
Parachuting at the U.S. Air Force Academy began in 1964 when a group of ambitious cadets took to the skies. The activity, at the time, was off-limits to cadets. Knowing full well the consequences if caught participating, their involvements were nonetheless revealed through their own irrepressible success. That spring, Cadet First Class (senior) Jay Kelley and Cadet Third Class (sophomore) Pete Johnston paired and won a novice team accuracy event—the Academy's first gold medal in collegiate competition. Their achievements that day resulted in an invitational demonstration at the Pueblo Army Depot, after which the commander at Fort Carson sent a very nice letter to the Academy's superintendent, thanking him for allowing the fine young men of his skydiving team to participate". After a thorough investigation, the Commandant of Cadets, Brigadier General Robert W. Strong Jr. "had a dilemma on his hands. After all, balancing against the weight of these young men's sin was the positive publicity they had brought upon themselves and the Academy. However illegal their activities, they were on to something good".
United States Armed Forces Institute
The United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) was an educational organization that was part of the United States Armed Forces. It was founded in April 1942, as the Army Institute.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
The U.S. Army Signal Corps Aviation School was first based at College Park, Maryland from 1907 to 1912. It later moved in 1912 to Rockwell Field, North Island, San Diego, California.
United States Air Force Academy
The first Honor scandal broke in 1965, when a resigning cadet reported knowing of more than 100 cadets who had been involved in a cheating ring. One hundred and nine cadets were ultimately expelled. Cheating scandals plagued the Academy again in 1967, 1972, 1984, 2004, 2007, 2012, and 2014. Following each of these events, the Academy thoroughly examined the etiology of the mass cheating in addition to alleged excessive pressures that the academic system at the time placed on cadets and made changes in attempts to reduce the opportunities for future incidents.
Insignia of Chaplain Schools in the US Military
Air Force chaplain training began July 1, 1953 (when the Air Force was given responsibility to train its own chaplains) when the Air Force Chaplains Course was created under the Officer Basic Military Course at Lackland Air Force Base. The USAF Chaplain School was established in June 1960, and its emblem was approved Oct 30, 1961, incorporating Christian and Jewish chaplain insignia, along with a motto that reads "Ut Omnes Unum Sint"—"That all may be one". The emblem was revised in 1966, still including the symbols for Christian and Jewish Chaplains, keeping the motto. However, when it was revised again in 1984, when the Roman numerals in the Jewish insignia changed to Hebrew letters, the motto was replaced with the school's title, "Air Force Chaplain School". On Oct 31, 1992, chaplain training was integrated into the Ira C. Eaker Center for Professional Development, and the school was redesignated as the U.S. Air Force Chaplain Service Institute (CSI, which also incorporated the Chaplain Service Resource Board, so that training and resourcing could be consolidated), located at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Chaplain Assistants, along with active duty, reserve, and Air National Guard chaplains were all included in CSI training. The motto as well as the specific religious symbols were all removed for the new CSI emblem. When the school moved to the campus of the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Center, Fort Jackson, (Columbia, South Carolina) in 2010, its name was changed to the USAF Chaplain Corps College and the current emblem was approved.
History of Eglin Air Force Base
In April 1967, the U.S. Air Force Special Air Warfare School was activated at Hurlburt Field under the Special Air Warfare Center, then located at Eglin AFB. In 1968, the school was re-designated the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School. On 1 June 1987, USAFSOS, as an organizational element of the 23d Air Force, was assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill AFB, Florida. As of 22 May 1990, the school became a reporting unit of the newly established Air Force Special Operations Command. During its formative years, the school's main thrust was the preparation of Air Force personnel for duty in Southeast Asia. Since then, the USAFSOS curriculum has grown from a single course of instruction with 300 graduates per year to 78 classes representing 28 formal courses a year and approximately 25 off-station tutorials.
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The first Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (then Air ROTC) units were established between 1920 and 1923 at the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University. After World War II, the Air Force established ROTC units at 77 colleges and universities throughout the United States.
United States Air Force Academy
The Vietnam War was the first war in which Academy graduates fought and died. As such, it had a profound effect on the development of the character of the Academy. Due to the need for more pilots, Academy enrollment grew significantly during this time. The size of the graduating classes went from 217 cadets in 1961 to 745 cadets in 1970. Academy facilities were likewise expanded, and training was modified to better meet the needs of the wartime Air Force. The Jacks Valley field training area was added, the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program was expanded, and light aircraft training started in 1968.
Cadet Corps
The students at the United States Military Academy at West Point—a four-year military college that was established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802—are referred to as "cadets", and collectively, the cadet brigade is known as the "United States Corps of Cadets." The cadet regiment at the United States Coast Guard Academy is similarly styled as the "United States Coast Guard Corps of Cadets." The United States Naval Academy maintains a similar "Brigade of Midshipmen", while the United States Air Force Academy cadets are part of the "United States Air Force Cadet Wing". The Citadel established in 1842 also has a corps of cadets and is one of the largest among the Senior Military Colleges of the United States. Established in 1876, the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets is another notable corps of cadets. Likewise, Upper Canada College, in Toronto, Ontario, maintained a cadet corps from 1832 to 1976.
List of monuments at the United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA) is a federal service academy located at West Point, New York that educates and commissions officers for the United States Army. The Academy was formally founded in 1802 and graduated its first class in October of the same year. It is the oldest of the five American service academies. Due to the academy's age and its unique purpose of producing Army officers, it is home to many monuments and memorials, the oldest dating back to the early 19th century, shortly after the academy's founding. The oldest monument is the Cadet Monument, dedicated in 1818 and located in the West Point Cemetery, while the newest is the Flight Memorial, located just north of Lusk Reservoir and dedicated in 1992.
Auxiliary Pilot Badge
Following the USAAF's separation in 1947 to become the U.S. Air Force, the Liaison Pilots embedded with the U.S. Army's Field Artillery battalions remained part of the Army, forming the nucleus of what would evolve into today's U.S. Army Aviation Branch. What was once the Liaison Pilot rating has long since evolved, further expanding into the Army Aviator qualification of today's Army. The modern Airborne Forward Air Controller (FAC) role has its roots in the role of the Liaison Pilots of the WW2 era, and continues to be employed on modern airframes in the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps alike. In addition, many foreign military air arms developed their own FAC capability in similar fashion during and after the WW2 era.
Mexican Air Force
Since the National School of Aviation was opened in 1915, it took different names over the years until finally, in 1959 it joined the military school of meteorology, mechanics and aviation specialists, forming the leading campus in military aviation education: 'El Colegio del Aire' (Air Force Academy), which since September 9, 1959, has guided the formation of Air Force officers. The Air Force Academy is an all academic institution of the Mexican Air Force and comprises four schools: 'Military Aviation School', 'Maintenance and Supply Military School', 'Air Force Military Specialist School', and the 'Military Troops' Air Force Speciaslist School'.
United States Army Air Forces
Congress, at the recommendation of Truman, created the Department of the Air Force with enactment of the National Security Act of 1947 (61 "Stat". 495), 26 July 1947. The act established the United States Air Force, a completely separate branch of the U.S. military, and abolished both the Army Air Forces and the Air Corps, effective 18 September 1947. The transfer of personnel and assets from the AAF to the USAF was effected by Transfer Order 1, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 26 September 1947.
Barry Goldwater
Following World War II, Goldwater was a leading proponent of creating the United States Air Force Academy, and later served on the Academy's Board of Visitors. The visitor center at the Academy is now named in his honor. As a colonel he also founded the Arizona Air National Guard, and he would desegregate it two years before the rest of the U.S. military. Goldwater was instrumental in pushing the Pentagon to support desegregation of the armed services.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
On January 23, 1942 the USAAF created the separate "Air Corps Flying Training Command" and the "Air Corps Technical Training Command" to control all aspects of technical and aviation training. Originally formed in Washington, D.C., they moved to facilities at Fort Worth, Texas in July. They were renamed the "Army Air Forces Flight Training Command" and "Army Air Forces Technical Training Command" respectively in March, 1942. They were later unified as the "Army Air Forces Training Command" (July, 1943 - June, 1946).From 1947, the Aviation Cadet program was run by the now-independent U.S. Air Force from Lackland, Kelly, Randolph, or Brooks AFB, all located in San Antonio, Texas. The Air Force program stopped taking civilian and enlisted pilot candidates in 1961 and navigator candidates in 1965.
Hubert R. Harmon
Lieutenant General Hubert Reilly Harmon (April 3, 1892 – February 22, 1957), after a distinguished combat career in World War II, was instrumental in developing plans for the establishment of the United States Air Force Academy. He was the first superintendent of the academy and was one of the persons most influential in establishing it as a successful educational institution.
Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics
During 1943-1945 the AAFSAT operated a combat simulation facility in Florida. Units and airfields were established throughout an area of north central Florida designated a mock "war theater" stretching roughly from Tampa to Titusville to Starke to Apalachicola in which war games were conducted. AAFSAT also had a bombing range at Ocala AAF, a service center at Leesburg AAF, and an air depot at Pinecastle AAF.
Due to a major reorganization of the Tactical Center and a change in the types of courses conducted by the institution, the Army Air Forces redesignated the AAF School of Applied Tactics as the Army Air Forces School (AAFS) on 1 June 1945. Following the end of World War II, in preparation for its post-war educational operations, the Army Air Forces transferred the AAF School from Orlando to Maxwell Field, Alabama on 29 November 1945 and assigned it directly to the AAF as a major command. On 12 March 1946, Headquarters, Army Air Forces redesignated the Army Air Forces School as the Air University (AU) and established the Air War College, Air Command and Staff School (now known as Air Command and Staff College), and the Air Tactical School (now known as Squadron Officer School) as its subordinate units.
List of United States Military Academy alumni
The United States Military Academy (USMA) is an undergraduate college in West Point, New York with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the United States Army. The Academy was founded in 1802 and is the oldest of the United States' five service academies. It is also referred to as West Point (the name of the military base that the Academy is a part of.) The Academy graduated its first cadet, Joseph Gardner Swift, in October 1802. Sports media refer to the Academy as "Army" and the students as "Cadets"; this usage is officially endorsed. The football team is also known as "The Black Knights of the Hudson" and "The Black Knights". A small number of graduates each year choose the option of cross-commissioning into the United States Air Force, United States Navy, or the United States Marine Corps. Before the founding of the United States Air Force Academy in 1955, the Academy was a major source of officers for the Air Force and its predecessors. Most cadets are admitted through the congressional appointment system. The curriculum emphasizes the sciences and engineering fields.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF)
On 20 June 1941, the air arm of the U.S. Army previously known as the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) became the "U.S. Army Air Forces" (USAAF). The grade of Aviation Cadet was created for pilot candidates and the program was renamed the Aviation Cadet Training Program (AvCad). Cadets were paid $75 a month ($50 base pay + $25 "flight pay") – the same rate as Army Air Corps privates with flight status - and a uniform allowance of $150. As junior officers, cadets were addressed as "Mister" by all ranks. The program was expanded in May 1942 to also cover training navigators and bombardiers and Moffett Field became the first center to give "pre-flight" training to them. Other specialties covered included communications, armament, meteorology, and radar operation; they were conventional Army warrant officers who attended an appropriate USAAF warrant officer school.
United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine
The United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine began operations on January 19, 1918 at Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, Long Island as the "Air Service Medical Research Laboratory" under the leadership of Col. William H. Wilmer. The Hazelhurst Laboratory had a small decompression chamber and research was begun on human tolerance to lowered oxygen tension. The impetus for the creation of the lab was the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917 and the resulting increase in use of aircraft by military forces. As a result, on April 28, 1917, an "Air Service Medical, Signal Corps, US Army" was organized with General Theodore C. Lyster, Medical Corps, US Army, appointed to the newly created position of "Chief Surgeon, Aviation Section, Signal Corps" on September 6, 1917. One of the first observations made by General Lyster was the alarming mortality rate from aircraft accidents among flying cadets at training centers in the U.S. and with the Allies in France. In the first year of flying in World War I the English and French found that 2% of aircraft accidents were due to combat, 8% were caused by mechanical problems, and 90% were due to human failure.