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.
Nineteenth Air Force
The Nineteenth Air Force was inactivated in July 1973, as part of the economies enacted after the end of the Vietnam War. On 4 August 1998, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (CSAF), General Michael E. Ryan, and the Acting Secretary of the Air Force (SECAF), F. Whitten Peters, announced their plans to implement a major change in the structure of the Air Force. They proposed to divide the USAF’s combat strength and the elements directly supporting it into ten Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEFs). Although the EAF concept was a major step in recasting the operations, outlook, and culture of the USAF, it sprang from the performance of missions traditionally performed by the Air Force — the timely response of land-based air power to the needs of the nation.