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.
List of United States Air Force squadrons
This is a list of United States Air Force squadrons. It covers both the independent United States Air Force (USAF) and its period as a branch of the US Army culminating as the Army Air Forces up to 1947. All numbered USAF squadrons are assigned numbers from 1 to 999, with the block 101 to 300 being reserved for the Air National Guard. Generally speaking the numbers in the 900 block are post World War II units, they may however be consolidated units with lineage and heraldry dating back to World War II or even early as part of the Air Service. The only official source of lineage information is provided by the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The only official sources of heraldry information are the AFHRA and the Institute of Heraldry, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.