Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force

5. From Army Air Service to Air Force

85 5 From Army Air Service to Air Force The u.S. Air Force did not win its freedom until 1947, after fighting the two major conventional wars of the twentieth century. The theoretical debates over airpower during the first half of the twentieth century played out in the united States against the backdrop of an institutional struggle within the u.S. Army and between the army and the navy. In part because of this long history of bureaucratic struggle, the current arrangement of u.S. military aviation remains complicated. The uSAF represents only one of four different aircraft fleets in the u.S. military arsenal (the number increases if we include Coast Guard and Air national Guard fleets). The u.S. Army, u.S. navy, and u.S. Marine Corps all operate their own air forces independently of the uSAF. The battle for u.S. Air Force independence was necessarily influenced by the independence of the royal Air Force (and other independent air forces) as well as by the air campaigns of both World War I and World War II. However, the quest for air force independence itself affected u.S. doctrine, procurement, and strategy, especially during the Second World War. The u.S. Army Air Forces fought as an organization that wanted independence and tailored its efforts not just to the goal of defeating Germany and Japan but to separating itself from the army. Prehistory of the USAF The history of American airpower began with the creation of the Aeronautical division of the u.S. Army Signal Corps in 1907.1 The Signal 86 Grounded Corps, an organization dedicated to maintaining military communication , had dabbled with balloon aviation since the Civil War and seemed the natural choice for the introduction of aircraft. despite the fact that a pair of u.S. inventors (the Wright brothers) had pioneered heavier-thanair craft and attempted to market them to the u.S. government, the u.S. military was slow to appreciate the possibilities of the aircraft. The Aeronautical division was very small, including only twenty-three aircraft by 1914.2 The first use of airpower in anger came in 1916, when Woodrow Wilson authorized the Punitive expedition against Mexico.3 As in the united Kingdom, however, the pressure of war and of technological development spurred expansion, and by 1918 the Signal Corps could no longer handle both its aviation and its communication responsibilities. In May 1918, the united States created the Army Air Service (uSAAS), although ad hoc organizations had already been developed to manage the air units of the American expeditionary Force in France. u.S. fliers had trained and flown with British and French units before u.S. entry into the war and continued to do so in the months immediately after. u.S. airpower capabilities were plagued by slow production and a weak aeronautic sector, although by the end of the war the American situation was improving.4 u.S. naval aviation began on november 14, 1910, when a Curtiss Co. aircraft was launched from the cruiser uSS Birmingham.5 The first naval aviation unit was formed in the summer of 1911, and early work involved the development of seaplanes and of catapult takeoffs from warships. As with all other such services, naval aviation expanded dramatically during World War I, growing from 201 personnel in April 1917 to 37,000 in november 1918. naval aircraft in the First World War engaged primarily in maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare.6 The Army Air Service remained in control of u.S. Army air assets after the war ended. As was the case with other belligerents, the size of the air service shrank dramatically, dropping from 138,000 personnel in 1918 to 9,500 in 1926.7 demobilization bit more deeply in the united States than in the united Kingdom, in part due to the belief that participation in the Great War represented an aberration from American foreign policy. The long, bitter fight for an independent u.S. air force began in earnest during demobilization. The earliest legislative rumblings began in 1919 From Army Air Service to Air Force 87 with proposals by representative Charles Curry and Senator Harry new to establish a separate department of Aeronautics.8 The initial stages of the debate echoed the fight over the creation of the royal Air Force.9 Airpower advocates argued that aviation required a separate service in order to realize...