PDG Ch 1 AIR FORCE HERITAGE |90 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS|GUARANTEED SUCCESS

Airpower in WWII - First World War signaled airpower's promise, the Second World War fulfilled the vision - force multiplier and a vital component of the joint, combined arms - prerequisite for successful land, sea, or air ops Growth of Air Corps - Roosevelt (1939) -- build 50,000 military aircraft (numbered ~1,800 aircraft/18,000 men) -- Major General Oliver P. Echols began the most massive aircraft procurement program United States Army Air Forces Origins - General Henry "Hap" Arnold (Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces) - General George C. Marshall (Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force) Air War Planning Document 1 - conduct of a strategic air campaign = massive force to destroy the enemy's will and capability to fight through long-range strategic bombardment - Lieutenant Colonel Harold "Hal" George, Major Lawrence Kuter, Major Kenneth Walker, and Captain Haywood "Possum" Hansell Casablanca Directive of January 1943 - inaugurated the Combined Bomber Offensive (Operation PointBlank), combining American precision daylight bombing and British night area bombing Brig Gen Ira C. Eaker - established the VIII Bomber Command, flying from bases in England General Spaatz - commander of the "Mighty Eighth" "Black Thursday" - 14 October 1943 mission against Schweinfurt effectively ended the United States Army Air Forces unescorted bombing campaign P-51 Mustang - revolutionized the air war over Europe - faster and could out turn and out dive the latest models of Me-109 and the new Focke-Wulf FW-190 - basic range of 500 miles, augmentable to 850 miles, the Mustang flew farther than a B-17 with normal payload Operation Argument - objective of winning air superiority and crippling Germany's aircraft industry - Spaatz, Doolittle, and Kepner Combined Bomber Offensive - 1942 to 1945 - longest, bloodiest, air campaign in history - 1.69 million combat sorties and dropped 1.5 million tons of bombs - Airpower emerged as a dominant weapon in Western Europe during World War II Sergeant Sandy Sanchez - only enlisted airman to have a B-17 named for him Tuskegee Airmen - 332d Fighter Group flew escort missions from 9 June 1944 until the German surrender in the spring of 1945 - destroyed more aircraft than they lost = shot down 111 enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat, losing 66 of their own aircraft to all causes, including seven shot down - struck a significant blow to the poison of racism in America, fighting bigotry by their actions in the skies over North Africa, the Mediterranean, Sicily, Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia, France, Romania, and Germany - dispelled myths, opened eyes, rewrote history, and prepared the United States Air Force to be the first armed service to integrate racially Flying Tigers - first combat experience in the Pacific Theater = aid Nationalist China against Japanese invaders - 286 confirmed victories, losing only 12 pilots, before being disbanded in July 1942 Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle - led 16 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers in a bombing raid on various targets in Tokyo, Kobe, and Nagoya. - Doolittle Raid inflicted little damage, but the gesture shocked Japanese military leaders and cheered the American public John D. Foley - On his first mission, Foley shot down at least one Japanese enemy aircraft - popular song, "Johnny Got a Zero" - decorated a total of eight times for heroism including personal recognition by Generals MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Doolittle Battle of Coral Sea - 4-8 May 1942 - first naval battle fought entirely by air Battle of Midway - 4 June 1942 - Navy pilots sank four Japanese carriers = turned the tide of the war in the Pacific Fifth Air Force - primary United States Army Air Forces contribution to the Pacific - flew second string aircraft out of primitive bases, struggling to overcome its low resource priority level and a 10,000 mile supply chain - Major General George C. Kenney - parachutes attached to fragmentation bombs and low-level "skip" bombing techniques Air Transport Command - C-46s and C-47s, braved perilous weather conditions to deliver 650,000 tons of supplies to Chinese and American forces (China-Burma-India Theater) - Flying the "Hump" was one of the most hazardous military air operations 1st Air Commando Group - Lieutenant Colonel Phillip G. Cochran and John R. Allison - provided assistance to British "Chindit" forces conducting long-range penetration missions - demonstrated that air power could support unconventional warfare any place, any time - demonstrated its ingenuity, conducting the first helicopter combat rescue Major General Curtis E. LeMay - a proven combat commander from the European theater - altered B-29 tactics = avoid the jet stream and high-altitude engine problems --> low-altitude night attacks with bombers stripped of defensive machine guns, reduced fuel loads, and increased bomb loads Atomic bomb - Enola Gay: uranium bomb, "Little Boy," over Hiroshima - Bockscar: plutonium bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki National Security Act of 1947 - established Department of the Air Force - Stuart Symington: first Secretary of the Air Force - General Spaatz: first Chief of Staff Changes from Air Corps - 1952, the Air Force officially changed the names of the lower four ranks from private to Airman basic; private first class to Airman, third class; corporal to Airman, second class; and sergeant to Airman, first class - late 1940s, the Air Force also began an Airman Career Program that attempted to encourage long-term careers for enlisted specialists. Berlin Crisis - 4 June 1948, the Soviets blockaded railroad and road corridors - C-47 and C-54 cargo aircraft established a precise schedule of flights every three minutes, 24-hours-a-day - lessons learned while flying the "Hump" - By 1949, the Soviets acknowledged the airlift's success and lifted the blockade - Operation Vittles tallied 277,804 flights delivering 2.3 million tons of supplies = nonviolent use of airpower defused a potentially disastrous confrontation & laid the foundation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Strategic Air Command - General LeMay - rigorous training, exacting performance standards, and immediate readiness - B-50 (a more powerful version of the B-29) and the massive Convair B-36 Peacemaker (the first bomber with intercontinental range) - highly secret, extensive electronic reconnaissance program - early 1950s, to an all-jet bomber force, activating the Boeing B-47 Stratojet and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress Charles "Chuck" Yeager - 14 October 1947 - first man to break the sound barrier - Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" Korean War - initial phase illustrated the dangers of being unprepared, American Airmen struggled to relearn close air support and interdiction skills - advanced Soviet-made MiG-15 fighters appeared: flown by North Korean, Chinese, and Soviet pilots, outperformed American F-51, F-80, and F-84 aircraft - Air Rescue Service medically evacuated more than 9,600 wounded soldiers, and rescued nearly 1,000 personnel shot down - Air Resupply and Communication Service wings executed unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency ops - leaders struggled under political, technological, and resource limitations inherent in the Cold War = American policy makers limited operations in Asia Corporal Harry LaVene - 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, - scored the first B-29 victory over a jet by downing a MiG-15 - Sergeant Billie Beach - shot down two MiGs on 12 April 1951 Korean War fighter aces - Captain Joseph McConnell: 16 kills - Captain James Jabara : 15 kills Air Force missile and space development - late 1953: Trevor Gardner, convened a group of experts known as the Teapot Committee to examine the field of long-range missiles - 1 July 1954: Western Development Division in Inglewood, California, to develop and field intercontinental ballistic missiles - Brigadier General Bernard Schriever - Sputnik I satellite into earth orbit = Soviet success marked the beginning of the space age and sparked the space race Weapon System Requirement No. 5 - development of an electro-optical reconnaissance satellite. Weapon System Requirement No. 5 later became weapon system 117L. -scope of weapon system 117L eventually broadened to include other space-based missions, such as meteorology, missile warning, and multispectral imaging