Between 1909 -- when that the US military purchased its first aircraft -- and 1947, the U.S. Air Force did not exist as a separate and independent military service organization. It went through a series of designations: Aeronautical Section, Signal Corps (1909); Aviation Section, Signal Corps (1914); United States Army Air Service (1918); United States Army Air Corps (1926), and United States Army Air Forces (1941).
WWII illustrated the value of airpower, and the need to change the basic organization of the US Military Forces. The result was the creation of a single Department of Defense with a strong Joint Chiefs of Staff with Army, Navy, and Air Force chiefs.
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 U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.
The official Air Force birthday is Sept. 18, 1947.
On July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman used this pen to sign the National Security Act of 1947 while aboard the Douglas VC-54C Sacred Cow, the first dedicated presidential aircraft. This act officially established the United States Air Force as a separate and co-equal branch of the United States Armed Forces.
The U.S. Air Force’s quest for independence was a long and often contentious struggle between air-minded officers and the entrenched Army and Navy bureaucracy. The creation of an independent air arm, crucial to national defense, had been championed for decades by a succession of Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces senior leaders. American air dominance in World War II and careful post-war organizational planning by Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold demonstrated to America’s political leaders the effectiveness of air power in the atomic age and the need for an independent Air Force.
President Truman, by signing this act into law, validated the hard work and sacrifice of thousands of dedicated Airmen who worked to create the most powerful air force in the world.
Speaking of anniversaries...Jimi Hendrix died 49 years ago today.
To my Army friends, I say “Hooah.”
To my Navy friends, I say “Anchors Aweigh.”
To my Marine Corps friends, I say “Semper Fi.”
And to my fellow Airmen, I say happy birthday and “Fore!”
I am several months older than the USAF. Our family lawyer was a former Army Air Force general who was one of the founders of the U.S. Air Force.
Happy Birthday U.S. Airforce. You’re almost as old as me.
My dad went through the transition from the Army Air Corps of the 1930s to the U.S. Air Force of the 1940s, retiring at the end of the 1950s.