History
The War Department created the first antecedent of the Air Force in 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual separation 40 years later. In World War II, almost 68,000 U.S airmen died helping to win the war; only the infantry suffered more enlisted casualties. In practice, the USAAF was virtually independent of the Army during World War II, but officials wanted formal independence. The USAF became a separate military service on 18 September 1947, with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947. The Act created the National Military Establishment (renamed Department of Defense in 1949), which was composed of three subordinate Military Departments, namely the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and a newly created Department of the Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was shared between the Army (for land-based operations), the Navy (for sea-based operations from aircraft carriers and amphibious aircraft), and the Marine Corps (for close air support of infantry operations). The 1940s proved to be important in other ways as well. In 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his X-1 rocket powered aircraft, beginning a new era of aeronautics in America.
The predecessor organizations in the Army of today's Air Force are:
- Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps 1 August 1907 – 18 July 1914
- Aviation Section, Signal Corps 18 July 1914 – 20 May 1918
- Division of Military Aeronautics (20 May 1918 to 24 May 1918)
- U.S. Army Air Service (24 May 1918 to 2 July 1926)
- U.S. Army Air Corps (2 July 1926 to 20 June 1941) and
- U.S. Army Air Forces (20 June 1941 to 18 September 1947)
Read more about this topic: United States Air Force
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