Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/116

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY The United States Air Force originated as a minor activ[ty of the Urnted States Army's Signal Corps on I August 1907, when the Aeronautical Divismn was established in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. The first dzrect statutory reference to airplanes was contained m the Appropriations Act of March 3, 1911; prior to tlus hme appropria- tions for Army aerial activity was under the heading "war balloons." In 1914 Congress enacted legislation cre- ating the Avmtion Section of the Army Signal Corps and appropriated the unpre- cedented sum oœ $600,000 for aeronautcaI development. Because of the war in Europe, Congress in 1916 appropriated $13,881,666 for Army awation and provided for the training of reserve officers and enlisted men, and for the development expense of an awation engine, the famous Lberty engine. in 1917 Congress appropriated $640,000,- 000, a huge sum at that tnne, to build up a great Army ar arm which was to bring tile war to a quick close. The great expectatmns of Congress and the country at large were doomed to dsappointment as our infant air- craft industry could not meet the challenge. Nor was the Army air arm adequately or- ganizod for such a task. The weakness of our air arm, thus re- vealed, instigated the first Congressional lnvestgations of the air arm and the pas- sage of the Overman Act of May 20, 1918. Acting under the authority of tbns act, President Wilson removed Army aviation from the jurisdiction of the Signal Corps and made a sweeping reorganization. The air arm of the Army now became the Serwce, and was formally recognized as a combatant arm by the Army Reorganiza- tion Act of 4 June 1920. The act created a Chief of the Air Serwce wth the rank of major general. During the year 1916 the first of a long series of bills proposing a Department of Aviatmn was introduced in Congress. A strong sentiment for an independent air arm had developed among officers of the air arm during World War I, and there was conmderable pubhc and Congressional sup- port for such an organization of military aviahon. Nevertheless, t was to be 31 years before Congress finally passed legislation creating a separate azr arm with ts own de- partmental organization. In mihtary mrcles the leader in the fight for independence was Brig. Gert Wlliam Mitchell, Assistant Chiei of the Ar Service from 1919 to 1925. His views were bitterly opposed by those n authority in the Army and the War De- partment, and of course, the Navy. Mitchell's vehement crusade for an inde- pendent air force brought about a situation which resulted m his dismissal as Assistant Chief of the Air Service, and finally led in 1925 to a court-martial which drove him from the service. For a long time the opinions held by those authorxtms who regarded the mr arm sxmply as an auxiliary to the Army and Navy were to prevail. The growing pubhc sentiment for an independent or separate mr arm availed little as long as these men were m power Over 50 measures proposing to gve the air arm more autonomy were introduced in Congress in the period be- tween World War I and World War II but none of them were passed. Congress did, however, pass the Air Corps Act of 1926, which changed the name Air Service to Air Corps and emphasized the role of the air arm as a striking Iorce rather than as a mere auxiliary to the other branches. 109 THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958