Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/42

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 UAF HTOaCAL STUv[ES -- 35 At a meeting of the Ar Staff with Robert A. Lovett, Assistant Secretary of Var for Air, on 6 October 1941, it was decided that it would be the policy of the AAF to oppose the formation of an independent air force at this timeJ  This pohcy was a temporary one, of course, and was based on practical considerations' a behef that any funda- mental change in the status of the air am in this fume of emergency would be danger- ous, and a feeling that agitation in Congress on the subject of an independent mr force might impede the current preparedness pro- gram. These factors, plus the fact that the air arm had been gven a large degree of autonomy by its reorganization as the Army Air Forces in June 1941, resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of measures intro- duced in Congress to create an independent or coorchnate air arm, and these few were killed in committee. ø Thus the issue of a separate air arm was left to be demded in the future. Although the reorgamzation of the ar arm as the AAF under AR 95-5 was the first significant advance in the movement for autonomy since the creation of the GI-IQ Air Force in 1935, t left much to be de- sired. Conflicts of ]urischcton between the Chief, Air Corps, and the Chief, Air Force Combat Command, still existed; the AAF's relationship with the War Department was poorly defined; and the degree of autonomy granted to the air arm was not sufficient for satisfactory operatrans. The necessary further reorgamzation was accomphshed soon after the United States entered the war, when the AAF was gven virtually compIete autonomy wthin the War Depart- merit,   Although Congress failed to take any ac- tion during tins period to provide for a separate air force, and left to the War De. pertinent the important task of putting the orgamzatmn of the Amy air ann on a more efficient basis by giving t a greater degree of autonomy, that body, nevertheless, took tremendous steps m developing American mr power The appropriations whmh Con- gress made for equipping and training the Army air arm ran into the billions; Congress also enacted a large body of legslahon for the purpose of expedmng tarcraft produc- tran and procurement, and granted vast sums of money for this purpose. It enacted the legislation necessary to mplement the personnel procurement and training pro- grams of the rapidly expanding air arm In addition t acted through spemal commit. tees such as the Truman Committee to pro- mote the development of American air power Although when war came the AAF had not yet reached the goals set up un- der the preparedness program, Congress had made possible the creation of a strong foundatmn for the development of the over- whelming air power winch played a malta' part in bringing about the wctory of the Urnted States and her alhes n World War IL THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958