FASF Trustee, Colonel Jimmy Lee, discovered this interesting summary of the US Air Service in a back issue of the Army Times newspaper from last summer. Because the pages of the ARMY TIMES are so large, Jimmy had to scan only parts of them at a time, but if you bear with us, you will see the whole fascinating history of the Air Force in the short sequence of the eight (8) images that follow. So, here for your edification is what Colonel Lee discovered under the TIMES’ section entitled: “BY THE NUMBERS:”
To be able to more easily see the text in images that follow, click on them to get full size.
The whole page of Air Force History – Image 001
Image 002
Image 003 showing Army’s New Airship No. 1
Image No. 004 – Depicting the five airplanes in the inventory in 1911 – – – Also shows the service’s budget at the time.
Image No. 005 – Shows the date of the formation of the new Aeronautical Division of the Signal Corps in 1907
Image No. 006 – Depicts with photo the small Aeronautical Division’s total personnel – only three (3) men!
Image No. 007 – This shows the year, forty years later, in which the completely separate USAF became a reality.
Image No. 008 – Shows the year in which the Aeronautical Division was renamed and organized into the Army Air Service, and then, later in 1926, we see that its name was again changed, this time to the Army Air Corps. The service’s Logo is also shown. The red circle in the center of this logo was removed during the early part of WWII because, in the mayhem of a dogfight, when planes and insignias go flashing by in but mile-seconds, the red ball could too easily be mistaken for that of the Japanese Empire’s planes, which bore the sole red ball, to represent their logo of Japan’s “Rising Sun.”
Colonel Lee is presently the Commanding Officer of the University of Texas El Paso’s Army ROTC Unit. The Unit is known as the “Fighting Miner’s Battalion.”
Thank you, Jimmy, for finding – and sending this interesting short history of the USAF to your Website!
cool jerry