United States Army Air Forces Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Growth, military personnel=== [[File:tuskegee airman poster.jpg|thumb|left|[[Tuskegee Airmen]] [[War bond]]s poster]] The huge increases in aircraft inventory resulted in a similar increase in personnel, expanding sixteen-fold in less than three years following its formation, and changed the personnel policies under which the Air Service and Air Corps had operated since the National Defense Act of 1920. No longer could pilots represent 90% of commissioned officers. The need for large numbers of specialists in administration and technical services resulted in the establishment of an [[Officer candidate school|Officer Candidate School]] in [[Miami Beach, Florida]], and the direct commissioning of thousands of professionals.<ref>Nalty (1997), p. 250.</ref> Even so, 193,000 new pilots entered the AAF during World War II, while 124,000 other candidates failed at some point during training or were killed in accidents.<ref>Nalty (1997), p. 259.</ref> The requirements for new pilots resulted in a massive expansion of the Aviation Cadet program, which had so many volunteers that the AAF created a reserve pool that held qualified pilot candidates until they could be called to active duty, rather than losing them in the draft. By 1944, this pool became surplus, and 24,000 were sent to the [[Army Ground Forces]] for retraining as [[infantry]], and 6,000 to the [[Army Service Forces]].<ref>Nalty (1997), p. 325.</ref> Pilot standards were changed to reduce the minimum age from 20 to 18, and eliminated the educational requirement of at least two years of college. Two fighter pilot beneficiaries of this change went on to become brigadier generals in the [[United States Air Force]], [[James Robinson Risner]] and [[Chuck Yeager|Charles E. Yeager]].<ref>Nalty (1997), p. 255.</ref> [[File:WAC Air Controller by Dan V. Smith.jpg|thumb|right|1943 portrait of [[Women's Army Corps|WAC]] air controller]] Air crew needs resulted in the successful training of 43,000 [[Bombardier (aircrew)|bombardiers]], 49,000 [[navigator]]s, and 309,000 flexible gunners, many of whom also specialized in other aspects of air crew duties.<ref group=n>The exact reported figures were 193,440 pilots; 43,051 bombardiers and bombardier-navigators; 48,870 navigators in all three disciplines (celestial, dead reckoning, and radar); and 309,236 flexible gunners. (''AIR FORCE Magazine'', June 1995, pp. 260–263)</ref> 7,800 men qualified as [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29]] flight engineers and 1,000 more as [[radar]] operators in [[night fighter]]s, all of whom received commissions. Almost 1.4 million men received technical training as aircraft mechanics, electronics specialists, and other technicians. Non-aircraft related support services were provided by airmen trained by the [[Army Service Forces]], but the AAF increasingly exerted influence on the curricula of these courses in anticipation of future independence.<ref>Nalty (1997), pp. 260–263.</ref><ref>Correll, "The US Army Air Forces at War", p. 36.</ref> [[African Americans|African-Americans]] comprised approximately six per cent of this force (145,242 personnel in June 1944).<ref name="sd10">''AAF Statistical Digest'', Table 10 – Colored Military Personnel in Continental US and Overseas, By Type of Personnel: Aug 1942 to Aug 1945</ref> In 1940, pressured by [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and some Northern members of [[United States Congress|Congress]], General Arnold agreed to accept blacks for pilot training, albeit on a [[racial segregation|segregated]] basis. A flight training center was set up at the [[Tuskegee University|Tuskegee Institute]] in [[Alabama]]. Despite the handicap—caused by the segregation policy—of not having an experienced training cadre as with other AAF units, the [[Tuskegee Airmen]] distinguished themselves in combat with the [[332d Expeditionary Operations Group|332nd Fighter Group]]. The Tuskegee training program produced 673 black fighter pilots, 253 [[Martin B-26 Marauder|B-26 Marauder]] pilots, and 132 navigators.<ref>Bowman (1997), p. 161.</ref> The vast majority of African-American airmen, however, did not fare as well. Mainly [[conscription|draftees]], most did not fly or maintain aircraft. Their largely menial duties, indifferent or hostile leadership, and poor morale led to serious dissatisfaction and several violent incidents.<ref>Nalty (1997), pp. 251–252.</ref> Women served more successfully as part of the war-time Army Air Forces. The AAF was willing to experiment with its allotment from the unpopular [[Women's Army Corps|Women's Army Auxiliary Corps]] (WAACs) and became an early and determined supporter of full military status for women in the Army ([[Women's Army Corps]] or WACs). WACs serving in the AAF became such an accepted and valuable part of the service they earned the distinction of being commonly (but unofficially) known as "Air WACs".<ref name="ccxxxvi">Craven and Cate, Vol. 7, p. xxxvi</ref> Nearly 40,000 women served in the WAACs and WACs as AAF personnel,<ref name="waaf">Craven and Cate, Vol. 7, p. 514.</ref><ref group=n>39,323 WACs were assigned to the AAF in January 1945. Approximately 1,100 were African-American women assigned to ten segregated AAF units. (Craven and Cate, Vol. 7, p. 514)</ref> more than 1,000 as [[Women Airforce Service Pilots]] (WASPs), and 6,500 as [[Registered nurse|nurses]] in the Army Air Forces, including 500 flight nurses.<ref>Nalty (1997), pp. 253–254.</ref> 7,601 "Air WACs" served overseas in April 1945, and women performed in more than 200 job categories.<ref>Bowman (1997), p. 158.</ref> The Air Corps Act of July 1926 increased the number of general officers authorized in the Army's air arm from two to four. The activation of GHQAF in March 1935 doubled that number to eight and pre-war expansion of the Air Corps in October 1940 saw fifteen new general officer billets created.<ref>''Official Register of the United States 1941, Volume I'', U.S. Civil Service Commission publication, p. 48.</ref><ref group=n>The 15 new slots consisted of a lieutenant general, four major generals, and ten brigadier generals. (Official Register 1941)</ref> By the end of World War II, 320 generals were authorized for service within the wartime AAF.<ref>Finney (1955), p. 25.</ref> {{center|'''USAAC-USAAF Military Personnel Strength, 1939–1945'''<ref>''AAF Statistical Digest'', Table 4 – Military Personnel in Continental U.S. and Overseas, By Type of Personnel.</ref>}} {| align=center class="wikitable" |-style="background: khaki" | align=center|'''Date'''||align=center|'''Total USAAF''' ||align=center|'''Tot Officers''' ||align=center|'''Tot Enlisted''' ||align=center|'''# overseas''' ||align=center|'''Officers o/s'''||align=center|'''Enlisted o/s''' |- | 31 July 1939 ||align=center|24,724|| align=center|2,636||align=center|22,088||align=center|3,991||align=center|272||align=center|3,719 |-style="background: #eeeeee;" | 31 December 1939||align=center|43,118||align=center|3,006||align=center|40,112||align=center|7,007||align=center|351||align=center|6,656 |- |31 December 1940||align=center|101,227||align=center|6,437||align=center|94,790||align=center|16,070||align=center|612||align=center|15,458 |-style="background: #eeeeee;" |31 December 1941||align=center|354,161||align=center|24,521||align=center|329,640||align=center|25,884||align=center|2,479||align=center|23,405 |- |31 December 1942||align=center|1,597,049||align=center|127,267||align=center|1,469,782||align=center|242,021||align=center|26,792||align=center|215,229 |-style="background: #eeeeee;" |31 December 1943||align=center|2,373,882||align=center|274,347||align=center|2,099,535||align=center|735,666||align=center|81,072||align=center|654,594 |- |31 March 1944 ('''Peak size''')||align=center|'''2,411,294'''||align=center|306,889||align=center|2,104,405||align=center|906,335||align=center|104,864||align=center|801,471 |-style="background: #eeeeee;" |31 December 1944||align=center|2,359,456||align=center|375,973||align=center|1,983,483||align=center|1,164,136||align=center|153,545||align=center|1,010,591 |- |30 April 1945 ('''Peak overseas''')||align=center|2,329,534||align=center|388,278||align=center|1,941,256||align=center|'''1,224,006'''||align=center|163,886||align=center|1,060,120 |-style="background: #eeeeee;" |31 August 1945||align=center|2,253,182||align=center|368,344||align=center|1,884,838||align=center|999,609||align=center|122,833||align=center|876,776 |} {{center|<small>1939–1940 totals were U.S. Army Air Corps</small>}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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