Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
2017 marks 70 years since the United States Air Force was established as an independent military service, but many of USAF’s entities trace their history back much further. In fact, 65 of today’s Active Duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve units have lineages dating back to World War I.
Most began their time as WW I-era Army aero squadrons, and many were stationed in France during the Great War. Over time, units have changed names, locations, equipment, and missions—sometimes repeatedly. They may have been inactivated and reactivated several times. The stories of these units and their airmen can fill volumes, and many official and unofficial histories are available online.
Today, a diverse collection of more than five dozen Air Force groups and squadrons trace their histories back a century or more, as in the case of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron and 2nd Air Refueling Squadron. On the following pages are their patches—check them out.
Research by Mike Tsukamoto, photo editor, and Daniel L. Haulman, Air Force Historical Research Agency
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
Navy Adm. Richard Correll succeeded Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton as head of U.S. Strategic Command on Dec. 5, stressing the need for the combatant command to understand and embrace new technologies for its deterrence mission.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org For decades, the Pentagon has viewed space as a “supporting” domain...
Air Education & Training Command is poised to receive its first T-7A Red Hawk in the coming days, the start of a process that will end with pilots finally getting trained in the eagerly anticipated jet.
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
The United States Air Force is flying less than historic norms and funding for acquisition and readiness is on a path to further hollow out this too small and old force to that is incapable of sustaining an enduring combat air campaign.
For an investment of less than $24 million, the Air Force was able to return a damaged B-2 bomber to flying status in November. The service offered an unusually detailed description of the methods used to fix the stealth aircraft.
More than three-fourths of Americans would support using force to support NATO’s collective defense, according to the Ronald Reagan Institute’s latest annual National Defense Survey. The report comes as the Pentagon prepares to unveil its new National Defense Strategy, the lodestar for multiyear planning. It is expected to emphasize security…
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