Ready Room Blog
9/20/2022
Happy 75th Birthday To The USAF
Sunday September 18th 2022, Marked the 75th Birthday of the United States Air Force.
We thank all the honorable Air Force members that have served and continue to serve to help keep the strong and unequivocal capabilities in the skies to support America’s national defense needs.
The Department of the Air Force, an agency of the Department of Defense, was officially established on September 18, 1947, through the National Security Act, which makes it the youngest of the four
military branches.
Our nation’s airpower, however, dates back to the turn of the twentieth century with the first Aeronautical Division created in 1907 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Before the creation of the Air Force, the military’s flying operations were handled by the U.S. Army on land and the Navy
by sea.
As aviation grew and technology advanced over the years Army Aviation saw many iterations of the organization:
- Aeronautical Section, Signal Corps (1907)
- Aviation Section, Signal Corps (1914)
- Division of Military Aeronautics (1918)
- United States Army Air Service (1918)
- United States Army Air Corps (1926)
- United States Army Air Forces (1941)
The creation of the independent United States Air Force branch, as we know it today, was born out of the Army Signal Corps shortly after the end of World War II. It was made clear the value of the US airpower throughout WWII and signaled it was time for change, which in 1947 President Truman signed the National Security Act that established the new independent defense organization,
The United States Air Force.
There are 328,820 men and women serving in the United States Air Force in 2022.
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum proudly houses multiple retired USAF aircraft in our collection, and on display in the Museum.
