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Over the past twelve years, the base infrastructure of the United States Air Force (USAF) has shrunk rapidly to accommodate force downsizing engendered by the ending of the Cold War. Still more radical changes are necessary to efficiently support the agile forces required to wage the "Global War on Terrorism." Historically, the ebb, flow, and utilization of Air Force installations are interconnected to changes in the size, composition, and capabilities of major flying and nonflying organizations. As a result, the number of USAF installations has fluctuated according to the complex interaction of the perceived global threat, technology, strategy, tactics, and projected force structure. This study describes military, technical, economic, and political reasoning that has influenced the location, or basing, of major flying and nonflying units in the continental United States, excluding Alaska, between 1907 and 2003. Specifically, it deals with the basing of bomber, fighter, airlift and missile units, training installations, logistic centers, and product centers. Locating flying and nonflying organizations involves assigning them to installations, usually Air Force bases that are compatible with their missions. So closely related is the expansion, contraction, and relocation of USAF force structure to the utilization of base infrastructure that the two subjects must necessarily be considered together. This volume, a preliminary, groundbreaking effort planned and produced within a prescribed period of time, is intended as a reference work offering historical perspective on current basing issues.

The Department of Defense operates in a challenging natural environment stretching from the surface of the earth into the far reaches of space. While the environment has beleaguered military operations for centuries, it has also provided strategic, operational, and tactical advantage to the forewarned. Sun Tzu once proclaimed, "Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will be total." Indeed, history has shown that commanders who have exploited knowledge of the environment and its effects have been rewarded with victory, while those who have ignored the environment have often met with failure.

Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 1-1, Leadership and Force Development, is the Air Force's capstone doctrinal publication on leadership and how the Service uses force development to build leaders. AFDD 1-1 is a direct descendant in a line of Air Force documents chronicling leadership for the Service dating back to its earliest days. It presents the best practices of how an Airman leads and why leadership for an Airman differs from those of other Services. The three chapters and the appendices describe what an Airman is, how Airmen lead, what force development is, and how it is put into practice.

Throughout their history, America's armed forces have maintained a commitment to recover any isolated personnel from hostile or uncertain environments, and denied areas. But until recently, each Service tackled the personnel recovery conundrum unilaterally. For example, the last edition of this document focused on combat search and rescue-the Air Force's mechanism for the recovery of Airmen.

This revision substantially restructures the entire publication for better presentation of key ideas and introduces much new and updated material. The publication's title has been changed to better reflect the subject matter. The publication updates discussion on the Airman's perspective. Discussion on the range of military operations has been updated and includes discussion of homeland operations and stability operations. A completely new discussion on the effects-based approach to military operations has been added. The discussion on expeditionary organization has been expanded and updated based on experience gained since publication of the previous version. Discussion on administrative control has been clarified and expanded, to include new discussion on responsibilities of host installation commanders. Discussion on command relationship models has been expanded and clarified based on experience in the field. A new chapter on joint organization greatly expands previous joint discussion. The discussion on planning has been greatly expanded, to include effects-based planning, component planning considerations, and the air and space estimate process. Discussion on air and space operations centers has been greatly expanded to include air mobility and space operations centers, organization, and processes. The appendices have been completely revised to support the current content.

This doctrine provides guidance for Air Force nuclear operations. It is based on a body of knowledge gained from experience and lessons learned in organizing, training, and equipping nuclear forces in support of national security objectives.

Time and time again in the last several decades, air and space power has proven among the most powerful of weapons in the nation's military arsenal, deciding some conflicts outright and enabling us to resolve others in the manner of our choosing. Today, air and space power can impose decisive effects anywhere on the globe at almost any time, but it has taken more than this global reach to make it the world's premier military instrument. Sound doctrine, strategy, and operational art are also required and the discipline of targeting is a vital piece of Air Force operational art. Time and time again in the last several decades, air and space power has proven among the most powerful of weapons in the nation's military arsenal, deciding some conflicts outright and enabling us to resolve others in the manner of our choosing. Today, air and space power can impose decisive effects anywhere on the globe at almost any time, but it has taken more than this global reach to make it the world's premier military instrument. Sound doctrine, strategy, and operational art are also required and the discipline of targeting is a vital piece of Air Force operational art.

War is one of mankind's most complex endeavors. Destroying or incapacitating enemy military forces and attriting them into ineffectiveness is one means, but not the only means, of achieving warfare's objectives. Airmen have always envisioned going directly to the heart of an enemy. Modern air, space, and cyberspace power has come a long way toward realizing this vision. The combination of advanced systems with stealth and precision has made airpower a force to be reckoned with. Commanders now have the capability to directly affect an adversary's strategic center of gravity, helping to accelerate achievement of US national objectives.

The concept of flight has fascinated man for millennia. The minds of the ancients invented winged gods and goddesses who lived in the heavens or who traversed it in chariots of gold. The restless brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci designed a flying machine five centuries ago; but his vision, as well as those of many who followed, relied on the muscle power of man to make it work. That would not be enough. A mechanical engine would be necessary. Flight would have to be a byproduct of the industrial revolution. In the meantime, man turned to an alternative means of reaching into the sky-balloons. The first balloon ascent occurred in Paris in 1783-the same year the United States gained its independence from Britain, ratified, coincidentally, by a treaty signed in Paris. Over the next century and a half, balloons and their more steerable brethren, dirigibles or rigid airships, were designed and flown in various countries worldwide. But the notion of heavier-than-air flight in a winged vehicle would not go away. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century a number of aviation pioneers studied the problem of flight from an increasingly scientific viewpoint. All recognized that two primary problems needed to be overcome-power and directional control. Someone would have to build an engine that was both powerful enough and light enough to lift an airplane and its pilot into the air and sustain it. The internal combustion engine was the obvious solution, but early motors that were made for automobiles and dirigibles were too heavy- they delivered too little horsepower for their weight. Related to this issue was the need for a suitable airscrew, or propeller, to attach to the engine that would propel the craft through the air. The second problem, controlling an airplane in flight, seemed even more difficult. Both of these problems were solved by two hard-working and taciturn bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio. (Their bicycle shop has since been restored and moved to Greenfield Village near Detroit). Orville and Wilbur Wright, sons of a minister, designed and built their own gasoline engine that was not a spectacular device, but adequate for their purpose. It weighed about 200 pounds and delivered 12 horsepower. Just enough. Also important, the brothers designed and built their own propellers. Their solution to the directional control issue was more ingenious. Learning from the flight of birds, the brothers saw that birds made subtle changes in their wingtips, bending them up or down slightly, and this allowed them to turn quickly and gracefully. The Wrights therefore rigged up a series of cables and pulleys that connected the wings of their craft to levers where the aviator would lie (later sit). When manipulating the levers, the pilot would actually twist the shape of the wings themselves-much like a bird alters the shape of its wings-allowing the craft to turn. This "wing warping" method was soon replaced by more practical devices-movable rudders and ailerons. The latter consisted of a separate airfoil usually attached to the outer portion of a wing: but the basic principle the Wrights invented was sound. On Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers made history's first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine that incorporated their two scientific breakthroughs. Their invention, the airplane, changed the world. As the centennial of their momentous achievement approaches, the United States Air Force has established the Centennial of Flight Office, whose mission is to celebrate airpower and the Wright brothers' historic event. One of their projects is this pamphlet series, which will trace the most significant people, events, technologies and ideas in the history of the United States Air Force.

The United States is engaged in a protracted struggle against violent extremists that will persist for the foreseeable future. Our Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF) are at the forefront of this struggle. In recent years, we have called upon AFSOF to deliver unique capabilities and skill sets to combatant commanders across the range of military operations from the major combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to the humanitarian relief operations in Haiti.

Air Force space forces perform functions that are critical for the joint force- intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; missile warning; command and control; positioning, navigation, and timing; environmental monitoring; space control; communications; and spacelift. As our reliance on space increases, so too, must our ability to integrate space capabilities throughout joint operations. To retain the US military's space superiority, our Air Force must fully exploit and defend the space domain.

The expanding role of the Guard and its close cooperation with the Air Force are Dr. Gross' themes, explaining the rise of the Guard to the prominence it plays in today's air operations. He pulls no punches in recounting the conflict between Guard and regular Air Force, or in explaining how each side maneuvered to safeguard its interests. However, the author also shows how common concerns and mutual dedication to the national defense overcame parochialism and led from cooperation to integration. The result was displayed for all the Air Force to see in the professionalism of Guard units in the 1960s mobilizations. Guard and regular Air Force had become vital to each other; in return for modern aircraft, a substantial peacetime mission, and upon mobilization integration into the wartime force, the Guard accepted de facto control by the regular Air Force. As Dr. Gross concludes, the concept of "state militia" was altered far beyond the changes wrought earlier in federal-state military relations. The Air Guard was ready for the "Total Force" policy of the 1970s. The dilemma of maintaining a reserve fully capable of fighting the air was solved. By the 1980s, the Air National Guard, at the same inheritors of a military tradition extending back before 1776, and users of the most advanced technologies of war, could prove that citizen-soldiers need not to be second to any airman in the world. Contents: Forged in Politics, 1943 - 1946 Struggle for Control, 1946 - 1950 Rejuvenation, 1950 - 1953 Integrating with the Active Force, 1953 - 1960 The Cold Warriors, 1961 - 1962 Vindication, 1963 - 1969 Epilogue: The Air National Guard and the Total Force. united States Air Force, Office of Air Force History.

Commemorating the first century of aviation, this chronology is dedicated to the men and women who gave their lives to advance air and space flight. It includes significant air and space events since the Wright brothers first demonstrated in 1903 that humankind could fly in heavier-than-air machines. Although focused on the evolution of the United States Air Force (USAF), it also includes major developments in military, naval, civil, and international airpower. Air Force History and Museums Program, Air University Press.

In war, defeating an enemy's force is often a necessary step on the path to victory. Defeating enemy armies is a difficult task that often comes with a high price tag in terms of blood and treasure. With its inherent speed, range, and flexibility, air and space power offers a way to lower that risk by providing commanders a synergistic tool that can provide a degree of control over the surface environment and render enemy forces ineffective before they meet friendly land forces. Modern air and space power directly affects an adversary's ability to initiate, conduct, and sustain ground combat.

The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight, and win in air, space, and cyberspace. A crucial part of achieving that mission involves obtaining and maintaining superiority in the air domain. That domain, defined for the first time in this publication, is the area, beginning at the Earth's surface, where the atmosphere has a major effect on the movement, maneuver, and employment of joint forces. Within that domain, forces exercise degrees of control or levels of influence, characterized as parity, superiority, or supremacy. The US has enjoyed at least air superiority in all conflicts since the Korean War. The US will probably retain that superiority in today's ongoing conflicts, but the prospect of near-peer competitors in the not-too-distant future raise the possibility of air parity - a condition in the air battle in which one force does not have air superiority over others - or even conceding superiority to the adversary if Air Force forces are not properly employed.

The Air Force mission is global. Airmen are trained to employ air, space, and cyberspace forces anywhere, at any time, across the full range of military operations. In order to adequately support the Secretary of Defense and the geographic combatant commanders in executing operations, we must have a global command and control system. Military operations in the 21st century are highly complex and require close coordination to be effective. An effective command and control system allows efficient and effective coordination of all the means that Airmen can bring to bear on a conflict and speed the outcome in our favor.

This monograph is one in a series of five works dealing with various aspects of the Air Force's participation in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Historians of the Air Force History Program built a foundation for researching any topic related to the Gulf War air campaign. Before, during, and after Desert Storm, they collected thousands of feet of documents and conducted a number of valuable oral history interviews.

The U.S. Air Force reached its nadir during the opening two years of the Rolling Thunder air campaign in North Vietnam. Never had the Air Force operated with so many restraints and to so little effect. These pages are painful but necessary reading for all who care about the nation's military power. Van Staaveren wrote this book near the end of his distinguished government service. He was an Air Force historian in Korea during the Korean War and he began to write about the Vietnam War while it was still being fought.

Information has long been a key part of human competition-those with a superior ability to gather, understand, control, and use information have always had a substantial advantage on the battlefield. From the earliest recorded battles to the most recent military operations, history is full of examples of how the right information at the right time has influenced military struggles. The Air Force recognizes the importance of gaining a superior information advantage-an advantage obtained through information operations (IO) fully integrated with air and space operations. Today, gaining and maintaining information superiority are critical tasks for commanders and vital elements of fully integrated kinetic and nonkinetic effects-based operations. Information operations are conducted across the range of military operations, from peace to war to reconstitution. To achieve information superiority, our understanding and practice of information operations have undergone a doctrinal evolution that streamlines the focus of IO to improve the focus on warfighting.

America's national security rests on a strategy of full spectrum dominance supported by effects-based planning and operations. To support this full spectrum dominance, public affairs (PA) operations must be planned and conducted within an effects-based framework. PA operations integrate activities from different information and media disciplines to support commanders across the full range of military operations. PA operations span the spectrum of the information environment and battlespace, and are an important part of information operations (IO). As such, PA operations must be comprehensively planned and prioritized. The coordination and deconfliction of PA operations and IO are essential to Air Force credibility, and must be part of the overall planning effort.

General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Pacific forces in World War II, viewed the Battle of the Bismark Seat as a disaster for the Japanese and a triumph for the Allies. In that great air-sea confrontation, U.S. and Australian air forces proved that air power could be decisive in preventing the resupply of ground troops by sea. Months of tortuous warfare in the jungles of New Guinea had left Japanese troops vulnerable to disease and starvation. In the end Allied airmen were able to break Japan's grip on New Guinea and end its threat to Australia through the innovative and aggressive use of air power. MacArthur's strength lay in a dedicated and courageous band of airmen who cold attack enemy ships from all directions at any time.

Our nation is at war. Warriors must plan and orchestrate irregular warfare as joint, multinational, and multi-agency campaigns, beginning with the first efforts of strategy development and concluding with the achievement of the desired endstate. As Airmen, we have a unique warfighting perspective shaped by a century-long quest to gain and maintain the high ground. We must be able to articulate Air Force capabilities and contributions to the irregular warfare fight, with its unique attributes and requirements. Employed properly, airpower (to include air, space, and cyberspace capabilities) produces asymmetric advantages that can be effectively leveraged by joint force commanders in virtually every aspect of irregular warfare. Irregular warfare is sufficiently different from traditional conflict to warrant a separate keystone doctrine document. While the fighting experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan should weigh heavily in the development of our doctrine, we intend this doctrine document to be broad, enduring, and forward-looking, rather than focusing on any particular operation, current or past.

This manuscript is part of a continuing series of historical volumes produced by the Office of Air Force History in direct support of Project Warrior. Since its beginning in 1992, Project Warrior has captured the imagination of Air Force people around the world and reawakened a keener appreciation of our fundamental purpose as Service: to deter war, but to be prepared to find and win should deterrence fail.

The T-33 "Thunderbird" was the training variant of the U.S. Air Force's first production jet fighter, the F/P-80 "Shooting Star". Originally designed by "Kelly" Johnson during WWII, the P-80 went from drawing board to airborne in a record 150 days! One of the most successful aircraft in history, the T-33 has flown in the air forces of over 30 nations. Over 6500 were produced between 1949-59. Originally printed by Lockheed and the U.S.A.F., this Flight Operating Handbook taught pilots everything they needed to know before entering the cockpit. Classified "Restricted", the manual was declassified and is here reprinted in book form. This affordable facsimile has been slightly reformatted. Care has been taken however to preserve the integrity of the text.

Here is the Official US Air Force guide to staying alive in survival situations—first aid, concealment, survival at sea, building shelter, finding food and water, and more!This Air Force handbook was written to help pilots who find themselves in hostile environments. While it is designed for use in formal Air Force training, it is also useful for the general reader seeking a comprehensive and complete manual of outdoor survival techniques. Any US Army survival kit would also benefit from this handbook.Among other pieces of professional and expert advice, the US Air Force Survival Handbook tells readers about:Finding your way without a mapFirst aid for illness and injuryFinding food and waterBuilding a fireConcealment techniquesUsing ropes and tying knotsSurvival at seaSignaling for helpAnimal trackingPredicting the weatherBuilding sheltersReleased on the 70th anniversary of the US Air Force, this book outlines specific survival threats found in many different types of terrain and how to survive them. It is invaluable to all who enjoy the outdoors and anyone who seeks insight into the training tactics of the US Air Force.

Equipped with a W38 thermonuclear warhead and with a range of 5,500 nautical miles, the Titan I was the Air Force's first multi-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, and a vital part of America's nuclear arsenal in the years 1961-1965. Designed and built by the Glen L. Martin Company (later Martin Marietta), the HGM-25A/SM-68A missile was the first in a series of Titan rockets. Unlike its later siblings, Titan I utilized non-storable and highly volatile LOX and RP-1 as its propellants. As a result the missile had to be fueled prior to launch - a process that took roughly fifteen minutes. It would then be lifted to the surface by an elevator for launch, a process that made it vulnerable to an enemy first strike. The first successful Titan I launch took place in February, 1959. Within a year the first of 54 missiles were delivered to one of what would eventually be six USAF squadrons. The underground silos that made up the Titan I's launch complexes represented a great leap forward from the "coffin type" semi-hardened containers used to protect the Atlas ICBM. Equipped with an underground control center, powerhouse, antenna silos for guidance radars, and a missile silo fitted with an enormous elevator, the Titan I's design offered unparalleled protection to the launch crew. Yet the fueling protocol and surface-launch design limited its appeal to the Air Force. After only three years of full operation, it was replaced by the Titan II system, which could be launched from subterranean silos and utilized storable propellants.Originally created in 1963, this Titan I technical manual was intended to be used by missile combat crews. It is divided into seven sections describing the overall weapon system including launch complex, structures and subsystems, launch operation plan, normal operating procedures, emergency operating procedures, malfunctions, operating limitations, and crew responsibilities. Originally considered highly classified, this document has never before been available to the general public. Until now.

The U.S. Air Force's first all-jet strategic bomber, the swept-wing Boeing B-47 Stratojet had a range of 3,500 nautical miles and a payload capacity of 20,000 pounds. It served as the mainstay of Strategic Air Command in the 1950s into the mid 1960s. The B-47 was an outgrowth of WWII research and development efforts, and the prototype aircraft first flew in December of 1947. The unique six-jet design featured twin engine pods on the wing near the fuselage, and one outboard. It also incorporated an elegant bicycle-type landing gear with two-wheel struts on the forward and aft fuselage and outrigger wheels. In 1956, over 1300 B-47s and 250 RB-47s were on alert. It was the high water mark for the aircraft, which was fully supplanted by the B-52 by 1967. This B-47 pilot's flight operating manual was originally produced by the USAF. It has been slightly reformatted but is reproduced here in its entirety. It provides a fascinating view inside the cockpit of one of history's great planes.