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Lasting Heritage to Limited Horizons

  • Published
  • By Courtesy of the Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
  • SAF/PA
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Sixty years ago -- President Harry Truman set the wheels in motion that directed the establishment of the United States Air Force. It was a move that broke tradition. It was a move that changed military culture. And, it was a move that put airpower in its proper place--as the preeminent purveyor of the high ground in fighting America's wars. 

Airpower had proven its worth to President Truman. He believed airpower was "essential to the preservation of our liberty," and that the continued development of the science of air transportation was "vital to the trade and commerce of a peaceful world." 

What evidence led to this belief? In 1918 during World War I, with only nine months of combat, the Army Air Service delivered 138 tons of bombs, destroyed 756 enemy aircraft and 76 enemy balloons. 

The success of airpower in World Wars I and II as President Truman signed the Air Force into existence could not be denied. 

The new United States Air Force quickly soared into relevance. The fledgling Air Force defeated the Soviet blockade of Berlin with a monumental humanitarian effort called the Berlin Airlift. At the height of the operation, on April 16, 1949, an allied aircraft landed in Berlin every minute, with 1,398 flights in 24 hours carrying 12,940 tons of goods, coal and machinery. Less than a month later, the Soviets gave up and ended their 11-month blockade. 

Starting with the Berlin airlift, Airmen have defined the moments of our nation's history over the last six decades. 

Airmen broke the sound barrier, explored space and walked on the moon and in space. 

Airmen fought Soviet fighter aircraft and bombed interdiction lines in Korea. 

Airmen helped bring North Vietnam to the peace table with a torrid bombing campaign called Linebacker II. 

Airmen helped stare down the communist threat in the Cold War providing two-thirds of the Strategic Triad as the mainstay of America's defense. 

Airmen executed a 45-day air campaign against the Iraqis that enabled a 100-hour ground war and a resounding Coalition victory in Desert Storm. 

Airmen stayed when that war ended and maintained two no-fly zones over Iraq, and have been in continuous combat operations for 16 years. 

Airmen sustained an air campaign to undermine the military capability of the Bosnian Serb Army who threatened and attacked UN-designated safe areas in Bosnia and brought international pressure on Slobodan Milosovic's Serbia to participate in the Dayton Peace Accords. 

And today, Airmen continue to fight on all fronts in the Global War on Terror. From the mountains in Afghanistan calling in precision air strikes and dropping relief supplies on postage stamp landing zones--to the deserts and villages of Iraq--to the skies over our own country. Airmen -- on the ground and in the air -- are ensuring our nation's freedoms and way of life.