Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/19

�This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 CHAPTER 2 AIR FORCE LEGISLATION, 1939-1941 Legislation enacted by the Congress of the United States, insofar as it immediately affected the Army Air Force and its a?tiw- ties between Pearl Harbor and V-J Day, dates back at least to 1939, when the great expansion of the Air Corps had its real be- ginning.* Tndeed the period 1939-1941 may well be called the years of decision ?or American air power. It was in these years that Congress alereded to ?ponsor the all-out development of American air power, and abandoned the concept of the air arm as only an auxiliary of the ground forces. The creation, in 1947, of a separate air force was the logical outcome of the policy carried out by Congress in these years and consti- tuted official recognition of the role of an air force in modern warfare. Although the United States did not for- really declare war untd December 1941, m?re than two years after World War began, it was already participating in the conflict through it? loohcy of taking all measures "short of war" to aid those powers resBring Nazi aggression. This policy, and the legislation implementing it, had portant implications for the AAF. The years 193g-41 were also a period of preparation in which America's military and naval strength was augmented and especial at- tention was at last given to building up its air power, an emphasis that was to pay tremendous diwdends when the United States entered the war. In a special message to Congress on 12 January 1939 President Roosevelt warned that changing world conditions cuts[de the American hemisphere made it imperative that the United States take immechate ß As the AA? did not sfactally come int? existence until the reorganization of the AzmY Air Corps in June 1941, the term Air Corps will be the one most frecluent]y v?ed in ?eferring to the Arm? air arm in this chapter. steps for the protection of our liberties. He emphasized the procurement of planes and the training of pilots to fly them. ? Congress took action on the President's message by passing House Resolution 3?9I, an omnibus bill which lumped together various proposals submitted by several War Department agencies. Those sections of the measure pertaining to the Air Corps grew ou? of drafts o? proposed legislation sub- mitted by Maj. Gem I-L H. Arnold, Chief of the Air Corps, to the War Department Chief of Staff. This measure was signed by the President as Public Law 18, 76 Cong., 1 Seas., on 3 April 1939. This emergency national defense act was the prbnary authorization for the new Air Corps expansion program. It laid the basis for the first large-scale procurement of air- craft and other aviation materlel, made the greatest increase in Air Corps personnel allotments hitherto granted, and provided for the first large-ecale flying-training program? Thus Public Law 18 initiated expausion in three areas in which greatly increased actzwty was vital to the development of air power adequate to American defense needs. Those areas in which this and other legisla. tion enacted by Congress in the period 1939- 4? mainly ?ffected the Air Corps will be treated topically in the following pages. The major topics to be considered will be materiel legislation and legislation related thereunto, legislation dealing with the pro. c?rement of aircraft and related materiel by foreign powers, the influence of con- gre?sional investigative committees on the Air Corps expansion program, personnel and training legislation, and organizational changes made in the ?r Corps in the period under consideration in thi? chapter. 12 THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958