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THE AIR FORCE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION

Review of the First Year

The Air Force Historical Foundation is rounding out the first year of its existence with a sound record of growth and accomplishment.  The Certificate of Incorporation for the Foundation was signed by General Carl Spaatz (Ret), Major General H. Conger Pratt (Ret), and Brigadier General T. DeWitt Milling (Ret) on 20 February 1953, and was filed in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia on 2 March 1953.

Behind these acts of culmination lay almost a year of preliminary planning.  The idea of an incorporated body with powers to carry on a substantial program to commemorate the services of those who have given their lives and their creative minds to the development of American aviation was first proposed in the early summer of 1952.  The idea was so promising that Major General William F. McKee, then Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, directed that it be explored further, and assigned the project to the Office of the Secretary of Air Staff.  After extensive research and thorough discussion within the staff, the plan was presented to the Air Force Council late in December, 1952.  It was the recommendation of that distinguished group that the Air Force should sponsor the organization of the Air Force Historical Foundation, and that the Chief of Staff should appoint a committee of persons of appropriate rank and position to prepare a constitution, by-laws, and with legal advice, articles of incorporation.  General Spaatz, Pratt, and Milling were promptly named by General Vandenberg for this task.  Their findings were submitted to a meeting of interested persons held under Air Force auspices in the Pentagon on 27 May 1953.

Fifty-five men, all of whom have been long identified with the Air Force and with the development of aviation, were present at the organization meeting on 27 May.  General Vandenberg opened the meeting with an address of welcome, and told of his personal interest in the project.  He was followed at the rostrum by Dr. Guy Stanton Ford, Executive Secretary of the American Historical Association, who appraised for the audience the importance of the work this pioneer group was undertaking.  The meeting then proceeded to the discussion of the draft constitution, and General Vandenberg, committed to another meeting, requested General Spaatz to preside over the session.  The constitution and by-laws were adopted substantially as presented by the committee.

The next order of business was the election of trustees to govern the Foundation.  General Spaatz called upon Lieutenant General Richard E. Nugent, (Ret), chairman of a nominating committee including Major General Richard A. Grussendorf and Mr. Marvin A. MacFarland, for a report on nominations for trustees.  The constitution provides that twenty-four trustees shall be elected to serve four-year terms, with one-fourth of the number to be elected each year.  It was necessary, therefore, to designate in this first slate of trustees those who were to serve initial one-year, two-year, and three-year terms, and finally, those whose terms were to run the full four years.  Trustees were named by the meeting as follows:

To serve a one-year term:
Major Alexander P. deSeversky
Maj General Benjamin D. Foulois (Ret)
Lt General Hubert R. Harmon (Ret)
Maj General William F. McKee
Lt General C. B. Stone III
Mr. C. V. Whitney

To serve a two-year term:
General George C. Kenney (Ret)
Lt General William E. Kepner (Ret)
Brig General T. DeWitt Milling (Ret)
Dr. Richard A. Newhall
Maj General St. Clair Streett (Ret)
Hon. Harold C. Stuart