Viewing page 233 of 236

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

organized in the Air Department an air force with two functions:  raiding and fighting; these functions, as previously stated, are specialized branches in air warfare that are distinctly different from the military and naval aviation specialties like reconnaissance, control of gunfire, etc.  The pilots for this force need have very little Army or Navy knowledge and training and, therefore, it would be necessary to obtain only a portion of the officers for this force from Army and Navy personnel.

During the war both our Army and Navy had forces of this kind, although the Navy's force (Northern Bombing Group) was organized on a comparatively small scale.  But that duplication of effort certainly should not be repeated; the raiding and fighting force, for economy and efficiency, must be under one head; the reasons for placing this force under the Air Department instead of under either the War or Navy Departments are as follows:

(a) By assigning the Air Force to a department whose sole reason for existence is aviation, certainly better attention to its needs will be assured than if it were assigned to either the War or Navy Departments where aviation cannot escape being looked upon as an auxiliary.

The creation of a separately organized air force will offer an opportunity to such officers of the Army and Navy who desire to do so and who are suitable, to make this service their life's work.  If this kind of an Air Force is not organized separately from the Army

D-2