Returning from Cairo to Algiers, I began digging away at the minor mountain of paper accumulated on my desk. Memories of Egypt and Palestine faded completely as I worked late each night to reduce those piles of the General’s fan mail. Like everyone else at headquarters, however, I was still busier on unofficial duties… working overtime on the old rumor that Gen Marshall, not Gen Ike, would head the new American Expeditionary Force building in Britain, and that Ike would go to Washington to become Chief of Staff.
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Mar
14
2009
Category : Army Air Forces
At the peak of its strength in World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (AAF) had more than 2.400.000 men and women in uniform. There were pilots, navigators, bombardiers, gunners, and radio operators, clerks and typists, artists and flautists, teachers, mechanics, statisticians, and engineers-for it took many talents and skills to conduct and support the war in the air. All these persons, from privates to generals, had to be welded into an organization capable of giving direction and coordination to their diverse activities. For combat the men were formed into squadrons, and squadrons into groups. Above the groups were wings, and wings were organized into commands, and commands into the 16 air forces of the AAF. The upper part of the structure had to be built while the war was on, but the foundation WAS old. Some of the squadrons, two of the groups, and one wing had combat records from the First World War. One squadron, the oldest in the Air Force, could trace its history back to 1913.
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