The logistics function can be traced before the earliest days of the Air Service, when the Equipment Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps established a headquarters for its new Airplane Engineering Department at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.
Airplane Engineering Department
The Airplane Engineering Department was established by the Equipment Division of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1917 for World War I experimental engineering. The department had a 1917 Foreign Data Section, and the Airplane Engineering Department was on McCook Field at Dayton, Ohio. McCook Field established the Air School of Application in 1919 and after WW I, the department was renamed the Airplane Engineering Division on 31 August 1918, under Lt Col Jesse G. Vincent (Packard co-engineer of the 1917 V-12 Liberty engine) to study and design American versions of foreign aircraft. The division merged in 1926 with the Air Service's Supply Division[1] (formed by 1919)[2] to form the Materiel Division (Air Corps).[1] In 1920, the Engineering Division's Bureau of Aircraft Production completed the design of the Ground Attack, Experimental, (GAX) aircraft built as the Boeing GA-1, and designed the VCP-1 that won the initial Pulitzer Race in 1920 at Roosevelt Field (the division also designed the TP-1 and TW-1).[3]
Materiel Division
The Materiel Division was set up near Dayton, Ohio on 15 January 1926. The Materiel Division, controlled by the Office of the Chief of Air Corps (OCAC), possessed many characteristics of a major command. It brought together four major functions performed previously by three organizations: research and development (R&D), procurement, supply, and maintenance.
With the construction of nearby Wilbur Wright Field, McCook Field was closed on 1 April 1927, and was subsequently demolished after its assets moved to the new Wright Field, the latter serving as the Air Corps', and later the Army Air Forces', principal R&D center from 1927 to 1947, including the Physiological Research Laboratory which opened in 1935.[4] By 22 August 1935, the division[citation needed] operated an Army Aeronautical Museum at Wright Field,[5] and by 22 November 1935, had an "Industrial War Plans Section".[6] F.B. Vose became the Materiel Division commander on 19 October 1940,[7] with the division employing procurement inspectors at Wright Field the same year.[8] The division had four Field Service Sections: San Antonio, Fairfield, Middletown, and Sacramento.[9]
The Air Corps Maintenance Command was established under the Materiel Division on June 25, 1941 - less than a week after the creation of the USAAF itself on June 20, 1941 - to control supply and maintenance and retained the "Air Corps" designation that remained in effect for the USAAF's training and logistics units.
On 11 December 1941, with United States newly engaged in World War II, these four functions were divided between two organizations.[citation needed]
Maintenance Command was redesignated Air Service Command and kept responsibility for supply and maintenance functions.[10]
The chief of the Air Service Command, Brig. Gen. Henry J. F. Miller, was charged with supervision in the United States of all AAF activities pertaining to storage and issue of supplies procured by the Air Corps and with overhaul, repair, maintenance, and salvage of all Air Corps equipment and supplies beyond the limits of the first two echelons of maintenance.[11] The command was directed to compile AAF requirements for Air Corps and other supplies, to procure equipment and supplies needed for the operation and maintenance of AAF units, to prepare and issue all technical orders and instructions regarding Air Corps materiel, and to exercise technical control* over air depots outside of the continental limits of the United States. In addition, ASC received responsibility for coordination with the Army technical services in the supply and maintenance of equipment and supplies procured by them for the use of the AAF. The new command was separated from the Materiel Division but remained a part of the Office of the Chief of Air Corps.
Between October 1941 and March 1942 the Air Service Command remained under the jurisdiction of the Chief of the Air Corps.[12] Immediately after the beginning of the war it moved its headquarters to Washington, where it began operations on 15 December 1941. But a large portion of the headquarters organization remained at Wright Field, where it carried on the greater part of the command's activities.
On 15 December 1942, its headquarters moved back to Dayton, establishing itself at Patterson Field, immediately adjacent to Wright Field.
On 9 March 1942, the Air Service Command now became one of the major AAF commands, with relatively clear lines of responsibility
and authority. Four air service area commands (San Antonio, Fairfield, Middletown, and Sacramento?), successors to the maintenance wings (and field service sections, originally activated in 1940?), had been activated in December 1941 to supervise the depots in given geographical areas. The depots, of which there were eleven by April 1942, became the centers of depot control areas, which directed the activities of subdepots within defined geographical limits. Unfortunately, the boundaries of some of the depot control areas overlapped those of air service areas, and since the depots were the real focal points of supply and maintenance activities, the air service areas never attained the status of fully functioning ASC subcommands. The air service areas were disbanded on 1 February 1943, to be succeeded by air depot control area commands, which were simply the eleven former depot control areas under a new name. The elimination of the four air service areas was apparently justified by subsequent operations; according to Maj. Gen. Walter H. Frank, commander of the ASC, the step proved "most beneficial."
The Materiel Division was assumed responsibility for R&D and procurement, and was redesignated Air Corps Materiel Command on 1 April 1942. This became Air Force Materiel Command in April 1942; Materiel Command in April 1943, and AAF Materiel Command on 15 January 1944. On 17 July 1944, Air Service Command and AAF Materiel Command were placed under a new organization, AAF Materiel and Services. On 31 August 1944, AAF Materiel and Services was redesignated Army Air Forces Technical Service Command.[14]
Army Air Forces Technical Service Command was redesignated Air Technical Service Command (ATSC) on 1 July 1945.
By 1945, 14 bases in the United States were home to Air Technical Service Commands: Newark, New Jersey; Fairfield, California; Miami, Florida; Middletown, Pennsylvania; Mobile, Alabama; Ogden, Utah; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Oakland, California; Rome, New York; Sacramento, California; San Antonio, Texas; San Bernardino, California; the Spokane Air Technical Service Command at Spokane Army Air Field, Washington State; and Warner Robins, Georgia.[citation needed] In 1945, planning began for a separate, independent United States Air Force. In January 1946, General of the ArmyEisenhower and Army Air Forces GeneralSpaatz agreed on an Air Force organization of seven major commands, including the Air Technical Service Command.[16] ATSC centers were also renamed. For example, San Antonio Air Technical Services Command at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas became the San Antonio Air Materiel Area in 1946.[17]
Air Materiel Command
In 1946 AAF Technical Service Command was redesignated Air Materiel Command, and the air technical service commands were reorganized as Air Materiel Areas:
The functions of research and development and logistics were operated separately during World War II until they were reunited for several years in the late 1940s under Air Materiel Command. Among its forces was the Air Materiel Force, European Area, which was transferred from USAFE in on 1 January 1956. Air Materiel Force, European Area, at Chateauroux Air Depot, France, and Air Materiel Force, Pacific Area, at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, were of Numbered Air Force status.[19] Often these formations supervised Air Depot Wings, for example the 75th Air Depot Wing which was based at Chinhae Air Base in South Korea during the Korean War.
^San Antonio Air Logistics Center Office of History, Kelly AFB, Texas. A Brief History of Kelly Air Force Base. San Antonio, June 1993.
^Ravenstein, Air Force combat wings : lineage and honors histories 1947-1977, 196. Had 374 TCW under command in 1948.
^Ravenstein, Charles A. (1996), The Organization and Lineage of the United States Air Force. United States Air Force Historical Research Center ISBN0-912799-17-X
