A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

35 percent of America’s total investment in equipment and munitions for
the war. They were supported and flown by two and a half million men
and women, nearly a third of the U.S. Army’s total strength.
As important as production to Arnold was training. The demands
of flight required the best from the brightest. Voluntary enlistments
swelled the USAAF initially, supplemented by a pool of deferred flyers
previously enrolled in the Air Corps Enlisted Reserve. Flying Training
Command prepared nearly 200,000 pilots, nearly 100,OOO navigators and
bombardiers, and many hundreds of thousands of gunners and other spe-
cialists. American pilots received more uninterrupted training than those
of any other nation, again because of Arnold’s strategic vision and Ame-
rica’s bountiful resources. Primary, basic, and advanced training were for
individual flyers, brought together at operational training units under the
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Air Forces and I Troop Carrier Com-
mand for forming into new units. Technical Training Command prepared
over two million others, mostly mechanics and specialists to keep aircraft
airworthy. Arnold and others labored to insure that the equipment these
legions employed was the most advanced available. Research centers and
test facilities sprang up all over the United States, dedicated to stretching
aviation performance to the limit-and beyond. High octane aviation gas-
olines, radars, jets, rockets, radios, and special bombs were all products
of the USAAF’s commitment to basic and applied research and develop-
ment.
This enormous aerial force was wielded by General Arnold, who
assumed control over all USAAF units, with the War Department reorga-
nization of March 1942. He quickly agreed with General George
Marshall to postpone any discussion of an independent air force until
after the war. However, Arnold was a member of both the American Joint
Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the joint American and British Combined
Chiefs of Staff. The March 1942 reorganization and Amold’s position on
the Combined Chiefs of Staff, nevertheless, gave the USAAF a large
measure of autonomy, which was subsequently enhanced with the forma-
tion of the Twentieth Air Force (responsible for the B-29 campaign
against Japan and under Arnold’s direct command). A tireless comman-
der, Arnold sacrificed his health building a winning air force.
Before the United States entered the war, American and British
officials met from January to March 1941 for the ABC-1 talks and agreed
on a strategy for defeating the Axis nations. They decided that because
Germany represented the stronger enemy, British forces in the Mediter-
ranean would hold their positions. In the Pacific, American forces would
go on the strategic defensive, while Allied armies in Europe built up for
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