News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

SUPPORT ••• (Concluded) delivered to
the Arrq by the ma.na.!acturere.
J'lexibilit7 in the use of the air arm
will be increased through the formation of
the Support Commande,1"t vas explained in
Washington when the new organizations wre
announced. The measure assures effective
air-ground teame, like the infant%'7-artl1-
le17 combat team. in the ground force.,
but the field armiee and the Armoredl'oree
do not haTe to rely entirely on their own
particular support cOlll1lW1d.If the 8i tua.-
tion requires it, aMi tional aviation mq
be oalled into action.
lIor doee the plan require aJ17 change in
the principle that all type. of unit. of
the Air l'orce CombatCommandD1U8tbe trained
and oed in 8'apport of groand foreee. When
oonditione make it necessar.Y, air support
aTiation IIq be oed for epecial Air l'orce
ai.sione, in conjunction with naval forcee
or with ground forcee other than th08e to
which they are specifically assigned for
ooope.ratiTe action. Thus it is p08sible
to conee1'9'8of a squadron of di Te bombere
being directed to attack enemy destroyers
whioh .omehowhad l118.D8ged to approach within
ehort range of a coast line.
Although the Support COJIIJIl&nds will be
oonfined to no particular geographical
bO'lU1darie., their prime function requiring
them onl7 to operate where cooperation with
their particular ground force makesit m08t
efficient, they are a8signed each to a
broadly defined area. The8e conform gene.ral1y
to the areas in which the re8pecti ve
field armies function.
The lirst A1.r Support Command,for example,
will operate in the area defined
rQUBh1yasfrom Kaine in the Borth to South
Carolina in the South, and we8t as far as
Ohio. The Second has the Great Lake8 and
Ki.eissippi Valley region, including Ohio
and Nebraska and as far 80uth a8 Oklahoma
and Arkan8as. The Third is in the Gulf
Coast and Georgia area, functioning as far
west as Texae and inc1udin« Florida. The
l'ourth includes the West Coast area, from
Mexico as far north a8 Canada and on the
eut to Wyomingand Texas. These are only
haQ' boundar1esandnot, in fact, boundarie8
at all in the true senee of the word.
ArtIcles for News Letter
Bxpansion of the Arm7 Air l'oree8 from a
. relatively Small, underequipped uni t to a
modern, streamlined fighting organization
finally has had i t8 effect upon the AU:
Q.m. !Wm. Letter. As readers mq haTe
noticed in this and the preceding i8eue,
the !sra Letter has abandoned i t8 8malltown
character for oneof big-time journaliBm.
The per80nal note which 8eemedappropriate
when the Air Corps cOJlllllW11 t7 val .restricted
and static no 10D88r is eff.ctiTe
in keeping informed the greatly augmented
Air J'orces. There are just too maJ17 of 0
now to mention80lll8nT names. Oonsequent1y,
the lui. Letter is being transformed, to
meet the new requirement8 for information,
by 8triving to present professional and
technical articles in the field of m11itar,y
aTiation.
As a profe8sional journal the AU: ..£o.Dla
~ Letter will undertake (a) tostimulate
high morale and an le8pri t de corps" in
the.A.rm7 Air Force8, (b) to di88eminate
information of technical and professional
interest to personnel of the Air Forces,
and (c) to keep the Air Force8 personnel
advi8ed of organization Change8, policy
revi8ion and items of current interest.
While differing from periodicals ot general
circulation, in that it is restricted
to the subject of mili tal7 aviation and
related activiU .. , the ~ Letter is like
other j aurnals in depending upon the cooperation
of its readers for complete success.
lor that reason, correspondence from personnel
in the field is welcomed.
Especially desired are technical and
professional articles believed valuable to
the training program of the Air Foree ••
l'acilities are available for the publicationof
illustrative drawings and pictures,
so such material should be included when
possible. These can be sent to the Editor,
lJ.l: ~ lui. Letter, Office of the Chief
of the Air COrp8, Washington.
The content. of thi8 issue mq be regarded
broadly as a gtlide to the t)rpe of material
desired. If a potential contribntor de-
The Air Support CClIIIIIlands Dla7 be e%pected
8ires addi tional information before starting
to tunction ve%'7much as the Germanav12r
preparation of an article, he mq vr1 te to
tion de8cribed by Capt. 11. Xrainev, of the
the edi tor in Washington.
Ra..e1an Artrq, in ~s description (starting
on Page 9 of this issue) of dive bombers
-tj£P'
in the Battle of Poland. A chart 8howing Arm7 vehicles at Scott l'ie1d, Ill., traveled
a di8tance equivalent to more than
the organisation of the Support Command8,
their relation to ground forces and other three time. the circumference of the earth
Air l'orces uni ts is onPage 21 of this iSBUe. during the month of June.
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