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Show "girds for peace Spectacular Development of AAF Recalled at Anniversary i '. i p:).:"-i: 'Si:!fwt::S;:'i:i;x:i -S'P; "i . t, i HEADS AAF . . . Commanding general of army air forces is Gen. Carl Spaatz, who directed arrangements ar-rangements as 400,000 AAF members mem-bers and nearly 2,000,000 veterans of air actions on worldwide battle-fronts battle-fronts noted 39th anniversary of unit's founding. Developed from a three-man divi- tion without nn airplane in 1907 into a destructive force unparalleled in history, army air forces celebrated Its 39th anniversary August 1 with a new watchword, "Air Power Is Peace Power." At its wartime peak in March, 1944. army air forces had grown to 2,383,000 oflicers and men, 64,591 planes, including 41,848 combat planes which flew 108,015,909 hours during four years of war and dropped more than 2,000,000 tons of bombs in crushing the Axis war machine. But the big planes of World War II are on their way out of the air picture and the AAF rapidly rap-idly is converting to jet-propelled aircraft to defend the security of America. Guard Against War. "Americas best insurance against a future war is an adequate alert air force," Commanding General Gen-eral Carl Spaatz said, in calling on the nearly 2,000,000 veterans of air actions all over the world and the 400,000 air force men to observe ob-serve the anniversary occasion. Some interesting and little known facts about army air forces are that: Every airplane used in Europe prior to V-E Day was designed in this country before Pearl Harbor. From 1903 to 1940 the U. S. built only 40,000 planes but from 1940 through V-J Day, 295,000 were constructed. con-structed. For every soldier in the air force, there was a civilian working work-ing in an aircraft plant. First Bomb in 1911. AAF planes consumed 10,000,000,-000 10,000,000,-000 gallons of gasoline during the war. In all of 1944 not one aircraft was grounded for lack of fuel. Total air power blitz of the AAF during the war included more than 2,000,000 tons of bombs and two atom bombs dropped and 459,750,000 bullets fired. First AAF bomb was heaved overboard by hand in 1911. It was an 18-pound "blockbuster." The army's first .airplane contracts con-tracts specified that the flying machine ma-chine had to be transportable on an army escort wagon to be pulled by two or four mules. They would have a difficult task with the AAF's new super-heavy bomber, the B-36, which has a wingspan almost twice the distance flown by the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk, N. C. Expand Rapidly. On August 28, 1939, three days before Germany set off World War II by invading Poland, the AAF was regularly using 69 bases. Fifty months later in January, 1944, it had 1,400 bases, of which 800 were overseas. Almost 20,000,000 tons of AAF supplies were sent out of the country during the war enough to fill a warehouse 75 feet wide with the front door in Washington, D. C., and the back door in Philadelphia. New AAF developments now permit test pilots to check jet planes safely. The plane is put through its paces while the pilot pi-lot stays on the ground. The secret is remote control and television. The U. S. spent more money developing radar than was spent on the atom bomb. More than 42,000 WACs served in the AAF, 7,000 of whom were overseas over-seas in 21 different countries; 1,600 chaplains were on duty1 in the AAF at all times. Of the 282 Congressional Congression-al Medals of Honor awarded during dur-ing the war, 34 were won by members mem-bers of the AAF. Compare Records. The World War I air force had 35 pilots, 1,087 enlisted men, 55 training planes, 7 tactical squadrons with a balloon school at Fort Omaha, Neb. Eight World War I aces are credited with downing 10 or more enemy planes or balloons; 29 World War II aces shot down 18 or more planes, no balloons. First round-the-world trip by an army plane took 174 days in 1924. It took an air transport command plane 151 hours in 1945. It's a small world, with the men and planes of the army air forces a strong bulwark bul-wark in making it a world of peace and guarding America's future. , i i ' ' ' ' ' s ' J ' -'6', A DIRECTS RESERVES . . . Lt. Gen. George B. Stratemeyer, commanding com-manding general of air defense command, one of AAF's three peacetime major operational |