Plymouth Veterans Park - Amador County

U.S. Air Force

The Air Force’s history and heritage is rooted in the creation of the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Signal Corps in1907. At that time, the U.S. Army Signal Corps established a small Aeronautical Division to take "charge of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines and all kindred subjects."
In 1917, upon the United States' entry into World War I, the first major U.S. aviation combat force was created when an Air Service was formed as part of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF)

In practice, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) was virtually independent of the Army during World War II, and in virtually all ways functioned as an independent service branch In World War II, almost 68,000 U.S. airmen died helping to win the war, with only the infantry suffering more casualties.

Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was shared between the Army Air Forces and its predecessor organizations. In 1947, The National Security Act established the Department of the Air Force.