Home : Hillard E. Johnmeyer :

Air Reserve

click image to enlarge click image to enlarge

The first post-war Air Reserve program approved by the War Department in July of 1946, was intended to hold forces in reserve that would augment the regular active duty force on "M-Day," or mobilization day. Congress gave the responsibility for organizing, and training the Air Reserve forces to the Air Defense Command (ADC). By 1947, the command organized about 70 Air Reserve Training Centers, which were reduced almost immediately to 41 centers by a cutback in funds. By the end of 1948, ADC had organized 264 Reserve tactical units, 90 Reserve service units, and 342 composite units, with a total force structure of about 87,000 officers and enlisted. The Air Reserve pilots of the day flew trainer aircraft such as the AT-6 or AT-7 for proficiency. Unlike the Air National Guard, there was no pretension of the pilots being combat ready. In fact, the best of the training units were not expected to be deployable for 90 - 150 days after recall to active duty.

Following World War 11, officials of the Army Air Forces were convinced that the service required some kind of a reserve force in peacetime, although they had no clear concept of what the size and scope of such an effort should be. They were also troubled by the War Department’s insistence that the Army Air Forces fit its reserve programs under the umbrella of a national universal military training and service program desired by the President. Planning for reserve forces took second place, in any event, to the officials’ efforts to win the separation of the air forces from the Army. Their single firm conviction about the nature of the reserve program was that it must provide opportunites for pilots to fly. The Army Air Forces Air Reserve program approved by the War Department in July 1946 provided these opportunities. Otherwise, it offered a broad program of individual participation which unrealistically attempted to include every air reservist across the country who wanted to participate. It was a costly and inefficient effort, and when it fell victim to the budget restrictions of 1947, reservists complained bitterly.

Shortly after the United States Air Force was formed from the remnants of the old Army Air Corps, the United States Air Force Reserve was officially named on 14 April 1948. In the next few post-war years the Air Force Reserve was able to add a few C-47s and B-26s to its fleet of trainers, but the Reserve "program" was little changed from the original "flying club." Even though the flying part of the program had not changed much, there were several significant events during 1947 and 1948 in the overall evolution of the Air Force Reserve. In the National Security Act of 1947, which formed the Air Force, Congress added increased powers to develop plans and programs for the Air Force Reserve. Starting on 1 October 1948, Reservists were first authorized pay for inactive duty. And on 15 October 1948, a Presidential Executive order brought attention to the Reserves of all services and led to another general reorganization of the Air Force Reserve.

This reorganization led to the founding of the Continental Air Command (CONAC) on 1 December 1948, headquartered at Mitchell AFB, New York. All the responsibilities of the Air Defense Command passed to the Continental Air Command. The command operated through six regionally numbered Air Forces organized by territory. In 1950, CONAC reduced these six regional numbered Air Forces to four: First, Fourth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Air Force!

By the end of fiscal 1948, the Army Air Forces and the U.S. Air Force had been conducting the post-World War II Air Reserve program for two years. Restricted by budget reductions, the program had not achieved the training objectives envisioned for either 1947 or 1948. The original 1947 plan called for 170,000 reservists, including 22,500 pilots, to be enrolled in inactive duty training. Following the budget cuts of January 1947, a reduced plan called for 30,600 reservists overall and 9,500 pilots. In the end, 10,058 reservists, comprising 9,061 pilots, 656 other rated officers, 138 nonrated officers, and 203 enlisted men, participated. Of them, 1,160 officers and 200 enlisted men underwent active duty tours for training. The 1947 plan called for the organization of 312 combat units and 656 service units, but only 75 Class C combat units and 5 service units below division level were organized. As occurred in the 1947 program, reductions in the 1948 effort were announced at midyear. The original program again called for 170,000 reservists to participate in inactive duty training, with all to receive active duty training tours. A revised plan reduced the overall figure to 37,712, with about half programmed for active duty tours. Actual participants numbered 25,112, of whom 21,460 performed active duty tours. Suffering from stop-and-go programming, the Air Defense Command managed to have 289 units in existence by June 1948; 264 were combat and 25 were service.

The Air Force Reserve and its role in national defense were under review throughout 1948 as the White House, Congress, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Air Force itself sought to define the place of the component. This examination was conducted in a Cold War environment that led to the reinstatement of the draft as a major source of manpower for the military services. As approved in June 1948, moreover, the new Selective Service Act was intended to strengthen the reserve as well as the active forces. Under constant criticism for the inadequacy of its Air Force Reserve program, the Air Force began to revise it in 1948. Before the Air Staff could complete this task, however, the President himself intervened to direct the military establishment to vitalize its reserve programs. Thus stimulated, the Air Force moved expeditiously to implement the new reserve program it had been devising.

During Fiscal Year 1950, the Continental Air Command provided for the participation of all Major Air Commands in reserve training. The Air Force Reserve Training Center program, the Volunteer Air Reserve Training Program, and the Extension Course Training Program were made responsibilities of CONAC. In the Air Force Reserve Training Center program (AFRTC), CONAC was called upon to organize 20 troop carrier wings and five light bombardment wings. The flying units could only train about 36,000 Air Reservists altogether, so the other Air Reservists were designated Mobilization Assignees (today referred to as Individual Mobilization Augmentees, or IMAs) and were assigned to Volunteer Air Reserve Training Programs, to Corollary Units (training with active Air Force units) or to Extension courses. For the first time, the United States organized Air Reservists in tactical units designated for mobilization as units.

With the plan of 1950 barely in place, the Korean War started in June of 1950. The United States mobilized all 25 of its Air Force Reserve wings with a total of about 29,000 personnel. In addition, about 118,000 additional Air Reservists from the various other Air Reserve programs were called to active duty, bringing the Air Force Reserve total to about 147,000 mobilized. This total did not include the 40,000 Air Guardsmen that Congress also mobilized for the Korean conflict.

The entry of the Chinese into the war in November 1950, the resultant proclamation of a national emergency, and the accompanying military buildup early in 1951 required the Air Force to turn to its individual reserve resources again. Still desiring to preserve the effectiveness of existing units while rapidly expanding its manpower base, the Air Force needed the reservists to fill critical skill shortages and provide cadre for new units in the expanding force. The Air Force wished to fill as much of the new requirement as possible with volunteers. When volunteers did not materialize, the Air Force again started to draw members of the Volunteer Air Reserve involuntarily. Soon, however, the President’s proclamation of a national emergency aroused a patriotic response, and the Air Force experienced a significant increase in enlistments in the active force. This permitted Headquarters USAF to slow its involuntary recall.

The basic principle of the new recall program was that no reservist would be ordered into active military service until he had been found physically and administratively qualified, had undergone thorough reclassification, and his delay status had been determined. The Continental Air Command sought volunteers, but it selected reservists involuntarily from the Organized Air Reserve and the Air Force ROTC as well. The Air Staff also authorized the command to recall all its own mobilization augmentees as well as those of all other commands. Medical personnel were inducted on a volunteer basis only. Under the new procedures, recalled airmen were retained in the United States until they demonstrated proficiency in their specialties.

Even though restricted to the Organized Air Reserve, the involuntary recall of individuals in February and March 1951 was the heaviest of the war. The Continental Air Command recalled slightly more than 7,000 reservists in both February and March. About 4,000 were recalled in April, and the number leveled off thereafter at a slightly lower figure!

Ten of the Air Force Reserve wings were mobilized intact, while the balance of the personnel filled vacant slots in other units as necessary. The Air Reserve forces played a large part in the Korean War, but the overall experience seriously upset the Air Reserve organization; the Corollary Training program dissolved and Air Force Reserve manning dropped drastically. The next few years were spent rebuilding and refining the Air Force Reserve concept. Jet aircraft reached the Air Force Reserve in 1954 and by the end of 1955, the again robust flying unit program consisted of 24 wings - thirteen troop carrier wings, nine fighter bomber wings, and two tactical bombardment wings."

top of page

back a page