Seventh Air Force

The command's mission is to plan and direct air component operations in the Republic of Korea and in the Northwest Pacific.

The 6th Aero Squadron consisted of three Curtiss N-9 seaplanes, single-engine biplanes carrying a crew of two, with a top speed of 70 miles an hour.

Early in 1920 the 4th Observation Squadron arrived at Luke Field, which was used jointly by the aerial forces of the Army and the Navy.

The first commander of Wheeler Field was Major George E. Stratemeyer, who by 1941 was a brigadier general and Acting Chief of the Army Air Corps.

(Navy Commander John Rodgers had set a non-stop seaplane record from San Francisco in 1925 and had fallen short of the mark for Honolulu, landing off the island of Kauai).

In 1931 the 18th Composite Wing was activated with headquarters at Fort Shafter, and was combined with the Air Office of the Hawaiian Department.

In September 1938, when the base was officially activated, the Hawaiian Air Depot began its move from Luke Field.

It was organized and activated with headquarters at Fort Shafter (the first Army Air Force outside the continental United States), moving to Hickam in July 1941.

The day before the Japanese Attack on Hawaii, and subsequent United States entry into World War II, the Hawaiian Air Force consisted of the following:

The attack on Pearl Harbor or Hawaii Operation as it was called by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters devastated the Hawaiian Air Force.

Seventh Air Force retained the mission of its predecessor of the defense of the Hawaiian Islands and, until the closing months of the war, it maintained its headquarters at Hickam Field.

Clarence L. Tinker, an Osage and career officer, was named commander of the Seventh Air Force, and promoted to major general in January 1942, the first Native American to reach that rank and the highest-ranking one in the Army.

One of the biggest elements of this organization was the Hawaiian Air Depot at Hickam, which served as an in-transit supply, repair, and modification center for force units scattered all the way to Australia.

The Air Depot had to expand its activities, which in peacetime included assembly, repair, and reconditioning of aircraft, to handle large numbers of P-39s and P-40s.

In addition to Depot functions, it supported the 4-engine all-weather transport used in ferrying troops, supplies, and evacuating wounded from forward areas.

The command also played a major role throughout the Pacific War as a training, staging, and supply-center for air and ground troops.

The command deployed most of its combat units to the Central Pacific, where operations were best summed up by its air and ground views as "Just one damned island after another!"

FEAF was the functional equivalent in the Pacific of the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) in the European Theater of Operations.

On 1 January 1946, Seventh Air Force was reassigned without personnel or equipment to Hickam Field, Hawaii, where it resumed its prewar mission of defense of the Hawaiian Islands.

Its mission, functions, responsibilities and command jurisdiction of installations and facilities transferred to the Pacific Division, Military Air Transport Service.

This unit came into being on 1 July 1954, the primary mission being to serve as the USAF component on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Pacific (CINCPAC).

In June 1966, the first US air attacks near Hanoi and Haiphong occurred when 7AF planes bombed nearby oil installations.

The Siege of Khe Sanh ("Operation Niagara") involved significant efforts by Seventh Air Force.

Under the terms of the Paris Peace Accords, MACV and all American and third country forces had to be withdrawn from South Vietnam within 60 days of the ceasefire.

Transfer of the main body, drawn largely from the operations and intelligence sections of MACV and Seventh Air Force, began on 10 February.

[5]: 52 On 27 April 1973 CINCPAC published its terms of reference for USSAG/7th AF, these were: "USSAG/7AF, Thailand will plan for resumption of an effective air campaign in Laos, Cambodia, the Republic of Vietnam and North Vietnam as directed by CINCPAC; maintain a command and control structure for the management of air elements which may be committed to it and a capability for interface with [the South Vietnamese] air control system; establish and maintain liaison with [the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff], CTF 77 and committed SAC forces; and exercise command over [DAO Saigon]".In addition to combat air operations the command was charged with conducting Joint Casualty Resolution Center activities in Cambodia, Laos, South and North Vietnam, to coordinate search and rescue operations in Southeast Asia and adjacent waters and make recommendations concerning USAF levels in Thailand.

[5]: 49–50 USSAG/7th AF oversaw the ongoing US air campaigns in Cambodia and Laos until the prohibition on offensive operations came into effect on 14 August 1973.

Air Force personnel fly and maintain the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Fairchild Republic A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II combat aircraft, and perform a myriad of intelligence, logistics, planning, communications, and liaison duties.

Commands Divisions This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency Maps

Current organization the U.S. 7th Air Force in South Korea
Headquarter of Seventh Air Force in Tan Son Nhut Air Base , Saigon , Republic of Vietnam.
Seventh Air Force Commander General George S. Brown with Pacific Air Force Commander General Joseph J. Nazzaro . Both Seventh Air Force and Pacific Air Force played a major role in overseeing all United States Air Force operation in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War .
7th Air Force Bases
7th Air Force Bases