[1] General Douglas MacArthur, convinced by his friend Philippine President-elect Manuel L. Quezon and with President Roosevelt's agreement to leave his position as Chief of Staff, become Military Adviser to the Commonwealth Government in 1935.

[2] MacArthur was given wide authority to deal directly with the United States Secretary of War, his successor as the Army Chief of Staff and the United States Army Philippine Department and its commander Major General Lucius R. Holbrook who had been directed that his most important peacetime mission was assisting MacArthur in forming a Philippine force capable of defending the islands.

[2] MacArthur selected Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and James B. Ord as his assistants who, with a special committee at the Army War College, prepared plans to form the national defense of the Philippine Commonwealth with a completion target of independence in 1946.

[2] That plan called for a small regular army with divisions of about 7,500 men, conscription with all men between twenty-one and fifty years of age eligible, with a ten-year training program to build a reserve army, a small air force and a fleet of torpedo boats capable of repelling an enemy.

[3] The air corps was targeted to have by independence in 1946 approximately 100 bombers and additional tactical support aircraft to be used with the Off Shore Patrol of torpedo boats in coastal defense.

On 31 July 1941 the corps consisted of 2,132 enlisted troops, under the command of 275 officers: On 8 December 1941, despite receiving the news on the attack on Pearl Harbor early in the morning, the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and its air component, Far East Air Force (FAEF), were caught by surprise by bombers and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Army from Takao Airfield and Navy's Tainan Air Group from Tainan, Formosa, hitting targets in Baguio, Iba Airfield, and Clark Airfield.

[9][10][11] On 9 December, units of the PAAC attached to the Southern Luzon Force were ordered to do reconnaissance flight towards the South China Sea for any possible amphibious landing by the Japanese on the Batangas coastline.

Jesus Villamor, along with Lieutenants Godofredo Juliano, Geronimo Aclan, Alberto Aranzaso, and Jose Gozar met another wave of Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers and Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters over the skies of Zablan Airfield and Pasig with their Boeing P-26 Peashooters.

[25][26] While greatly outclassed and outnumbered, the accomplishment of the 6th Pursuit Squadron has become of a legend and a source of encouragement among the ground forces and the civilians who witnessed their defense over the skies of Luzon.

Colin Kelly of the 14th Bombardment Squadron posthumously, were awarded by Gen. MacArthur the Distinguished Service Cross for their defense of the airspace above Manila.

[27][28] Upon activation of War Plan Orange, the 6th Pursuit Squadron and the rest of the PAAC were ordered to destroy their aircraft inventory.

Villamor and his unit joined the rest of the USAFF on a strategic retreat to Bataan and transformed their mission to air defense.

[33] The Filipino POWs in Capas, Tarlac were released by August 1942, and the former members of the PAAC either transitioned back to civilian life, collaborated with the Japanese-sponsored Philippine government, or joined the underground guerilla movement.