United States Army Air Force

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Aviation, in the U.S. military, grew from providing support, to becoming an increasingly autonomous part of the U.S. Army. From conception, with the first partial miscarriage: the September 17, 1908 first military aviation fatality, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the force grew until World War II, when it was still an adolescent living at home, with both feuding and examples of excellent cooperation George S. Patton Jr.'s Third United States Army and Elmo "Pete" Quesada's XIX Tactical Air Command (today the Ninth Air Force) considered brothers bound by fire.

The phases of development were:

• 1907 - Aeronautical Section of the Signal Corps.
• 1914 - Aviation Section (Signal Corps).
• 1918 - United States Army Air Service
• 1926 - United States Army Air Corps
• 1941 - United States Army Air Forces

Finally, long-range and high-performance aircraft, in 1947, became the United States Air Force (USAF). This came about with the passage of the National Security Act of 1947.

The U.S. Navy retained its air arm, as did the U.S. Marine Corps but these were less powerful than the USAF. See United States Air Force for its maturing.