Rise of the Air Corps

摘要

In 1934, Maj. Gen. Hugh Drum, Army deputy chief of staff-the second-ranking officer in the Army-said there was no reason for airplanes to fly further than three days' march ahead of the infantry. Drum said there should be "no operations not contributing to the success of the ground campaign" and that independent air operations "would likely be wasted and might be entirely ineffective." The Air Service had been a combatant branch of the Army since 1920 and was reorganized as the Air Corps in July 1926. It was-supposedly-on an organizational par with infantry, armor, artillery.