PLEASE SUPPORT THE ARMY AIR CORPS MUSEUM! [MORE]
Ads help support our web operation, if you would like to turn them OFF for this visit;
Saving Military History One Soldier At A Time
The Army Air Corps Library and Museum is dedicated to the men and women of the Army Air Forces - Army Air Corps of 1907-1947 and The U.S. Air Force of 1947 to Present.
Their dedication and devotion to country is a rich history worth preserving. Their service and sacrifices shall never be forgotten.
Welcome to the newest edition of the Army Air Corps Museum website, where we bring this history to you. View our collection, visit the honor roll, the names of men and women who have served. Research Missing in Action (MIAs). See all of our projects. View exhibits of equipment, uniforms, gear and much more. We are always looking for donations of artifacts as well as volunteers to help us with getting records into digital formats so that they can be displayed for the public.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit, your support of monetary donations are tax deductible.
We thank you for your support.
Robert Coalter, Jason Weigler, Robert Weigler
Executive Directors
Keep up with all we are doing via our monthly newsletter
Mobile Museum, MM-1776
Inside the Mobile Museum
KIA Artifacts
319th BG in the CBI
Lowell Thomas Talks to A-20 Pilots
The Army Air Service and the Army Air Corps captured the imagination of many a young man in the 20's and 30's with stunt flying and a wide variety of aircraft. It began the golden age of flight; dangerous probably, glamorous certainly. The love affair of men and their planes continued and the flying bug even hit women. As World War II began, many improvements that enabled aircraft to fly faster, farther and higher were built into the specifications of aircraft. The physics of human flight in a 'flying machine' were well established and understood, it was a matter of building better performing aircraft as well as ones suited to particular tasks.
Aircraft design was influenced by evolving needs, purposes and war strategies. Aircraft went through many changes from World War I through the interwar years and into World War II. For example, early aircraft was used simply as observation and artillery spotting. This gave way to the fighter plane as a defensive as well as an offensive weapon and initially against other fighters. Early in WWI it was almost as if there were two wars going on, one in the sky and one on the ground, never crossing paths. A whole new strategy emerged, bombardment. This merged the sky and ground into one complete multi-dimensional battlefield. The battle lines were also altered as aircraft and strategy enabled aircraft to bomb behind the traditional front lines and hit supplies, communications and other targets that would be termed strategic to complement the tactical strategies.
All of these new tactics emerged in World War I and began to mature in thought and practice in the 30s. However they continued to evolve and these theories were truly tested in the 40s in World War II.
One of a number of men who played a role in the development of tactics, policy and the use of strategic bombardment prior to World War II was Kenneth N. Walker. From his time as a junior officer to Brigadier General, he was one of the pioneers of the Army Air Forces. BG Walker perished while on a bombing mission to Rabaul, January 5, 1943 making him the highest ranking Army Air Forces officer lost in combat during WWII. Their aircraft was last seen trailing smoke, but no eyewitness viewed where it may have landed or crashed. Walker and the 10 other crew members have never been found. Read General Walker's story.
The evolution of flight continued with the advent of jet aircraft. Finally, the sound barrier was broken ushering in a new era of flight. The space program and the ability to fly higher brought new challenges. Speed, altitude and aerial refueling became the norms but stealth would be the next technological leap in aviation.
Flight technology and tactics continue to evolve and the Army Air Corps Library and Museum salutes all the persons who served in the Air Corps, Army Air Forces and the early USAF; the pioneers to the current group of airmen and women.
B-24 of the 90th Bombardment Group
B-29, Victory Girl
We have an extensive collection of artifacts from World War I to the present day. This includes uniforms, gear, photos, medals, documents, training materials. We continue to provide and build on this website for your learning enjoyment photos through our photo albums, uniforms and other artifacts of the collection and exhibits
All of our artifacts are housed and named in individual collections attributed to the person to whom they belonged. While the artifacts are in the museum's overall collection we feel that we are merely the caretakers of family heritages and we honor the original owner and give proper credit to the men and women who wore the cloth.
Take a look at a few of these collections. Henry Chism a bombardier of the 98th Bombardment Group based in Egypt in 1942. Carlos Wilcox, a member of the 5th Bombardment Group based at Hickam Field, Territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941, Jason Campbell of the 8th Air Force, Ray McKinley of the Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Band, Bing Kleine Commanding Officer of the 371st Fighter Group, John Rose of the 90th Bombardment Group, The Jolly Rogers, of the Pacific Theater war against the Japanese, and many, many more.
Enjoy for fantastic photo albums like this one from Curtis Gray or this one from Art Delmore of the 30th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force and many others.
The museum has a number of projects in process and on our radar. The first is how we have built our database and multiple websites. This is the transcription - extract of award documents (General Orders). The names of the servicemen and servicewomen found on this and all of our other websites are the result of this ongoing project. We are also transcribing enemy encounter reports and unit histories.
We have compiled missing in action and buried unknown data or X-files as they are known with our partnership with the MIA Recover Network.
Our missing air crew reports project continues to evolve and is a good project for a volunteer.
The US National Archives published a tranche of 3x5 index cards that are not searchable. These are award cards created from award documents. We have been having this data extracted and placed in our database. many of these cards are missing the unit assignment, in fairness to NARA, many times the issuing authority for the awards did not include the unit to which the awardee was assigned. By getting this information into our database we are able to determine the unit assigned enhancing both the unit history and that of the recipient.
In our database, based upon the material encountered in the transcribed source material there are instances where the hometown and state were listed; we continue to capture this information and provide a search/link from state and counties.
If you are trying to find information on a relative and don't know where to start; please read Researching Veteran's Service
We have plenty of opportunities for people to volunteer and help us to preserve this history. Volunteers work from home and we greatly appreciate their assistance. So if you would like to type history documents or enter info into a spreadsheet, please contact us today.
The Army Air Corps Museum, saving your military history, one soldier at a time.
Do you have WWII memorabilia that you are not sure what to do with it? The children don't want it? Then let us help you preserve this history by donating these items to the Army Air Corps Library and Museum. We are accepting donations in the form of uniforms, medals, ribbons, patches, photos, memorabilia, papers, gear and equipment. We also accept monetary donations to support our operations and long term plans. This website is part of the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, and as a 501(c)(3) Non-profit, your qualifying donations are tax deductible.
Read about how we need your support and use donations.
Historical Artifacts: We are looking for photos, documents and other types of artifacts including uniforms, medals, insignia, gear, manuals, and training material. We accept electronic/scans or originals of pictures and paper records. A General Order could be an award document that contains information on many servicemen. Special Orders may contain transfers or other information. Flight records, accident reports, maintenance logs, after action reports, pilot encounter reports, diaries and biorgraphies; all of these types of documents help us support or mission: preserving your history! Contact us today for instructions on sending us this material. Contact Today
Are you an AAC, AAF or USAF Veteran, family member, historian or WW2 enthusiast? We Need YOU! Contact us today to see how you can help the Army Air Corps Library and Museum, a Texas Not-For-Profit Corporation. We need your help! We are looking for volunteers that can help us with the following tasks. Typing and Transcriptionists: One of our big projects is extracting data from the thousands of documents we have and putting this data into a database where we can display the information on a website such as this one. We also need assistance with retyping unit history documents.