United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is 10 miles northeast of Dayton; the host unit at Wright-Patterson AFB is the 88th Air Base Wing, assigned to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and Air Force Materiel Command. The 88 ABW operates the airfield, maintains all infrastructure and provides security, medical, personnel, finance, air traffic control, weather forecasting, public affairs and chaplain services for more than 60 associate units; the base's origins begin with the establishment of Wilbur Wright Field on 22 May and McCook Field in November 1917, both established by the Army Air Service as World War I installations. McCook was used for aviation experiments. Wright was used as a flying field. McCook's functions were transferred to Wright Field when it was closed in October 1927.
Wright-Patterson AFB was established in 1948 as a merger of Wright Fields. In 1995, negotiations to end the Bosnian War were held at the base, resulting in the Dayton Agreement that ended the war; the 88th Air Base Wing is commanded by Col. John M. Devillier Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant John M. Mazza; the base had a total of 27,406 military and contract employees in 2010. The Greene County portion of the base is a census-designated place, with a resident population of 1,821 at the 2010 census. Wright-Patterson AFB is "one of the largest, most diverse, organizationally complex bases in the Air Force" with a long history of flight tests spanning from the Wright Brothers into the Space Age, it is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command, one of the major commands of the Air Force. "Wright-Patt" is the location of a major USAF Medical Center, the Air Force Institute of Technology, the National Museum of the United States Air Force known as the U. S. Air Force Museum.
It is the home base of the 445th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command, an Air Mobility Command-gained unit which flies the C-17 Globemaster heavy airlifter. Wright-Patterson is the headquarters of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Wright-Patterson is the host of the annual United States Air Force Marathon which occurs the weekend closest to the Air Force's anniversary. 88th Air Base WingThe 88 ABW consists of more than 5,000 officers, enlisted Air Force and contractor employees responsible for three primary mission areas: operating the installation. The Wing reports to the Aeronautical Systems Center, a major development and acquisition product center of Air Force Materiel Command, it consists of the following organizations: 88th Civil Engineer Squadron 88th Communications Group 88th Medical Group – Wright-Patterson Medical Center 88th Mission Support Group 88th Comptroller Squadron 88th Security Forces Squadron 88th Air Base Wing Staff AgenciesTenant unitsAir Force Materiel Command Air Force Life Cycle Management Center 77th Aeronautical Systems Wing 303d Aeronautical Systems Wing 312th Aeronautical Systems Wing 326th Aeronautical Systems Wing 478th Aeronautical Systems Wing 516th Aeronautical Systems Wing Air Force Security Assistance Center Air Force Research Laboratory known as Wright Labs Air Force Institute of Technology National Air and Space Intelligence Center National Museum of the U.
S. Air Force 445th Airlift Wing 554th Electronic Systems Group Prehistoric Indian mounds of the Adena culture at Wright-Patterson are along P Street and, at the Wright Brothers Memorial, a hilltop mound group. Aircraft operations on land now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base began in 1904–1905 when Wilbur and Orville Wright used an 84-acre plot of Huffman Prairie for experimental test flights with the Wright Flyer III, their flight exhibition company and the Wright Company School of Aviation returned 1910–1916 to use the flying field. World War I transfers of land that became WPAFB include 2,075-acre along the Mad River leased to the Army by the Miami Conservancy District, the adjacent 40 acres purchased by the Army from the District for the Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot, a 254-acre complex for McCook Field just north of downtown Dayton between Keowee Street and the Great Miami River. In 1918, Wilbur Wright Field agreed to let McCook Field use hangar and shop space as well as its enlisted mechanics to assemble and maintain airplanes and engines.
After World War I, 347 German aircraft were brought to the United States—some were incorporated into the Army Aeronautical Museum. The training school at Wilbur Wright Field was discontinued. Wilbur Wright Field and the depot merged; the Patterson family formed the Dayton Air Service Committee, Inc which held a campaign that raised $425,000 in two days and purchased 4,520.47 acres northeast of Dayton, including Wilbur Wright Field and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. In 1924, the Comm
George Kenney
George Churchill Kenney was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. He is best known as the commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, a position he held between August 1942 and 1945. Kenney enlisted as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section, U. S. Signal Corps in 1917, served on the Western Front with the 91st Aero Squadron, he was awarded a Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in which he fought off German fighters and shot two down. After hostilities ended he participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland. Returning to the United States, he flew reconnaissance missions along the border between the US and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Commissioned into the Regular Army in 1920, he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, became an instructor there, he was responsible for the acceptance of Martin NBS-1 bombers built by Curtis, test flew them. He developed techniques for mounting.30 caliber machine guns on the wings of an Airco DH.4 aircraft.
In early 1940, Kenney became Assistant Military Attaché for Air in France. As a result of his observations of German and Allied air operations during the early stages of World War II, he recommended significant changes to Air Corps equipment and tactics. In July 1942, he assumed command of the Allied Air Forces and Fifth Air Force in General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area. Under Kenney's command, the Allied Air Forces developed innovative command structures and tactics that reflected Kenney's orientation towards attack aviation; the new weapons and tactics won his greatest victory, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in March 1943. In June 1944 he was appointed commander of the Far East Air Forces, which came to include the Fifth and Seventh Air Forces. In April 1946, Kenney became the first commander of the newly formed Strategic Air Command, but his performance in the role was criticized, he was shifted to become commander of the Air University, a position he held from October 1948 until his retirement from the Air Force in September 1951.
George Churchill Kenney was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on 6 August 1889, during a summer vacation taken by his parents to avoid the humidity of the Boston area. The oldest of four children of carpenter Joseph Atwood Kenney and his wife Anne Louise Kenney, née Churchill, Kenney grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated from Brookline High School in 1907 and that year he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he pursued a course in civil engineering. After his father left his family, Kenney quit MIT and took various jobs before becoming a surveyor for the Quebec Saguenay Railroad, his mother died in 1913 and Kenney returned to Boston, where he took a job with Stone & Webster. In 1914 he joined the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad as a civil engineer, building a bridge in New London, Connecticut. After this was completed, he formed a partnership, the Beaver Contracting and Engineering Corporation, with a high school classmate, Gordon Glazier; the firm became involved in a number of projects, including the construction of a seawall at Winthrop, a bridge over the Squannacook River.
The United States entered World War I in April 1917, Kenney enlisted as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section, U. S. Signal Corps on 2 June 1917, he attended ground school at MIT in June and July, received primary flight training at Hazelhurst Field in Mineola, New York, from Bert Acosta. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant on 5 November 1917, departed for France soon after. There, he received further flight training at Issoudun; this ended in February 1918. The 91st Aero Squadron flew a reconnaissance biplane. Kenney crashed one on takeoff on 22 March 1918, he broke an ankle and a hand, earned himself the nickname "Bust'em up George". His injuries soon healed, he recorded his first mission on 3 June. Kenney flew one of four aircraft on a mission near Gorze on 15 September 1918, attacked by six German Pfalz D. III scouts, his observer William T. Badham shot one of them down, Kenney was credited with his first aerial victory. For this he was awarded a Silver Star. A second victory followed in similar circumstances on 9 October while he was flying near Jametz in support of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
Once again, the formation he was flying with was attacked by German fighters. This time he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, presented by Brigadier General Billy Mitchell on 10 January 1919. Kenney's citation read: For extraordinary heroism in action near Jametz, October 9, 1918; this officer gave proof of his bravery and devotion to duty when he was attacked by a superior number of aircraft. He destroyed one plane and drove the others off. Notwithstanding that the enemy returned and attacked again in strong numbers, he continued his mission and enabled his observer to secure information of great military value. Kenney remained for a time with the Allied occupation forces in Germany, was promoted to captain on 18 March 1919, he returned to the United States in June 1919. He was the co-author in 1919 of "History of the 91st Aero Squadron" He was sent to Kelly Field, near San Antonio, to McAllen, Texas; as commander of the 8th Aero Squadron, he flew reconnaissance missions along the border with Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
Poor aircraft maintenance, rough landing strips and bad weather led to the squadron losing 22 of its 24 Airco DH.4 aircraft in just one year. Kenney applied for one of a number of Regular Army commissions offered to reservists after the war, was commissioned as a captain in the Air
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, one of the seven American uniformed services. Formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U. S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947, it is the youngest branch of the U. S. Armed Forces, the fourth in order of precedence; the USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, command and control; the U. S. Air Force is a military service branch organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense; the Air Force, through the Department of the Air Force, is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, is appointed by the President with Senate confirmation.
The highest-ranking military officer in the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who exercises supervision over Air Force units and serves as one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Air Force components are assigned, as directed by the Secretary of Defense, to the combatant commands, neither the Secretary of the Air Force nor the Chief of Staff of the Air Force have operational command authority over them. Along with conducting independent air and space operations, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for land and naval forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field; as of 2017, the service operates more than 5,369 military aircraft, 406 ICBMs and 170 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget and is the second largest service branch, with 318,415 active duty airmen, 140,169 civilian personnel, 69,200 reserve airmen, 105,700 Air National Guard airmen. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF: In general, the United States Air Force shall include aviation forces both combat and service not otherwise assigned.
It shall be organized and equipped for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The Air Force shall be responsible for the preparation of the air forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Air Force to meet the needs of war. §8062 of Title 10 US Code defines the purpose of the USAF as: to preserve the peace and security, provide for the defense, of the United States, the Territories and possessions, any areas occupied by the United States. The stated mission of the USAF today is to "fly and win...in air and cyberspace". "The United States Air Force will be a trusted and reliable joint partner with our sister services known for integrity in all of our activities, including supporting the joint mission first and foremost. We will provide compelling air and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance and Power for the nation".
The five core missions of the Air Force have not changed since the Air Force became independent in 1947, but they have evolved, are now articulated as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, command and control. The purpose of all of these core missions is to provide, what the Air Force states as, global vigilance, global reach, global power. Air superiority is "that degree of dominance in the air battle of one force over another which permits the conduct of operations by the former and its related land, sea and special operations forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by the opposing force". Offensive Counterair is defined as "offensive operations to destroy, disrupt, or neutralize enemy aircraft, launch platforms, their supporting structures and systems both before and after launch, but as close to their source as possible". OCA is the preferred method of countering air and missile threats since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source and enjoys the initiative.
OCA comprises attack operations, sweep and suppression/destruction of enemy air defense. Defensive Counter air is defined as "all the defensive measures designed to detect, identify and destroy or negate enemy forces attempting to penetrate or attack through friendly airspace". A major goal of DCA operations, in concert with OCA operations, is to provide an area from which forces can operate, secure from air and missile threats; the DCA mission comprises both passive defense measures. Active defense is "the employment of limited offensive action and counterattacks to deny a contested area or position to the enemy", it includes both ballistic missile defense and air-breathing threat defense, encompasses point defense, area defense, high-value airborne asset defense. Passive defense is "measures taken to reduce the probability of and to minimize the effects of damage caused by hostile action without the intention of taking the initiative", it includes warning.
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D. C, it was established in 1946 as the National Air Museum and opened its main building on the National Mall near L'Enfant Plaza in 1976. In 2016, the museum saw 7.5 million visitors, making it the third most visited museum in the world, the most visited museum in the United States. The museum contains the Apollo 11 command module, the Friendship 7 capsule, flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell X-1 which broke the sound barrier, the model of the starship Enterprise used in the science fiction television show Star Trek: The Original Series, the Wright brothers' airplane near the entrance; the National Air and Space Museum is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. All space and aircraft on display are originals or the original backup craft.
It operates an annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles International Airport, which opened in 2003 and itself encompasses 760,000 square feet; the museum conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation and Storage Facility in Suitland, while moving such restoration and archival activities into the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, a part of the Udvar-Hazy annex facilities as of 2014; because of the museum's close proximity to the United States Capitol, the Smithsonian wanted a building that would be architecturally impressive but would not stand out too boldly against the Capitol building. St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obata of HOK designed the museum as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles and spacecraft; the mass of the museum is similar to the National Gallery of Art across the National Mall, uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery.
Built by Gilbane Building Company, the museum was completed in 1976. The west glass wall of the building is used for the installation of airplanes, functioning as a giant door; the museum's prominent site on the National Mall once housed the city's armory, during the Civil War, Armory Square Hospital nursed the worst wounded cases who were transported to Washington after battles. The Air and Space Museum was called the National Air Museum when formed on August 12, 1946 by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman; some pieces in the National Air and Space Museum collection date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia after which the Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites to the Smithsonian after Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird convinced exhibiters that shipping them home would be too costly. The Stringfellow steam engine intended for aircraft was added to the collection in 1889, the first piece acquired by the Smithsonian now in the current NASM collection.
After the establishment of the museum, there was no one building that could hold all the items to be displayed, many obtained from the United States Army and United States Navy collections of domestic and captured aircraft from World War I. Some pieces were on display in the Arts and Industries Building, some were stored in the Aircraft Building, a large temporary metal shed in the Smithsonian Castle's south yard. Larger missiles and rockets were displayed outdoors in; the shed housed a large Martin bomber, a LePere fighter-bomber, an Aeromarine 39B floatplane. Still, much of the collection remained in storage due to a lack of display space; the combination of the large numbers of aircraft donated to the Smithsonian after World War II and the need for hangar and factory space for the Korean War drove the Smithsonian to look for its own facility to store and restore aircraft. The current Garber Facility was ceded to the Smithsonian by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1952 after the curator Paul E. Garber spotted the wooded area from the air.
Bulldozers from Fort Belvoir and prefabricated buildings from the United States Navy kept the initial costs low. The space race in the 1950s and 1960s led to the renaming of the museum to the National Air and Space Museum, congressional passage of appropriations for the construction of the new exhibition hall, which opened July 1, 1976 at the height of the United States Bicentennial festivities under the leadership of Director Michael Collins, who had flown to the Moon on Apollo 11; the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened in 2003, funded by a private donation; the museum received COSTAR, the corrective optics instrument installed in the Hubble Space Telescope during its first servicing mission, when it was removed and returned to Earth after Space Shuttle mission STS-125. The museum holds the backup mirror for the Hubble which, unlike the one, launched, was ground to the correct shape. There were once plans for it to be installed to the Hubble itself, but plans to return the satellite to Earth were scrapped after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.
The Smithsonian has been promised the International Cometary Explorer, in a solar orbit that brings it back to Earth, should NASA attempt to recover it. The Air and Space Museum announced a two-year renovation of its main entrance hall, "Milestones of Flight" in April 2014; the renovation to the main hall was funded by a $30 mil
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery and integration of affordable aerospace warfighting technologies and executing the Air Force science and technology program, providing warfighting capabilities to United States air and cyberspace forces. It controls the entire Air Force science and technology research budget, $2.4 billion in 2006. The Laboratory was formed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio on 31 October 1997 as a consolidation of four Air Force laboratory facilities and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under a unified command; the Laboratory is composed of seven technical directorates, one wing, the Office of Scientific Research. Each technical directorate emphasizes a particular area of research within the AFRL mission which it specializes in performing experiments in conjunction with universities and contractors. Since the Laboratory's formation in 1997, it has conducted numerous experiments and technical demonstrations in conjunction with NASA, Department of Energy National Laboratories, DARPA, other research organizations within the Department of Defense.
Notable projects include the X-37, X-40, X-53, HTV-3X, YAL-1A, Advanced Tactical Laser, the Tactical Satellite Program. The Laboratory may face problems in the future as 40 percent of its workers are slated to retire over the next two decades while since 1980 the United States has not produced enough science and engineering degrees to keep up with demand. In 1945 the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories were established; these laboratories were active from 1945 to 2011, following consolidation to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Kirtland Air Force Base under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The labs were founded as the Air Force Cambridge Research Center, a Cold War systems development organization which developed telephone modem communications for a Digital Radar Relay in 1949. Created by General Henry H. Arnold in 1945, AFCRC participated in Project Space Track and Semi-Automatic Ground Environment development; the path to a consolidated Air Force Research Laboratory began with the passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act, designed to streamline the use of resources by the Department of Defense.
In addition to this Act, the end of the Cold War began a period of budgetary and personnel reductions within the armed forces in preparation for a "stand-down" transition out of readiness for a global war with the Soviet Union. Prior to 1990, the Air Force laboratory system spread research out into 13 different laboratories and the Rome Air Development Center which each reported up two separate chains of command: a product center for personnel, the Air Force Systems Command Director of Science & Technology for budgetary purposes. Bowing to the constraints of a reduced budget and personnel, the Air Force merged the existing research laboratories into four "superlabs" in December 1990. During this same time period, the Air Force Systems Command and Air Force Logistics Command merged to form Air Force Materiel Command in July 1992. While the initial consolidation of Air Force laboratories reduced overhead and budgetary pressure, another push towards a unified laboratory structure came in the form of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996, Section 277.
This section instructed the Department of Defense to produce a five-year plan for consolidation and restructuring of all defense laboratories. The existing laboratory structure was created in October 1997 through the consolidation of Phillips Laboratory headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Rome Laboratory in Rome, New York, Armstrong Laboratory in San Antonio and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; the single laboratory concept was developed and championed by Maj Gen Richard Paul, Director of Science & Technology for AFMC and Gen Henry Viccellio Jr, became the first Commander of AFRL. With the merger of the laboratories into a single entity, the history offices at each site ceased to maintain independent histories and all history functions were transferred to a central History Office located at AFRL HQ at Wright-Patterson AFB. In homage to the predecessor laboratories, the new organization named four of the research sites after the laboratories and assured that each laboratory's history would be preserved as inactivated units.
The laboratory is divided into 8 Technical Directorates, one wing, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research based on different areas of research. AFOSR is a funding body for external research while the other directorates perform research in-house or under contract to external entities. A directorate is equivalent to a military wing; each directorate is composed of a number of divisions and has at least three support divisions in addition to its research divisions. The Operations and Integration Division provides the directorate with well-conceived and executed business computing, human resource management, business development services while the Financial Management Division manages the financial resources and the Procurement Division provides an in-house contracting capability; the support divisions at any given location work together to minimize overhead at any given research site. Each division is further broken down into branches equivalent to a military squadron. Superimposed on the overall AFRL structure are the eight detachments.
Each detachment is composed of the AFRL military personnel at any given geographical location. For example, the personnel
Ted F. Bowlds
Lieutenant General Ted Francis Bowlds is a former Commander, Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. The center's mission is to acquire control systems for the Air Force; the organization comprises more than 12,000 people located at six sites throughout the United States. The men and women of the ESC manage more than $3 billion in programs annually in support of the Air Force, joint and coalition forces. General Bowlds entered the Air Force in 1975 through the AFROTC program. In earlier assignments, he served as an engineer in an Air Force laboratory and as a flight test engineer on the F-117, he has worked as avionics program manager on the B-2, bomber branch chief at the Pentagon, Chief of Advance Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile development in the AMRAAM System Program Office, as Commander of the Rome Laboratory in Rome, N. Y. General Bowlds served as the Deputy Director of Global Power Programs with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Headquarters U.
S. Air Force, Washington, D. C. Prior to assuming his current position, he was assigned as Commander, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, he was responsible for managing the Air Force's $2 billion science and technology program as well as additional customer funded research and development of $1.7 billion. General Bowlds earned the Spaatz award, he is now the Vice President of the Spaatz Association. General Bowlds is a 1973 graduate of Mississippi State University, with a degree in Electrical engineering, he was a member of Triangle Fraternity at Mississippi State, continues to serve his fraternity as a member of the board of directors of the Triangle Education Foundation. The General is CEO of Innovative Perspectives, LLC, a consulting firm that advises companies on strategic planning and contract proposals. 1975 Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, Mississippi State University 1979 Master of Science degree in electrical engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 1980 Flight Test Engineers Course, U.
S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, Calif. 1983 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala. 1985 Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence 1985 Defense Systems Management College, Fort Belvoir, Va. 1992 Master of Science degree in engineering management, University of Dayton, Ohio 1993 Air War College, by correspondence 1994 Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Ala. 2000 Advanced Management Program, the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business 2002 National Security Management Course, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y. May 1975 - June 1978, computer systems analyst, Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio July 1978 - December 1979, project engineer and Global Positioning System evaluator, Air Force Avionics Laboratory, Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio January 1980 - December 1980, student, U. S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, Calif. January 1981 - December 1984, F-117 Test Program Manager, Air Force Flight Test Center, Detachment 3, Air Force Systems Command, Edwards AFB, Calif.
January 1985 - June 1985, Defense Systems Management College, Fort Belvoir, Va. July 1985 - June 1989, Chief, B-2 Avionics Branch, B-2 System Program Office, Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio July 1989 - June 1993, Bomber Branch, Directorate of Long-Range Power Projection, Special Operations Forces and Training Programs, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Washington, D. C. July 1993 - June 1994, Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Ala. July 1994 - August 1995, Advance Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile Development Integrated Process Team, AMRAAM System Program Office, Aeronautical Systems Center, Eglin AFB, Fla. September 1995 - July 1997, Air Force Rome Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, Rome, N. Y. July 1997 - February 1999 Deputy Director, Global Power Programs, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Washington, D. C. March 1999 - September 2001, Program Director, C-17 System Program Office, Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio September 2001 - January 2004, Program Executive Officer for Airlift and Trainers, Headquarters U.
S. Air Force, Washington, D. C. February 2004 - January 2006, Deputy for Acquisition, Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio January 2006 - November 2007, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio November 2007 – 1 September 2011, Commander Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass. Air Force Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster Defense Meritorious Service Medal Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters Air Force Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster Second Lieutenant June 4, 1975 First Lieutenant July 31, 1977 Captain July 31, 1979 Major December 1, 1986 Lieutenant Colonel April 1, 1990 Colonel July 1, 1996 Brigadier General July 1, 2002 Major General November 1, 2005 Lieutenant General November 7, 2007 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Air Force
