Continental Air Command

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Continental Air Command
Emblem of Continental Air Command
Active	1948 - 1968
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Major Command

Continental Air Command (ConAC) (1948 - 1968) was a Major Command of the United States Air Force (USAF) responsible primarily for administering the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

Contents 1 History 2 See Also 3 References 4 External Links

[edit] History

In 1947 the United States Congress provided the necessary legislation to create a Department of the Air Force and established the United States Air Force as a separate service equal to the Army and the Navy in the nation's military establishment. Earlier, on 21 March 1946, General Carl Spaatz, Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces had undertaken a major re-organization that had included the establishment of three new combat commands in the United States. These were:

• Strategic Air Command (soon known everywhere as SAC), to provide a long-range striking force capable of bombardment operations in any part of the world

• Air Defense Command (ADC), to defend the United States against attack from the air

• Tactical Air Command (TAC), to support the operations of ground forces.

On 1 December 1948 TAC and ADC were reduced from major commands to operating agencies when they were assigned to the Continental Air Command (ConAC) which assumed jurisdiction over North American continental air defense. Continental Air Command also had charge of all Air Force reserve units because most of these forces were to be used in either air defense or tactical operations.

Numbered Air Forces assigned to ConAC were:

• First Air Force
• Fourth Air Force
• Ninth Air Force
• Twelfth Air Force
• Fourteenth Air Force

The headaquarters of ConAC was Mitchel AAF, New York.

Two years later, on 1 December 1950, the Air Force reestablished Tactical Air Command as a major command and removed it from assignment to ConAC. Air Defense Command, inactivated on 1 July 1950, was reestablished as a major command on 1 January 1951 when ConAC ceased to handle the nation's air defense mission.

During the remainder of its existence, Continental Air Command was responsible primarily for administering the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. Known ConAC units were based at :

Andrews AFB, Maryland Bakalar AFB, Indiana Barksdale AFB, Louisiana Brookley AFB, Alabama Carswell AFB, Texas Clinton County AP, Ohio Dobbins AFB, Georgia Ellington AFB, Texas Grenier AFB, New Hampshire Hanscom AFB, New Hampshire Hamilton AFB, California Homestead AFB, Flordia Luke AFB, Arizona March AFB, California McGuire AFB, New Jersey

Mitchell AFB, Wisconsin NAS/JRB New Orleans, Louisiana Niagara Falls IAP, New York McClellan AFB, California Paine AFB, Washington Pittsburgh IAP, Pennsylvania Portland IAP, Oregon Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri Robins AFB, Georgia Scott AFB, Illinois Selfridge AFB, Michigan Stewart AFB, New York NAS/JRB Willow Grove, Pennsylvania Youngstown AFB, Ohio

Continental Air Command was inactivated on 1 August 1968 and was replaced by the Air Force Reserve (AFRES). AFRES was initally a field operating agency, later redesignated Air Force Reserve Command on 17 February 1997 and status changed from a field operating agency to a major command of the United States Air Force.

Continental Air Command was disestablished on 21 September 1984

[edit] See Also

• Aerospace Defense Command
• Air Force Reserve Command
• Tactical Air Command
• Strategic Air Command

[edit] References

• Continental Air Command at US Air Force Historical Research Agency
• Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, Office of Air Force History, 1983
• The Air Officer's Guide, 1970-1971 Edition, United States Air Force, 1970

[edit] External Links