PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

Puerto Rico National Guard State Guard Command

1st Air Base Group Headquarter Muiz Air National Guard Base, Carolina, Puerto Rico

Airman Manual

Airman Manual

PR National Guard History &

US Air Force History

As of January 2014

Airman Manual

PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

The Puerto Rico National Guard

History:

After the Spanish American War in 1898, Spain

ceded Puerto Rico to the United States. US military

authorities discussed Puerto Rico's military value. It

offered tremendous commercial value in expanding

commerce among the US, Central and South

America. Because of the political changes in the

beginning of the 20th century, the strategic military

importance of Puerto Rico grew. In 1906, a group of

Puerto Ricans met with the Governor Winthrop, and

the Commissioner of Interior, Lawrence H. Graham,

to organize a National Guard of Puerto Rico.

The public supported this effort and some

companies were organized, in different towns

around the island: Yauco under the command of

Captain Santiago Vivaldi; Juana Daz, commanded

by Captain Diaz-Brik; Peuelas by Captain Gabino

Balasquide; and two in Ponce by Pedro Juan

Armstrong, Mario Belaval, J. Oppenheimer, F. del

Valle and Doctor Laguna. In San Juan three

companies were organized under Federico Vall-

Spinosa, Justo Barros, J. del Barril, R. Swigett, J.

Doere, Lugo Vinas and F. Fano.

As the companies were being formed, all of the

officers and soldiers had to purchase their own

uniforms and supplies, since there was no

government funding for the enterprise. This

organization failed due to existing U. S. federal law,

which prohibited the formation of any armed force

within the United States and its territories without

authorization from Congress.

In 1906, a group of Puerto Ricans met with the

appointed Governor Winthrop, and suggested the

organization of a Puerto Rican National Guard. The

petition failed because the U.S. Constitution

prohibits the formation of any armed force within

the United States and its territories without the

authorization of Congress.

On June 19, 1915, Major General Luis R. Estevez of

the U.S. Army became the first Puerto Rican and the

first Hispanic to graduate from the United States

Military Academy at West Point, New York. While

he attended West Point, he tutored classmate Dwight

D. Eisenhower in Spanish; a second language was

required in order to graduate.

He was a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Infantry

Brigade of the army under the command of John J.

Pershing when he was sent to El Paso, Texas in the

Pancho Villa Expedition. From El Paso, he was sent

to the town of Polvo, where he was appointed mayor

and judge by its citizens. Estevez helped organize

the 23rd Battalion, which would be composed of

Puerto Ricans and be stationed in Panama during

World War I. He would also play a key role in the

formation of the Puerto Rico National Guard

During World War I, Puerto Ricans served in the

373d, 374th, and 375th Infantry Regiments of the

National Army and the Puerto Rican Regiment of

the Regular Army. Approximately 20,000 troops

were trained at Camp Las Casas.

The young Puerto Rican officer, Luis Ral Estevez,

thought a Puerto Rican National Guard was needed.

As the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the US

Military Academy at West Point, he had learned

about military units in other states. He discussed the

issue with the governor of Puerto Rico, Arthur

Yager, soon after the conclusion of World War I.

The governor, Legislature of Puerto Rico, and US

PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

Congress approved the plan, and the National Guard

was organized in 1919. In 1938, Luis R. Estevez

was promoted to Major General and appointed as

Adjutant General of the Puerto Rican National

Guard.

The first regiment of the Puerto Rico National

Guard, "First Infantry Regiment", was organized on

June 2, 1920 and

reorganized on December

26, 1922, as the 295th

Infantry Regiment. On

March 1, 1936, the 296th

Infantry Regiment was

organized. Before, the

296th existed as a battalion

of the 295th Infantry

Regiment.

On November 23, 1947, the Puerto Rico Air

National Guard came into existence as a result of the

efforts led by Colonel Mihiel Gilormini, Colonel

Alberto A. Nido and Lieutenant Colonel Jos

Antonio Muiz.

Gilormini was promoted to brigadier general and

served as commander until his retirement in 1975.

Colonel Nido was promoted to Brigadier General

and served at National Guard Headquarters as Chief

of Staff for Air.

The tactical aviation element of PRANG operates as

the 156th Airlift Wing, 198th Airlift Squadron,

flying C-130E aircraft. They operate out of Muiz

Air National Guard Base, which shares the runways

with Luiz Muoz Marn International Airport (SJU,

originally San Juan International Airport).

In the past, they have operated P-47 Thunderbolts,

C-47 Skytrains, F-86D, F-86E, and F-86H Sabre

Jets, F-104 Starfighters, A-7D Corsair II, F-16

Fighting Falcons, and, currently, C-130 Hercules

type aircraft. Phasing out the F-16s left Puerto Rico

with no air-to-air defense assets.

The Puerto Rico Air National Guard (PRANG) is

the air force militia of the Commonwealth of Puerto

Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United

States of America. It is, along with the Puerto Rico

Army National Guard, an element of the Puerto

Rico National Guard.

As commonwealth militia units, the units in the

Puerto Rico Air National Guard are not in the

normal United States Air Force chain of command.

They are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of

Puerto Rico though the office of the Puerto Rico

Adjutant General unless they are federalized by

order of the President of the United States. The

Puerto Rico Air National Guard is headquartered at

Muiz Air National Guard Base, Carolina, PR.

The Puerto Rico Adjutant General (Ayudante

General de Puerto Rico) is the Commander of the

Puerto Rico National Guard. As the Adjutant

General he is also the Senior Military Advisor to the

Governor of Puerto Rico and oversees both State

and Federal Missions of the PR National Guard.

He provides leadership and management in the

implementation of all programs and policies

affecting more than 10,500 citizen-soldiers and

airmen, and civilian employees of the three

components of the PR National Guard: Puerto Rico

Army National Guard, Puerto Rico Air National

Guard and Puerto Rico State Guard.

PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

The US Air Force History:

In 1903, the Wright brothers laid the ground work

for the future formation of the Air Force when they

flew their first airplane. It carried two men and flew

at about 40 miles per hour.

The War Department

created the first

antecedent of the Air

Force in 1907, which

through a succession

of changes of

organization, titles,

and missions

advanced toward

eventual separation 40 years later. In World War II,

almost 68,000 U.S airmen died helping to win the

war; only the infantry suffered more enlisted

casualties.

In practice, the USAAF was virtually independent of

the Army during World War II, but officials wanted

formal independence. The USAF became a separate

military service on 18 September 1947, with the

implementation of the National Security Act of

1947. The Act created the National Military

Establishment (renamed Department of Defense in

1949), which was composed of three subordinate

Military Departments, namely the Department of the

Army, the Department of the Navy, and a newly

created Department of the Air Force.

Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation

was shared between the Army (for land-based

operations), the Navy (for sea-based operations from

aircraft carriers and amphibious aircraft), and the

Marine Corps (for close air support of infantry

operations).

The 1940s proved to be important in other ways as

well. In 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager broke the

sound barrier in his X-1 rocket powered aircraft,

beginning a new era of aeronautics in America.

The predecessor organizations in the Army of

today's Air Force are:

Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps 1

August 1907 18 July 1914 Aviation Section, Signal Corps 18 July 1914

20 May 1918 Division of Military Aeronautics (20 May

1918 to 24 May 1918)

U.S. Army Air Service (24 May 1918 to 2

July 1926)

U.S. Army Air Corps (2 July 1926 to 20

June 1941) and

U.S. Army Air Forces (20 June 1941 to 18

September 1947)

The Air Service, United States Army (also seen as

the U.S. Air Service or simply the Air Service) was a

forerunner of the United States Air Force during and

after World War I. It was established as an

independent but temporary wartime branch of the

War Department by two executive orders of

President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918,

replacing the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps as

the nation's air force; and March 19, 1919,

establishing a military Director of Air Service to

control all aviation activities. Its life was extended

for another year in July 1919, during which time

Congress passed the legislation necessary to make it

a permanent establishment.

The National Defense Act of 1920 assigned the Air

Service the status of "combatant arm of the line" of

the United States Army, with a major general in

command.

The Air Service was the first form of the air force to

have an independent organizational structure and

identity. Although officers concurrently held rank in

various branches, after May 1918 their branch

PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

designation in official correspondence while on

aviation assignment changed from "ASSC"

(Aviation Section, Signal Corps) to "AS, USA" (Air

Service, United States Army).

The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was

the statutory forerunner of the United States Air

Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July

1926, it was part of the United

States Army and the

immediate predecessor of the

United States Army Air

Forces (USAAF), established

on June 20, 1941. Although

abolished as an administrative

echelon in 1942, the Air Corps

(AC) remained as one of the

combat arms of the Army until

1947.

The Air Corps was renamed by the United States

Congress largely as a compromise between

advocates of a separate air arm and those of the

Army high command who viewed the aviation arm

as an auxiliary branch to support the ground forces.

Although its members worked to promote the

concept of airpower and an autonomous air force

between 1926 and 1941, its primary purpose by

Army policy remained support of ground forces

rather than independent operations.

On 1 March 1935, still struggling with the issue of a

separate air arm, the Army activated the General

Headquarters Air Force for centralized control of

aviation combat units within the continental United

States, separate from but coordinate with the Air

Corps. The separation of the Air Corps from control

of its combat units caused problems of unity of

command that became more acute as the Air Corps

enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was

resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces on

20 June 1941, when both organizations became

subordinate to the new higher echelon.

The Air Corps ceased to have an administrative

structure after 9 March 1942, but as "the permanent

statutory organization of the air arm, and the

principal component of the Army Air Forces," the

overwhelming majority of personnel assigned to the

AAF were members of the Air Corps.

The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or

AAF) was the military aviation service of the United

States of America during and immediately after

World War II, and the direct predecessor of the

United States Air Force. The AAF was a component

of the United States Army, which in 1942 was

divided functionally by executive order into three

autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the

Services of Supply (which in 1943 became the

Army Service Forces), and the AAF. Each of these

forces had a commanding general who reported

directly to the Chief of Staff of the United States

Army.

The AAF administered all parts of military aviation

formerly distributed among the Army Air Corps,

General Headquarters Air Force, and ground forces

corps area commanders, and thus became the first

air organization of the U.S. Army to control its own

installations and support personnel.

The Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in June

1941 to provide the air arm a greater autonomy in

which to expand more efficiently, and to provide a

structure for the additional command echelons

required by a vastly increased force. Although other

nations already had separate air forces independent

of the army or navy (such as the British Royal Air

Force and the German Luftwaffe), the AAF

remained a part of the United States Army until the

independent United States Air Force came into

being in September 1947.

PRSG - 1st Air Base Group Airman Manual

Today, the United States Air Force (USAF) is the

aerial warfare service branch of the United States

Armed Forces and one of the seven American

uniformed services. It is the most recent branch of

the U.S. military to be formed, and is the largest and

one of the world's most technologically advanced air

forces.

The USAF articulates its core functions as Nuclear

Deterrence Operations, Special Operations, Air

Superiority, Global Integrated ISR, Space

Superiority, Command and Control, Cyberspace

Superiority, Personnel Recovery, Global Precision

Attack, Building Partnerships, Rapid Global

Mobility and Agile Combat Support.

The U.S. Air Force is a military service within the

Department of the Air Force, one of the three

military departments of the Department of Defense.

The USAF is headed by the civilian Secretary of the

Air Force, who is appointed by the President with

the advice and consent of the Senate.

The highest-ranking military officer in the

Department of the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of

the Air Force who exercises supervision over Air

Force units, and serves as a member of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff. Air Force combat forces are

assigned, as directed by the Secretary of Defense, to

the Combatant Commanders, and neither the

Secretary of the Air Force nor the Chief of Staff

have operational command authority over them.

The U.S. Air Force provides air support to ground

troops and aids in the recovery of troops in the field.

As of 2012, the service operates 5,484 aircraft, 450

ICBMs and 63 satellites. It has a $140 billion budget

with 332,854 active personnel, 185,522 civilian

personnel, 71,400 reserve personnel, and 106,700 air

guard personnel.

The USAF Core Values are:

Integrity first

Service before self

Excellence in all we do

The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly,

fight and win in air, space and cyberspace.

To achieve that mission, the Air Force has a vision

of Global Vigilance, Reach and Power. That vision

orbits around three core competencies: developing

Airmen, technology to war fighting and integrating

operations. These core competencies make our six

distinctive capabilities possible.

Air and Space Superiority

Global Attack

Rapid Global Mobility

Precision Engagement

Information Superiority

Agile Combat Support