page_title: Interception of the Rex
section_title: Operational restriction
hierarchical_section_title: Interception of the Rex / Aftermath / Operational restriction
caption_attribution_description: English: Frank Ingoglia (1907–1998), designer, illustrator, and portraitist, used his diverse talents in a number of military-related artistic endeavors. His portrait of General Malin Craig is reproduced from the Army Art Collection. Español: Frank Ingoglia (1907–1998), diseñador, ilustrador y retratista, usó sus diversos talentos en varios proyectos artísticos relacionados con el Ejército. Su retrato de Malin Craig se reproduce desde la Colección de Arte del Ejército.
context_page_description: The interception of the Rex was a training exercise and military aviation achievement of the United States Army Air Corps prior to World War II. The tracking and location of an ocean-going vessel by B-17 Flying Fortresses on 12 May 1938 was a major event in the development of a doctrine that led to a United States Air Force independent of the Army. The mission was ostensibly a training exercise for coastal defense of the United States, but was conceived by planners to be a well-publicized demonstration of the capabilities of "heavy bombers long range instruments of power".
  The flight was conducted during coastal defense maneuvers held by the Air Corps without the participation of the United States Navy, and apparently without understanding of their purpose by the Army Chief of Staff. Both had continuing disagreements with the leaders of the Air Corps over roles and missions, with the Navy disputing its maritime mission and the Army seeking to limit its role to that of supporting ground forces.
context_section_description: The day after the rendezvous with the Rex, Chief of Staff General Malin Craig telephoned Andrews and issued an order that restricted all Air Corps aircraft to operating within 100 nautical miles (190 km) of the coast. Arnold, Eaker, Olds, and Lt. Col. Carl Spaatz all believed that complaints from the Navy motivated the order. Spaatz, who personally answered the call, recorded that Andrews requested the order be issued in writing, but Arnold states he never saw a written order.
  Two Air Corps historians state that no evidence exists that the Navy was behind the order. One explained that Craig believed the Air Corps violated War Department policy on publicity, while the second asserted that Craig was unhappy about not being provided details of the mission before it was publicly announced, and thus issued the order to ensure full notification before granting exceptions to the restriction. Deputy chief of staff Embick made the claim that the restriction had been issued only as a safety measure. Greer, however, in his history of Air Corps doctrine, firmly attributes the restriction to the Navy, noting that in November 1938 it achieved a new modification of the Joint Action statement specifically granting it the authorization for long-range land-based flights that the Army was denied, and immediately prepared six major bases to conduct them. A fourth historian, in a biography of Arnold, stated that the restriction had actually been promulgated on 1 September 1936, at the insistence of the Navy, but was not enforced by Craig until after the Rex incident.
  In any event, the restriction fomented further interservice enmity between the Air Corps and the Navy that did not abate until World War II. The Navy specifically included the 100 nautical miles (190 km) limit in plans for joint maneuvers in 1939 that was deleted only after Andrews objected to Marshall, who had replaced Embick as deputy chief of staff. Emmons, who succeeded Andrews as commander of GHQ Air Force, complained in his "Report on Annual Tactical Inspection", dated 28 July 1939, that because of the operational restriction, navigation training in the Air Corps had suffered.
  Despite this, exceptions to the restriction quickly became the norm. Only a month after the interception of the Rex, B-17s intercepted the 22,000-ton liner SS Queen of Bermuda 300 nautical miles (560 km) at sea on 12 June, and aircraft based in Hawaii twice located Army transports at similar distances during the summer of 1938. In March 1939, Arnold, as Chief of the Air Corps, was given specific authority by the chief of staff to grant exceptions as he saw fit, provided they were unpublicized and he notified the War Department well in advance.
caption: Gen. Malin Craig, Army Chief of Staff from 1935 to 1939
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