page_title: United States Army Air Service
section_title: Notable members of the Air Service
hierarchical_section_title: United States Army Air Service / Notable members of the Air Service
caption_attribution_description: English: Graduation photo of 2nd Lt. Charles A. Lindbergh, USASRC, March, 1925
context_page_description: The United States Army Air Service was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of the U.S. War Department during World War I by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation Section, 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.
  In France, the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force, a separate entity under commanding General John J. Pershing that conducted the combat operations of U.S. military aviation, began field service in the spring of 1918.
context_section_description: Henry Harley Arnold, aviation pioneer; Commanding General of the U. S. Army Air Forces
  Hobey Baker, star athlete at Princeton University
  David Lewis Behncke, founder and first president of the Air Line Pilots Association
  Hiram Bingham III, United States Senator from Connecticut
  Clayton Bissell, World War I ace, commander of Tenth Air Force during World War II
  Erwin R. Bleckley, artillery officer and Medal of Honor recipient
  Raynal Bolling, general counsel for US Steel; first high-ranking casualty of World War I
  Arthur Raymond Brooks, World War I ace
  Dick Calkins, comic strip artist
  Douglas Campbell, first American ace
  Clarence Chamberlain, aviation pioneer
  Merian C. Cooper, adventurer and Hollywood film producer
  Stephen W. Cunningham, UCLA graduate manager and Los Angeles City Council member
  John F. Curry, Chief of the Civil Air Patrol
  Jimmy Doolittle, air racer, aeronautical engineer, leader of Doolittle Raid
  Etienne Dormoy, pilot and aircraft designer, chief engineer at Buhl Aircraft Company
  Lee Duncan, animal trainer and owner of Rin Tin Tin
  Ira Eaker, commander of U.S. Eighth Air Force during World War II
  Fred Dow Fagg, Jr., law professor and president of the University of Southern California
  Reuben Hollis Fleet, organizer of the first airmail service and founder of Consolidated Aircraft
  Benjamin Delahauf Foulois, aviation pioneer
  Harold Ernest Goettler, Medal of Honor recipient
  Edgar Staley Gorrell, strategic bombing pioneer, president Stutz Motor Company, first president Air Transport Association of America
  Dick Grace, Hollywood stunt flyer
  James Norman Hall, writer, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty
  Charles W. "Chic" Harley, All-American college football player
  Ernest Emery Harmon, pilot of The Around The Rim Flight 1919
  Arthur Harvey, oil pioneer, author
  Howard Hawks, film director
  Frank Monroe Hawks, barnstormer and aviation records-setter
  Field Kindley, World War I ace
  Fiorello LaGuardia, U.S. Representative and Mayor of New York
  Reed Gresham Landis, ace while flying with Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and early airline executive
  Frederick Libby, first U.S. born ace, while flying with the RFC
  Charles Lindbergh, aviation pioneer; first trans-Atlantic solo pilot
  Raoul Lufbery, member of Lafayette Escadrille and air tactics pioneer
  Frank Luke, ace and Medal of Honor recipient
  Norman Z. McLeod, Hollywood director
  James Ely Miller, first U.S. military aviator killed in action
  Thomas DeWitt Milling, aviation pioneer and first certified U.S. military pilot
  John Purroy Mitchel, mayor of New York City and advocate of universal military training
  Billy Mitchell, airpower visionary
  Odas Moon, pioneer in aerial refueling and bombing doctrine
  Charles Nordhoff, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty
  Ralph Ambrose O'Neill, WWI flying ace, General of Mexican Air Force, commercial pioneer
  Clyde Pangborn, aviation pioneer, first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean
  Leonard J. Povey, barnstormer and inventor of the Cuban Eight maneuver
  LeRoy Prinz – Hollywood choreographer
  Eddie Rickenbacker, highest ranking U.S. ace of World War I and Medal of Honor recipient
  Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt
  John Monk Saunders, author and screenwriter
  Lowell Smith pioneer test pilot, who led the first aerial circumnavigation (1924)
  Carl Andrew Spaatz, first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
  Delmar T. Spivey, gunnery expert, and highest ranking USAAF officer shot down and made P.O.W. in the ETO
  Elliott White Springs, ace with RFC and USAS, post-war pulp fiction writer
  George E. Stratemeyer, USAF General
  Stephen W. Thompson, first U. S. military aerial victor
  George Augustus Vaughn, Jr., World War I Ace
  Alfred V. Verville, aircraft designer of two Pulitzer Trophy winning aircraft, the Verville-Packard R-1 Racer and the Verville-Sperry R-3 Racer
  Eugene Luther Vidal, Olympic athlete, commercial aviation pioneer, and New Deal official
  William Wellman, Hollywood film director
  Charles A. Willoughby, World War II general in the United States Army
  Albert J. Winegar, Wisconsin State Assemblyman
  John Gilbert Winant, educa
caption: 2nd Lt. Charles A. Lindbergh, March 1925
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:28 13:14:57", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6706", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "265", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "357"}