Ichi Ban Outfit E. Gerald Pires

Book DescriptionThe Army Air Force began August 1, 1907 as the Aeronautical Division of the United States Army Signal Corps. Six months prior to Pearl Harbor it had been renamed to the Army Air Force. It wasn"t until July 26, 1947 that the Air Force was established as a separate Service under the Armed Services Unification Act. At that time the USAF was not prepared, equipped, or trained to take over all of the duties of an independent Service. Certain Army units such as the Engineers that constructed and maintained air bases, Ordinance, Medical, and Signal were assigned to the USAF to aid its transition. These units became known as SCARWAF (Special Category Army with Air Force) and existed only during the few years 1949 to 1956 when the program ended. The 474th Signal Aviation Construction Company was one of these units assigned to the Far East Command. From the home base in Japan, highly skilled crews were sent to every part of the South Pacific, Japan and Korea on various construction projectsfrequently under extreme conditions. Much of the work involved building communications and surveillance antenna fields up to 110 feet above ground. The work was hard and often dangerous and the isolation away from the Company or among Air Force personnelled to a tremendous esprit de corps and appreciation for the skill and ability of other team members. The SCARWAF units in general, and the 474th Signal Aviation Construction Company in particular, will never again appear in military history. This is a story of the men who served in this unit during its most active period near the end of the Korean War. President Truman announced the end of the war between the United States and Japan on April 28,1952. Consequently, it is also a snapshot of Japan as itemerged from occupation. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Ichi Ban Outfit (E. Gerald Pires)