Talk:Army Air Forces Training Command

Complete revision

Completed 31 March 2014. Also have added many AAFTC units (wings), as well as Basic Training Centers which were unavailable before Bwmoll3 (talk) 14:47, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Operational Training Units

Propose deleting this section as irrelevant to this article.

The AAF Training Command had no responsibility for Operational Training Units during World War II. All OTUs were assigned to First Air Force, Second Air Force. Third Air Force, Fourth Air Force, or I Troop Carrier Command and the equivalent Transition Training Units were assigned to Air Transport Command. See Craven, Wesley F & Cate, James L, ed. (1955). "Introduction". The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. xxxvi. LCCN 48-3657. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) for a definition of OTUs and RTUs. AAF Flying Training Command/AAF Training Command responsibility for aircrew training terminated with the completion of advanced flying school. --Lineagegeek (talk) 23:01, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Since there has been neither response or objection for nearly three months, I have removed the OTU section and the RTU section (the same objections apply). Because of the extensive editing that has gone into them, I have preserved them below until a consensus is reached on their proper placement. I might also observe that this lengthy material contains not a single reference.

Operational and replacement training in the United States Army Air Forces?

Insert the appropriate text in the articles on the five commands that conducted the training? --Lineagegeek (talk) 23:22, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Operational Training Units

Major Robert B. Williams, an Air Corps observer in England between September 1940 and January 1941 who later commanded the Second Air Force and a bombardment division of the Eighth, reported favorably to the Office of the Chief of Air Corps on the merits of the Royal Air Force's operational training unit (OTU) system. The RAF program inspired a proposal in January 1942 by Brig. Gen. Follett Bradley, commanding III Bomber Command, to his superior at Third Air Force that an OTU system be instituted in the Air Force Combat Command (which had the responsibility for training new AAF units) as a means of having sufficient experienced personnel to train newly activated groups while not degrading the proficiency of groups headed for combat. Under the system that had been in place since 1939, so many experienced groups would likely be needed for immediate requirements overseas that a critical shortage of experienced personnel needed to develop new units was inevitable. Adapting from the existing system, Bradley proposed that certain groups be designated "parent" groups, with an authorized overstrength, to provide cadres for newly activated (or "satellite") groups and assume responsibility for their organization and training. Fresh graduates of training schools would bring the satellite groups to authorized strength and, in a constantly recurring pattern, also restore the parent group to its overstrength.

The plan was largely adopted by AFCC in February 1942 to direct operational training in the Second and Third Air Forces, where the bulk of new units were being activated, but by May the AFCC had been dissolved as an extraneous echelon of command and the OTU system was extended by Headquarters AAF to the First and Fourth Air Forces for training new fighter groups. In its first year the system proved difficult to implement to full effect. Unforeseen emergency demands from the combat theaters for experienced units, an erratic supply of combat-type aircraft for training purposes, and an uneven flow of personnel from the individual training programs produced uneven results that took time and experience to work out. By early 1943, however, the plan was in general operation and became increasingly effective in preparing combat groups for action.

In most instances, six months were required after the formation of a group to complete its organization and training. Operational training officially commenced for a new group on the day that the cadre was assigned it from the parent group's overstrength. In 1942 the four continental air forces provided training directives to familiarize key members of cadre with their obligations but these varied from air force to air force. Beginning in 1943, cadre leaders received standardized training through a thirty-day course of instruction at the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) in Orlando, Florida, established in November 1942 partly for this purpose. Cadres for medium and heavy bombardment units were trained by AAFSAT's Bombardment Department, fighter cadres by its Air Defense Department, and light bombardment cadres by the Air Support Department. The AAFSAT course consisted of both an academic and a practical phase. During the academic phase, cadre leaders reviewed problems of command, operations, and intelligence under expert tutelage related to the mission of their group. During the practical phase, the cadre was assigned to an AAFSAT base for 50 hours of operational exercises assisted by the base's demonstration squadron, including simulated combat missions. While practical experience was of value in preparing the cadres, close coordination of the academic and practical phases was sometimes lacking and the execises also suffered occasionally from a lack of needed equipment. On returning to their assigned OTU stations, the cadres began training with their units, which by this time had usually reached regulation strength. Group instruction was divided in varying proportions between individual and team training but during the final phase both air and ground echelons functioned as nearly as possible as a self-contained combat unit.

Replacement Training Units

Through the Operational Training Unit system the USAAF had created all of new combat units required by the end of 1943, but a constant flow of new pilots was needed to replace those captured, killed in action, or rotated back to United States. Most of the training bases in the United States discontinued OTU training and switched their training emphasis to Replacement Training Units (RTUs).

In the RTU system, replacement pilots where sent to RTUs or Combat Crew Training Stations (CCTSs) where they were given 12 weeks of training similar to the OTU program. Pilots were not immediately placed in advanced training. They were first given a preflight examination that included radio range, link trainer, cockpit "feel", landing gear operation, parking, and taxing.

After successful completion of the examination, pilots were started in Advanced Fighter Training. Less time was needed for squadron and group integration, since the pilots were not yet part of a combat unit. Once all training was completed, pilots were drawn from the RTUs to serve in overseas units.

In April 1944, all of the units, including the fighter squadrons were absorbed into newly created "Army Air Force Base Units".