Seventh Air Force Has Its Share of Battle Scars and Victories Published Sept. 17, 2007 By 070907 OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- Our 7th Air Force historian has come upon a significant article published in the 1945 New York Herald Tribune spotlighting the 7th Air Force's contribution before the Air Force became a separate service on Sept. 18, 1947. On the 60th anniversary, "the following article vividly recounts the service of the 7th Air Force as one of the warfighting pioneers in World War II that began the proud heritage of today's Air Force," said Jackie Turner the 7th Air Force historian. "Furthermore, the author Gill Robb Wilson was himself an early American aviator who is considered the founder of the Civil Air Patrol," Turner added, "a crusade he took up after a 1938 trip to Nazi Germany." As a journalist, Wilson describes the numbered Air Force's first home located in the Hawaiian islands, the unit being struck during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the difficult days of battle that followed that fateful day. "What's interesting to me about this article," said Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Wood the current 7th Air Force commander, "is to see just how deep the roots of our heritage go. The valor and hard-won honors of those who forged the newly independent Air Force of 1947, which in turn blazed a legacy in the six decades of strife and wars that followed. "One of the finest centerpieces of the past 60 years is the armistice and prosperity here on the Korean peninsula," the General said. "We've learned that freedom is not free - we must not forget that we fought together in an alliance 'forged in blood' to uphold freedom. "The 7th Air Force and our Republic of Korea partners have built an Alliance that is 'second to none' in the world! Our 'ready to fight tonight' air power is precise, intense and overwhelming - whenever and wherever needed," the General added. A copy of Wilson's complete article is below. For more information on 7th Air Force click on http://www.7af.pacaf.af.mil/ or https://sps.hickam.af.mil/default.aspx