Continental Air Force

Continental Air Forces (CAF) was a United States Army Air Forces major command at the end of World War II and during the early Cold War for combat training of bomber and fighter personnel and for Continental United States (CONUS) air defense after the Aircraft Warning Corps and Ground Observer Corps were placed in standby during 1944. CAF conducted planning for the postwar United States general surveillance radar stations, and the planning to reorganize to a separate USAF was for CAF to become the USAF Air Defense Command (ADC was headquartered at CAF's Mitchel Field instead of the CAF HQ at Bolling Field.)  On 21 March 1946, CAF headquarters personnel and facilities at Bolling Field, along with 1 of the 4 CAF Air Forces (2nd--which had its HQ inactivated on 30 March) became Strategic Air Command. US Strategic Air Forces of WWII, e.g., Eighth Air Force and Fifteenth Air Force, transferred later to SAC. Most of the CAF airfields that had not been distributed to other commands when SAC activated were subsequently transferred to Air Defense Command (to which CAF's 1st & 4th Air Forces were assigned on 21 March), Tactical Air Command (3rd Air Force), and Air Materiel Command from 23 March 1946 to 16 March 1947 before the USAF was activated in September 1947.

Background
CONUS WWII air defense was initially under the command of four Air Districts--NE, NW, SE, & SW established on 16 January 1941 before the Pearl Harbor attack. The four air defense districts also handled United States Army Air Forces "participation with Army Ground Forces in combat training maneuvers" and "organization and training of bomber, fighter and other units and crews for assignments overseas" after individual crewmember training by the Western and Eastern Technical Training Commands. The air defense districts were redesignated on 26 March 1941 as the 1st Air Force, 2nd Air Force, 3rd Air Force, & 4th Air Force (the Technical Training Command was established on the same date and had similarly numbered CONUS training districts in 1942-- First "(with headquarters at Raleigh, N. C.)," Second (St. Louis), Third (Tulsa), & Fourth (Denver)--for aircraft mechanics, inspectors, etc.) A plan "for developing Andrews Field as the headquarters of the Continental Air Forces" for September 1944 was enacted. (CAF HQ eventually transferred from Andrews to Bolling Field).

Activation
CAF was "activated 12 December 1944" at Andrews Field with "Brigadier General Eugene H. Beebe in command" and the "4 continental air forces" as components (1st Air Force through 4th Air Force) which consolidated the CONUS air defense mission under 1 command. In August 1945 CAF was assigned the AAF Radar Bomb Scoring mission for bomber training/evaluation when Mitchel Field's 63rd Army Air Force Base Unit transferred to CAF. CAF's air defense mission was documented "in AAF Regulation 20-1, dated 15 September 1945."


 * Post-war radar network planning: After a June 1945 meeting with AAF headquarters about air defense, CAF recommended "research and development be undertaken on radar and allied equipment for an air defense system [for] the future threat", e.g., a "radar [with] range of 1,000 miles, [to detect] at an altitude of 200 miles, and at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour";  but the Hq AAF Director of Operations responded that "until the kind of defense needed to counter future attacks could be determined, AC&W planning would have to be restricted to the use of available radar sets".  CAF's January 1946 Radar Defense Report for Continental United States recommended the military characteristics of a post-war Air Defense System "based upon such advanced equipment,"   and the Plans organization of HQ AAF reminded "the command that radar defense planning had to be based on the available equipment." (At "the Watson Laboratories in New Jersey", AMC's Electronics Subdivision held a "Manufacturers Conference" on 26-28 June 1946 for planning the "Improved Search Radar" )

Planning to reorganize for a separate USAF had begun by fall 1945 Simpson Board to plan "the reorganization of the Army and the Air Force". In January 1946 "Generals Eisenhower and Spaatz agreed on an Air Force organization [composed of] the Strategic Air Command, the Air Defense Command, the Tactical Air Command, the Air Transport Command and the supporting Air Technical Service Command, Air Training Command, the Air University, and the Air Force Center."

Reorganization
The "Continental Air Forces reorganization" began by 31 January 1946 when Abilene AAF was closed—in 1945 CAF's Muroc Field had transferred to ATSC (16 October), and Moody Field had transferred to AAF Training Command (1 November). CAF's Bolling Field was assigned control of Andrews Field on 3 January 1946 and also Richmond Army Air Base on 2 February 1946. Although Tyndall Field transferred to Continental Air Forces on 28 Feb 46 when its 308 AAF BU was activated, Tyndall soon transferred to TAC (21 Mar 1946 when its Air Tactical School was activated) and then to Air University (15 May 1946). CAF had 13 bombardment groups transferred to its tbd Air Force just before it was disestablished, e.g., 40th, 44th, the 93rd, 444th, 448th (became 92nd), 449th, 467th (effectively became 301st), 485th, and 498th (became 307th). There was also the 58th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy; and also active was the 73rd Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy. Interceptor and radar network plans at CAF HQ--"in expectation that it would become" Air Defense Command—were passed on to ADC. CAF installations reassigned on 21 March 1946 included Grandview transferred to the Army Division Engineers, Mitchel Field to ADC, and both Tyndall Field and Army Air Base, Knob Knoster, to TAC. Despite the HQ transfer to SAC on 21 March, numerous CAF airfields transferred to TAC, ADC, and AMC from 23 March 1946 to 16 March 1947:
 * Bergstrom Field & Brooks Field (transferred to TAC on 23 March 1946)
 * Myrtle Beach AAF (to ADC on 27 March 1946)
 * Shaw Field (ADC on 1 April 1946)
 * Blytheville AAF, Dover AAF, March Field, McChord Field, & Pope Field (TAC, 1 April 1946)
 * Kirtland Field (Air Materiel Command, 1 December 1946)
 * Bolling Field (Bolling Field Command, 16 December 1946)
 * Alamogordo AAF (AMC, 16 March 1947)
 * Seymour Johnson Field (closed 23 August 1947)