United States Army Air Forces

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[[File:US Air Forces.png|right|Shield of the US Army Air Forces]]
The '''United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)''' was the [[aircraft|aviation]] division of the [[United States Army]] in the early [[20th century]]. As atmospheric flight became more advanced, the Air Forces became a separate [[military]] branch, the [[United States Air Force]].

In [[July]], [[1947]], the Air Forces retrieved a [[Ferengi shuttle]] which had [[crash land]]ed in [[Roswell]], [[New Mexico]], after [[Quark's Treasure|the shuttle]] had [[time travel|traveled back in time]] from the year [[2372]] via [[time warp]]. Air Forces [[general]] [[Rex Denning]] oversaw the interrogation of the vessel's three inhabitants, whom he believed to be alien invaders. The three [[Ferengi]] were eventually able to escape with the assistance of two helpful [[Human]]s, retrieve their ship, and return to their own time by recreating the time warp. The Air Forces subsequently covered up the incident, issuing an official statement claiming that only a [[weather balloon]] had been recovered in Roswell. ({{DS9|Little Green Men}})

''In the [[alternate reality]] two USAAF badges were displayed behind the [[bar]] of the [[Riverside]], [[Iowa]] [[Shipyard Bar]].'' ({{film|11}})

==United States Army Air Forces personnel==
[[File:Rex Denning.jpg|thumb|USAAF General Rex Denning]]
===Named===
*{{revname|Jeff|Carlson}} (attached civilian [[Professor]])
*{{revname|Rex|Denning}} ([[Lieutenant general]])
*{{revname|Faith|Garland}} ([[Nurse]])
*[[Wainwright]] ({{Captain}})

===Unnamed===
*[[US military personnel air forces soldier#MP guards|MP guards]]
**[[US military personnel air forces soldier#MP #1|MP #1]]
**[[US military personnel air forces soldier#MP #2|MP #2]]
*[[US military personnel air forces soldier#Air Forces soldier 1|Soldier]]

== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
While teleplay writers [[Ira Steven Behr]] and [[Robert Hewitt Wolfe]] consistently refer to the service branch of the [[United States armed forces]] encountered in "Little Green Men" as the "Army Air Corps", and to Denning as an "Army Air Corps general" in the {{st-minutiae|academy/scripts|script}}, both they and the ''[[Star Trek]]'' fact checkers had overlooked that this constituted an anachronism: the "{{w|United States Army Air Corps}}" (USAAC) had been renamed to "United States Army Air Forces" (USAAF, and plural to indicate the proliferation of specialized departments within the service) on 20 June 1941, six years prior to the events depicted in the episode. However, the USAAC designation was neither seen nor heard even once in the episode. Meanwhile, the wardrobe department of ''Star Trek'' had, unwittingly or not, paid closer attention to the actual historical development, as the [[uniform]]s of the American [[soldier]]s were endowed with the proper, time-period correct USAAF service emblems (the USAAC emblem lacked the birds/wings), which '''''were''''' prominently featured in the episode.

As the original name already suggested, the service started out as a branch of the US Army, but was by the time of [[World War II]] already a full-fledged, de facto independently operating military service on its own. In order to reflect this, and just two months after the events depicted in "Little Green Men", the service was again renamed to "United States Air Force" (USAF, and singular to emphasize its separate status) on 18 September 1947, which is the name it still holds to date.

The two badges seen in the 2009 film ''Star Trek'' have been identified as having belonged to the World War II-era {{w|Twelfth Air Force|12th USAAF}} and {{w|Eighth Air Force|8th USAAF}} respectively. {{eas|database/nasa_references.htm}}

Real world ''Star Trek'' affiliated USAAF enlistees included Creator [[Gene Roddenberry]] and Art Director [[Matt Jefferies]], both serving as bomber pilots during World War II with Roddenberry serving in the Pacific Ocean theater, whereas Jefferies flew over North-Africa and southern Europe.

=== External link ===
* {{Wikipedia}}

[[de:United States Army Air Corps]]
[[fr:United States Army Air Corps]]
[[Category:Earth military organizations]]