The USAF units and aircraft of the Korean War are significant because the Korean War (25 June 1950 - 27 July 1953) was the first shooting war for the newly independent United States Air Force.
It was the first time U.S. jet aircraft entered into battle. Air Force F-86 Sabre jets took control of the skies, as American fighter pilots bested Soviet-built MiG-15 fighters in combat against aircraft, Soviet tactics, and, on some occasions, Soviet pilots. World War II-era prop-driven F-51D Mustangs were pressed into the ground-air support role, and large formations of B-29 Superfortresses flew for the last time on strategic bombardment missions. The Korean War also saw the first large-scale use of rotary-wing helicopters
The USAF suffered 1,841 battle casualties, of which 1,180 were killed in action. It lost 1,466 aircraft to hostile action or other causes.
Read more about USAF Units And Aircraft Of The Korean War: Overview, Effects, Organization, Far East Air Force Korean Airfields (K-sites)
Famous quotes containing the words units and/or war:
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with cylinder oil, and coat their outsides with sprayed rubber film, and let them statically await the next emergency.”
—Norbert Wiener (1894–1964)