From the Field

The History and Museum Program includes historians, archivist, and curators across the Department of the Air Force. Take a look at the work our program has done over the years and the historic events covered under their watch.

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DAF History & Heritage News

News Articles

  • Holocaust survivor recalls flight from Nazis

    HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- Fred Manasse fled Nazi Germany across five European countries and over the Pyrenees Mountains as a child and shared his experiences during Holocaust Remembrance Day here Monday.Manasse spoke at the Chapel Annex, relating his Jewish family’s persecution and the murder

  • Step up: Don’t be afraid to be a Mitchell, Doolittle, or Arnold

    The U.S. Air Force is sitting at a nexus in which the world is becoming increasingly dangerous and complex, and our nation is asking us to do things that keep us busier now than ever before, yet we have fewer people now than at any point in our history—just over a third of what we had in the 1950s!

  • One man, three wars, four services

    Few Americans can say they served in three major wars, fewer still can say they were a member of four different branches of the U.S. military. However, Ret. U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Earl "Sam" Puckett has achieved both. His journey began in 1943, as a 17-year-old Arkansan who enlisted in

  • 17th SOS pays tribute to MC-130P retirement

    From providing helicopter air-to-air refueling to conducting long-range support of Special Operations Forces, the MC-130P Combat Shadow has provided a critical service to the U.S. military for nearly 50 years.The 17th Special Operations Squadron highlighted the beginning of the MC-130P Combat Shadow

  • Air Force Historical Research Agency Aids Service Member Recovery Efforts

    When a World War II P-38 was found in New Guinea, no one knew who had been on board, their unit or the date of the crash. A box of records in the stacks of Air Force Historical Research Agency, or HRA, may provide the answers.Following the motto "until they are home," the Joint POW/MIA

  • Toward Independence: TheEmergence of the U. S. Air Force 1945-1947

    From the Wright Brothers' first flight, a long, convoluted road led to the creation of the modern independent United Sttes Air Force.  Despite frustrating bureaucratic delays and political maneuvering, the ultimate goal was clear.  Two world wars had devastated whole continents and threatened

  • Aerospace historians preserve Air Force legacy

    In March 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt wanted an accurate and objective account of the United States wartime experiences. In July 1943, General Henry "Hap" Arnold, Army Air Forces commander, established the historical division under Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Intelligence to achieve this