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Although the Air Service was recognized by the Department of War on May 24, 1918, no Director of Air Service was appointed until August 28, when Wilson made John D. Ryan a Second Assistant Secretary of War and civilian Director of Air Service. After World War I, the Air Service was again directed by a military officer. The Armed Forces Reorganization Act of 1920 established the Air Service as a statutory entity and assigned it status as a "combatant arm of the line." The Air Service was the first form of the air force to have both its own organizational structure and identity. During its first nine months of existence its responsibilities and functions were split between two coordinate agencies, the Department of Military Aeronautics (DMA) and the Bureau of Aircraft Production (BAP), each reporting directly to the Secretary of War, creating a dual authority over military aviation that caused unity of command difficulties. Prior to May 1918 its permanent personnel were part of the Signal Corps and its pilots on temporary assignment from other branches of the Army. Between May 1918 and July 1920, enlisted men were assigned to and new officers commissioned for the Air Service as either war-mobilized National Army or United States Army (Regulars). After July 1, 1920, all personnel retained by the Army were designated members of the Air Service, with officers who had been previously commissioned in the Signal Corps or the Signal Officers Reserve Corps (S.O.R.C.) receiving new commissions in the Air Service branch. The seven-year history of the post-war Air Service was marked by a prolonged debate between adherents of airpower and the supporters of the traditional military services about the value of an independent Air Force. Airmen such as Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Foulois, young Army pilots, and a few like-minded politicians and newspapers supported the concept. The Army's General Staff, its senior leadership from World War I, the United States Navy, and the majority of the nation's political leadership favored integrating all military aviation into the Army and Navy, and aided by the wave of pacifism following the war that drastically cut military budgets, prevailed. |