Talk:Philippine Army Air Corps

Categorization
Relationship of this force to U.S. forces and Philippine Commonwealth Army (also Philippine Army short form in official references) covered in Morton's Fall of the Philippines, specifically in "The Philippine Army". The only direct connection to the U.S. Army or its air arm of the time was through MacArthur, who had left the U.S. Army, to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government with relationship as described here (my emphasis):

He [MacArthur] was authorized to deal directly with the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff and, “in all cases not specifically covered,” to use his own judgment. “Your mission must be accomplished-,” he was told, “ways and means are largely left to you.” Although there was no official connection between the Philippine Department, the U.S. Army command in the Islands, and the Office of the Military Advisor, the department commander, Maj. Gen. Lucius R. Holbrook, was informed that assistance to General MacArthur was “the most important peacetime mission of your command." (Fall of the Philippines, p. 9)

For categorization purposes the Commonwealth period Army, which included the Philippine Army Air arm and the Off Shore Patrol (that barely got to sea before war) are all under the formation of an armed force for an independent Philippines targeted for 1946. With war, everything came under the command of United States Army Forces in the Far East so that unintended mingling is the only link to this force being a subset of the USAAC/USAAF. Palmeira (talk) 15:11, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

--- Hi Palmeira!

When you say 'unintended mingling" are you saying that the PAAC was not part of the Order of Battle of the United States Army in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War 2?

Thank you!

Bootkinero (talk) 03:23, 12 May 2020 (UTC)
 * It was always fully intended to be a force of an independent Philippines even on the day of Japanese attacks and only due to the war emergency did it fall under direct U.S. command. It was before that under MacArthur, who was officially not a U.S. officer, but Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government with Philippine rank at the time. That was its status until war put all those plans to ruin. In the chaos of that short time between war and total occupation of the Philippines those forces fell under U.S. command but "disorder of battle" applied as far as being a unit in an official order of battle. Some of the embryo naval elemnets lasted a while. As the article shows the air elements lasted only a while and the infantry elements dispersed to became the core of resistance — but not a U.S. Army organization as far as I can tell (despite the interesting efforts of Wendell Fertig). Palmeira (talk) 04:58, 12 May 2020 (UTC)