Between 1950 and 1953 and again between 1964 and 1973, American armed forces took part in Far East conflicts, one in Korea and the other in Vietnam. While each of the wars was unique, they also shared some common characteristics. The United States supported a non-Communist South against a communist North. In both conflicts, U.S. Air Force units and aircraft played significant roles. Those roles depended greatly on the acquisition, improvement, construction, and maintenance of combat airfields. When it was born in 1947, the Air Force lacked an organic engineering capability. According to the National Security Act of that year, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy Civil Engineer Corps shared responsibility for Air Force construction. In peacetime, the arrangement saved money by avoiding senseless duplication, but the Far Eastern conflicts exposed the need for the Air Force to have its own engineers for forward airfield construction. (1)
