The United States Army Air Forces became and independent service in 1947. There had just been a long conflict between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and the satellite states subject to it. In 1949 the United States and most of the no-Communist countries of Europe signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The United States Air Force, which had only been a token presence on the continent since the end of World War II, once more crossed the Atlantic in strength. The commitment of that service to peace and security in Europe, which continues still, has long been the longest of its history. This manuscript attempts to give the general reader some sense of the role the USAF has played in Europe since the end of World War II.

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