Military Intelligence Division Establishes Air Section (2 AUG 1926)

On Aug. 2, 1926, an Air Section was established within the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division (MID). The following decade and a half would be a trial in intelligence production and cooperation between the Army Air Corps and the intelligence division.

One month earlier, on July 2, 1926, Congress passed an amendment to its National Defense Act recognizing the criticality of air power in post-World War I national defense. The new law renamed the Army Air Service the Army Air Corps and directed each division under the War Department General Staff to establish “for the period of three years…an air section to be headed by an officer of the Air Corps” to “consider and recommend proper action on such air matters as may be referred to such division.” Thus, on Aug. 2, 1926, the MID established its Air Section with Maj. (later General) Joseph T. McNarney as its chief. The Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Col. James H. Reeves, outlined the Air Section’s specific duties:

1. Handle all questions on policies pertaining to the use of Air personnel in combat intelligence.
2. Handle in connection with the Map Section all questions on policies pertaining to aerial photographs and mapping.
3. Handle in connection with the Communications Section all questions on policies pertaining to codes and communications between airplanes and ground.
4. Assist the Intelligence Branch by advice and consultation in the preparation of special Air studies made by this Branch.

The MID was simultaneously undergoing a more general reorganization of its functional sections into five subordinate branches: Administration, Intelligence, Press, War Plans and Training, and Reserve. The Air Section was initially placed under the Plans and Training Branch, and from 1927–1928, it reviewed mobilization plans for use of air personnel and materials for combat intelligence operations, compiled the preliminary "Air Intelligence Regulations," prepared extension courses within the MI Reserve Officer Corps on reconnaissance aviation and photo interpretation, and produced a general civil aviation study for attachés responsible for collecting technical intelligence on foreign aviation developments in western Europe.

The MID Air Section was not content with remaining a suborganization of the Plans and Training Branch, however, and petitioned to be reorganized as its own branch. The request was granted in December 1928 when it was given branch status in place of the Reserve Branch. This lasted only until the mandated three-year time limit expired, and it was reduced to a subsection of the Intelligence Branch in November 1930.

With its growing independence came the desire for air intelligence to be directly subordinated to GHQ, AAF. This was met with opposition from the MID, which was solely responsible for intelligence activities within the War Department. As early as 1925, the MID’s chief argument against an independent Air Corps intelligence section was that it would produce “immense duplication of effort” that was neither economically nor operationally prudent. The separation of air intelligence from the MID would also potentially divorce ground commanders from necessary aerial intelligence information or restrict access to aircraft for reconnaissance and observation.

Despite the protests of the MID, the Air Corps quickly developed its own intelligence division during the late 1930s. Over the next few years, the War Department worked hard to delineate roles and responsibilities between the AAF and MID. However, many questions still remained on how best to satisfy their individual air intelligence requirements as the Army transitioned from peacetime to active conflict in December 1941.

Article by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.

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