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L/C (ret.) Leonard Carmell
formerly of BinghamtonL/C (ret.) Leonard Carmell, 85, passed away in Rockledge, Florida. He was born in Binghamton, raised in Port Crane, graduated from Binghamton North High School and Roosevelt Aviation School, Long Island. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force during WWII, was stationed in England, and served as navigator for a bomb squadron in the European theatre of combat. He was assigned to Strategic Air Command in Spokane, Wash., and served four years in Oslo, Norway and one year in Vietnam. He transferred to Air Force Intelligence at the Pentagon and retired from Patrick AFB and Cape Canaveral, Fla., after 34 years of service. He was predeceased by his parents, Frank and Rose Carmell, his brother, Joseph, and his wife, Helene, all from Binghamton and Port Crane. He is survived by his wife, Umi, Rockledge, Fla.; his daughter, Miani (Nancy) Carnevale, Clinton Corners, N.Y.; and sister-in-law, Louise Kane, Seminole, Fla.
Interment: Arlington Cemetery.
Published in Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin on December 4, 2005
1942-1947, AAF MOS 1034, United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
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The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941. The statutory administrative forerunner of the United States Air Force, it was renamed from the earlier United States Army Air Service on 2 July 1926 and part of the larger United States Army. The Air Corps was the immediate predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), established on 20 June 1941. Although discontinued as an administrative echelon during World War II, the Air Corps (AC) remained as one of the combat arms of the Army until 1947, when it was legally abolished by legislation establishing the Department of the Air Force.
The Air Corps was renamed by the United States Congress largely as a compromise between the advocates of a separate air arm and those of the traditionalist Army high command who viewed the aviation arm as an auxiliary branch to support the ground forces. Although its members worked to promote the concept of air power and an autonomous air force between the years between the world wars, its primary purpose by Army policy remained support of ground forces rather than independent operations.
On 1 March 1935, still struggling with the issue of a separate air arm, the Army activated the General Headquarters Air Force for centralized control of aviation combat units within the continental United States, separate from but coordinate with the Air Corps. The separation of the Air Corps from control of its combat units caused problems of unity of command that became more acute as the Air Corps enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces (AAF), making both organizations subordinate to the new higher echelon.
The Air Corps ceased to have an administrative structure after 9 March 1942, but as "the permanent statutory organization of the air arm, and the principal component of the Army Air Forces," the overwhelming majority of personnel assigned to the AAF were members of the Air Corps.