Dedicated to the men and women who served in the 5th Air Force in World War II. Commanded initially by General George C. Kenney the 5th Air Force, although holding a low priority for men and equipment, wrested control of the air from the Japanese over the skies of New Guinea in late 1942 and helped stop the Japanese drive in Papua. From there the 5th led the way for a combination of Army and Navy forces to neutralize the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, and to liberate the Philippines. When the war ended in August of 1945 elements of the 5th were moving to the Ryukyus in preparation for the invasion of Japan.
