 On 14 August 1945, VJ Day, the second World War at last, is over. With the surrender of Japan comes the great moment of joyous relief. After years of the anxieties and grief and horrors of universal war, in all of the Allied lands, this was a time of rejoicing after great victories. At San Francisco there had been a momentous event. The people who lined the streets outside the Veterans Memorial building were symbols of all the anxious people everywhere, who after two great World Wars were waiting for their leaders to find the way to a lasting peace. And it seemed that the way had really been found when here in San Francisco the victorious countries met, designed the charter of the United Nations. Nationalist China was a member from the beginning. The signature of France symbolized Europe's longing to escape further ravaging by war. The presence of the Soviet Union's delegate justified the hope, a hope which later proved false, that from now on every nation would live peaceably within its own borders and respect the rights and sovereignty of other nations. The signing of the UN Charter by Great Britain and by the United States and by other founding nations until in all fifty had signed. This offered to mankind genuine hope for freedom from the scourge of war. It really seemed that a new era of peace and goodwill among men of all nations was about to begin. As always in America after a war, there arose great public clamor to bring the boys home. Soon after VJ Day, transport vessels loaded with returning troops were arriving at stateside ports. All demobilization records were broken. The army, which then included our air forces, was soon down to twenty percent of its wartime strength. The armed forces were like a boxer who wins and then quits training. Aircraft and air personnel of the army air forces were speedily demobilized in great numbers. Thousands of aircraft were cocooned for possible future use, while thousands of others were either sold or broken up for their metal. From a powerful wartime force of two million men, our air personnel dropped to about one seventh of that strength. Our recuperative powers remained, but our great strength in the air was suddenly hardly more than a memory. It had been the most destructive war in history. In large segments of the world, cities were in ruins. Business and industry were at a standstill. Countless people were homeless. Before long, the people of the stricken lands were at work on the long, long job of cleaning up the wreckage and rebuilding. As always, the farmers had a lot to do with getting the world back on the track. More victories in the war had been complete. Still, some of our leaders knew we had better look to the future. One of them was General Haft Arnold, commanding general of the army air forces. We must be sure that none of these victories is wasted and thrown away in the years to come. There will no longer be any spot on earth, and certainly not in America, that is safe from attack by air. For our protection, we must have an air force second to none. For this, we need a great aviation industry, a great air transport system, and a great body of trained personnel. But we need more than planes and pilots and mechanics. We'll need scientists and mathematicians, and we'll need the full inventive genius of the American people. With these, we can protect the future ourselves and our allies with the weapons of the future. After the war, small appropriations made it difficult to carry out the program that General Arnold called for. Although we knew that the modernization of our air forces by the development of jet aircraft was a most urgent requirement, the change from propeller-driven airplanes to jet airplanes had to be gradual, because of low budgets, and because it takes years to bring new aircraft from the drawing board to operational use. The P-80, one of the early jet fighters, made a spectacular claim to public notice when it flew from Long Beach, California to New York City in four hours and 13 minutes. While jet fighters were coming into operations, jet bombers were still in the development stage. But there came a day when a propeller-driven bomber proved the possibility of a global air force with strategic capability. Here's the Fakusan Dreamboat, a B-29. One day in October 1946, we towed around at Hickam Field, Honolulu. There were nine of us in the crew, and we had a fine commander, Colonel Clarence Irvine. We'd waited 34 days, partly because of weather conditions, partly because of mechanical difficulties. Everything had to be right. We were going to try to make one of the greatest flights in air history, non-stop from here in Hawaii over the North Pole and on to Egypt about 10,000 miles away, the first time ever for such a flight, and without refueling. We had a fuel load of more than 12,000 gallons, the heaviest ever carried by a super-forkress. Combat gear had been removed, and she had helium in her tires to lighten the load. We had a perfect takeoff after a run of 8,000 feet at 0-55-1 on a Friday. Our route took us across the coast of Alaska and then over the North Magnetic Pole. The Dreamboat took us over the top of the world. She was racing an Arctic storm and she had no de-icing equipment. She met every test. She had to. She was blazing an air trail over Greenland, Iceland, England, France and Italy, and then Egypt. Everybody's pretty tired. And why not? It's Sunday morning now, and we left Honolulu Friday morning. We've been in the air 39 and one-half hours. We've flown 9,500 miles non-stop, crossing two continents and landing on a third. Quite a flight. Quite a flight. In 1947, big decisions at the top level of command. World War II had proved the vital significance of air power. So now there is a logical reorganization of our military structure. And fourth, the Air Force will be a separate service. The Army Air Forces become the United States Air Force, a necessary move first proposed years previously by General Billy Mitchell. W. Stuart Simington becomes the first secretary of the Department of the Air Force. General Carl Spatz, veteran of the early aviation section of the Army's Signal Corps and distinguished for his record in both World Wars, becomes the first chief of staff of the United States Air Force. A year or so after World War II, there were more than 300,000 of us in the Air Force. And now we had a uniform of our own. We used to be in the Army. Now we had a new look. And there were about 4,000 of us WAFs, too. Some of us used to be WAFs in the Army Air Forces, and a lot of us joined up after the Air Force became a separate service. In October 1947, at Murock Desert Test Center in California, history is made by this aircraft, the XS-1, and its pilot, Captain Charles E. Jaeger. This airplane and this pilot are about to be the first ever to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight. A B-29 will take the XS-1 aloft and launcher at an altitude of about 35,000 feet. The XS-1 is not a military aircraft, but a flying research laboratory designed to test the effects of supersonic flight upon airplanes. It is powered by four rocket engines. Its weight, empty, is less than 5,000 pounds, but it carries 8,000 pounds of fuel. B-29s have done a lot of memorable things, but none of them ever before had a mission quite like this one. And no airplane ever did what the XS-1 is about to do. Tracking the sound barrier in level flight will be more than a spectacular feat. It will also give the Air Force valuable knowledge of the resources of new propulsive systems. Captain Jaeger gets aboard the XS-1. It can't be a long flight he's going to have in the little aircraft. At full power, the flight can't last more than two and a half minutes. And it's going to be a fast one. Ready. The radar crews are ready too to do the timing. The only possible method for timing aircraft at extremely high altitudes. There she goes. A big moment in a history-making flight. Now she's approaching the barrier. The speed of sound at 35,000 feet is 660 miles per hour. The really big moment. Through the sound barrier. The first time ever in level flight. For the first time, except in dives, a man has flown an airplane faster than the speed of sound. It earned Captain Jaeger many honors. And the historic plane, the XS-1, earned the resting place in the Smithsonian Institution. Captain Jaeger's feet was only one sign that the jet aid and the Air Force had caught up with each other. Despite low budgets and great technical problems, as rapidly as we could, we were developing modern aircraft like the F-86 Sabre jet, splendidly ready to prove themselves in battle. Ready to serve our country by giving new strength to the rising power of the United States Air Force.