America's Air Force is celebrating its 67th anniversary today. The youngest of the four sister service branches, has 324,820 active duty airmen, along with another 9,860 in reserves, operating approximately 13,700 aircrafts in active service.
The U.S. Air Force continues to play an important role in giving ground and amphibious forces the flexibility to attack and a means to escape enemy fire.
“Since the Korean War, this nation has deployed about 7 million men and women at arms to different contingencies around the world,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in December of 2013, according to the Department of Defense.
Since its founding on September 18th 1947, the U.S. Air Force is the world's leading force of its kind, with one of the highest budgets of the four branches and the most expensive acquisition in military history currently in its grasp.
To celebrate America's airmen we've selected some of the most incredible photos ever captured by Air Force photographers.
Geoffrey Ingersoll contributed to this report.
A member of the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron climbs into a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter during open ocean operations.
Aircrew members admire their MC-130E Combat Talon during the plane's final flight before retirement. The last five MC-130s in the Air Force belong to the 919th Special Operations Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
A C-17 Globemaster III crew prepares an air refueling mission on Sept. 27, 2012, at Joint Base Charleston, SC.
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