![]() Support for and against the OA-X is typically drawn from the service-specific pages of Air Force history. Arguments about the OA-X provide an array of positives and negatives about selecting and even fielding such a low-cost, vulnerable aircraft. Today, these themes are echoed in the debate about the Air Force’s contract for the OA-X light observation/attack aircraft. However, organic aviation was only established after a long period of bureaucratic infighting that reflected deeper disagreements between the Army Ground Forces and Army Air Forces about the role of new technology on the battlefield. Light observation aircraft like the L-4, under the operational control of ground force commanders, enabled efficient destruction of enemy forces. ![]() In World War II, organic aviation assigned to field artillery units provided observation for indirect fire missions, locating and targeting enemy forces beyond the visual range of ground-based observers. Organic aviation involves assigning aircraft, personnel, and equipment to the operational control of a ground forces commander, as opposed to a more centralized arrangement in which ground forces commanders rely on the independent Army Air Forces commander for aerial observation of enemy activity on the ground. The importance of the L-4 to the American effort in World War II is part of a larger story about the Army’s internal battle over introducing organic aviation into field artillery battalions. The field artillery men landed, captured the two German crew, and turned them over to a passing American tank column. Two members of America’s 71 st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 5 th Armored Division caught a German Fieseler Fi156 Storch by surprise and using pistols managed to hit the gas tank, dive on the German, and force the enemy to crash into the ground. ![]() Army Aviation in World War II (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2000)įor all the finesse and dominance of the P-51 Mustang in the skies over Europe during World War II, one of the last air-to-air kills in the European theater is credited to an L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft. Raines Jr., Eyes of the Artillery: The Origins of Modern U.S. ![]()
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