Generations of Chevrons

A History of the Enlisted Force

★

Edited by

Janet R. Bednarek

AIR FORCE HISTORY AND MUSEUMS PROGRAM

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 2004

Generations of Chevrons

A History of the Enlisted Force

★

Edited by

Janet R. Bednarek
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Generations of chevrons : a history of the enlisted force / edited by Janet R. Bednarek.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. United States. Air Force—Non-commissioned officers—Biography. 2. United States—Biography. I. Bednarek, Janet R. Daly (Janet Rose Daly), 1959- 9- 

UG626.G44 2004

358.4’0092’2—dc222

2004026962

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of the Air Force History and Museums Program,

the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other U.S. Government agency.
This book is dedicated to the memory of four great chief master sergeants of the Air Force:

CMSAF DONALD L. HARLOW

1920–1997

CMSAF RICHARD D. KISLING

1923–1985

CMSAF ARTHUR L. “BUD” ANDREWS

1934–1996

CMSAF THOMAS N. BARNES

1930–2003

★

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHIEF MASTER SERGEANTS OF THE AIR FORCE

Paul W. Airey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Donald L. Harlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Richard D. Kisling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Thomas N. Barnes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Robert D. Gaylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

James M. McCoy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Arthur L. “Bud” Andrews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Sam E. Parish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

James C. Binnicker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Gary R. Pfingston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

David J. Campanale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Eric W. Benken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Frederick J. Finch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Gerald R. Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

APPENDIXES 

I. Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

II. Presidents, Secretaries of the Air Force, Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force and 

Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

III. Department of Defense Enlisted Personnel, by Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

IV. Order of the Sword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

vii

CONTENTS

ix

I am extremely excited about this book becoming a reality. It began with a vision by Chief

Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Campanale to document the history and contributions of the enlisted force. Through the years many people have grasped the vision and

moved it forward. The finished product is one that will make every Airman proud to be part

of the United States Air Force.

Keep in mind this is not an all-inclusive history—that would take volumes. Instead, this

is a snapshot into generations past through the experiences of the 14 Chief Master Sergeants

of the Air Force. My hope is that each reader finds inspiration and insight as they examine

the issues and contributions of our enlisted forefathers.

I am privileged to be a small part of the team that created this book on behalf of the enlisted men and women of the “World’s Greatest Air Force”—past, present, and future.

CMSAF Gerald R. Murray

PREFACE
x
xi

In the mid 1990s, several individuals in the Office of the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air

Force (OCMSAF) began working on biographical sketches of the former chief master

sergeants of the Air Force (CMSAFs). Based primarily on published materials, these sketches traced the careers of each of the men who had served in the top enlisted post in the United

States Air Force (USAF). In addition, the authors wrote essays dealing with various aspects

of enlisted history, such as the role of the first sergeant, enlisted training and education, and

the enlisted uniform. The manuscript also contained data on the number of active duty enlisted personnel, the names and tenures of the CMSAFs, and a list of people who had been

awarded the Order of the Sword. The goal was to produce, in a single volume, a sense of the

history and heritage of Air Force enlisted personnel.

The Air Force History Support Office (AFHSO) at Bolling Air Force Base (AFB),

Washington, D.C., reviewed the original manuscript, “Enlisted Footprints.” While the historians and editors there saw value in the project, they noted that, because the manuscript had

been put together by many people working somewhat independently, it needed an overall editor. Initially, the idea was to replace the individual essays with one overall essay on enlisted

history, copyedit the biographical sketches for consistency, and select more informative appendixes. This initial work was completed in 2001.

However, by the time the manuscript had been completed, the goals had changed. The

end product still had to be a history of USAF enlisted personnel, but the biographical sketches needed greater depth and to focus more on the achievements of the chief master sergeants

of the Air Force and the issues they faced. Moreover, the essay on enlisted history was to be

further refined and expanded.

In late 2002, the OCMSAF and the AFHSO once again subjected the manuscript to a

more comprehensive editorial review. The process included questionnaires for and interviews

of the surviving former CMSAFs. The chiefs were eager to see the project through and were

very helpful in providing the information needed to edit and expand their biographies. The

Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), the Enlisted Heritage Hall, the Air Force

Sergeants Association, and the AFHSO all provided research assistance.

FOREWORD
The final product, Generations of Chevrons, builds on two works previously published

by the Air Force History and Museums Program: The Enlisted Experience: A Conversation

with the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force and Foundation of the Force: Air Force Enlisted Personnel Policy. The biographical sketches, which were central to the project from the

start, remain and add a very human element to the history. Our hope is that this work, especially the historical essay, will add to the growing conversation on the meaning and importance of major themes in USAF enlisted history.

xii
INTRODUCTION

A History of the USAF Enlisted Force

Histories of the United States Air Force and its predecessor organizations have focused on pilots,

planes, and the use of air power. While certainly a

large part of the service’s history and heritage, these

studies do not tell the whole story. In the last dozen

years or so, a number of people have begun a serious

examination of the history of the enlisted members

of the U.S. Air Force.1 Just as it became clear that

economic and business histories would not be complete without looking at rank-and-file workers, so

those studying USAF history found that a full picture

demanded an inclusion of enlisted personnel.

These enlisted histories, though still few in number, nonetheless illuminate several important themes

and trends in the history and heritage of the USAF

enlisted force. First, enlisted airmen have always

been seen and valued primarily for their high level of

technical and/or occupational skills. Whether serving

as aircraft mechanics, computer operators, personnel

clerks, or military policemen, airmen have always

been among the most intelligent and highly trained

enlisted individuals in the U.S. military. Second, the

emphasis on skills and training has helped to promote a professionalization of the USAF enlisted

force. Third, the Air Force has always prized an enlisted force with a high percentage of skilled, professional, career noncommissioned officers (NCOs).

And, finally, over its long history, the USAF enlisted

force has become more diverse in terms of skills,

race, and gender.

As an organization, the U.S. Air Force has generally supported policies that promoted its ability to

recruit, train, and retain an enlisted force matching

the above characteristics. The Air Force has not always matched its practices with its rhetoric concerning the enlisted force, but overall the trend has been

in the direction of emphasizing training, education,

and professionalization.

Enlisted members, particularly senior noncommissioned officers, have played crucial roles in supporting the service’s vision for its enlisted force.

Again and again, they provided the day-to-day,

ground-level leadership that held things together in

the face of the many challenges confronting the service. Through the ups and downs in the provision of

pay, housing, and medical care; the Korean and Vietnam Wars; the integration of African Americans and

women; the transition to the all-volunteer force; and

the end of the Cold War, U.S. Air Force NCOs

stepped up to the leadership challenges presented

them. They are a proud group with their own heroes,

schools, professional organizations, traditions, and

memorials. As the Air Force looked to its enlisted

personnel for crucial leadership in its first half-century, it will in all probability continue to rely on its enlisted leadership as it enters the twenty-first century.

ESTABLISHING THE ENLISTED FORCE

The U.S. Air Force can trace its lineage back to the

creation of the Aviation Section within the Army Signal Corps in 1907, and the USAF enlisted force can

also look to that date as the beginning of its history.

The Aviation Section began with an authorized

strength of 110 enlisted members. The leaders of the

Aviation Section decided from the start that, given

the technical demands associated with the airplane,

1

★

Janet R. Bednarek, Ph.D.
they would focus their recruiting efforts on men already in the U.S. Army, who had completed their

basic military training and thus could begin technical

training immediately. Transfers between organizations within the Army meant that the men had to

begin their service within their new organization at

the rank of private; nevertheless, enough veteran

Army enlisted members saw sufficient promise in

the new Aviation Section that they initiated the transfers and began filling the ranks in the fledgling organization.2

There were benefits to a transfer into the Aviation Section, the most important of which was the

opportunity to acquire technical training. By 1914,

after a period of development, the Aviation Section

had created a training structure that emphasized a

certain degree of specialization and comprehensive

testing for certification. To gain certification, a

trainee had to show proficiency in airframe maintenance and repair and in engine construction and

maintenance. Upon earning a certificate as a mechanician, a specialty that held the title Air Mechanician until 1926, the enlisted member received a 50

percent pay raise. This contributed to the early emergence of an image of enlisted personnel within the

Air Section as being highly skilled technically and

different from the enlisted force in the rest of the

Army. They were airmen.3

These technically trained enlisted airmen served

during a time when aircraft technology was advancing very rapidly. Although the post-World War II period also saw a number of significant advances, the

rapidity and scope of change between 1917 and 1945

was truly impressive. Enlisted members who began

service in World War I and served full thirty-year careers would witness during that time a dramatic

transformation of the military airplane. The Curtiss

JN4–D or “Jenny,” in service as a trainer in 1917,

was a wood and fabric biplane weighing 1,430

pounds and powered by a 90-hp OX–5 engine. It had

a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour and could

stay aloft for two and one-half hours. In contrast, the

Boeing B–29, best known for the long-range bombing missions in the Pacific at the end of World War

2

Telephone operator of the 28th Balloon Company,

March 1919, Washington, D.C.

An enlisted ground crew handles an inflated balloon

at Ft. Myer, Virginia, in 1908.
II, was a highly complex, all-metal machine weighing 133,500 pounds. Powered by four 2,200 hp radial

engines, it could reach a maximum speed of 357 mph

and had a range of 3,700 miles. By the time the

USAF became an independent service and these hypothetical enlisted members ended their thirty-year

careers, the United States military had entered the jet

age. Enlisted airframe or powerplant mechanics during this formative period would need to constantly

upgrade their skills in the face of this kind of rapid

technological development.

Throughout the period before World War II, the

training for enlisted personnel became less general

and more highly specialized. Before the United States

entered World War II, first the Army Air Corps and

then, after June 1941, the Army Air Forces (AAF)

moved even more aggressively into a training system

that emphasized specialization. For example, the classification scheme for mechanics included eight functional groups and forty-seven subclassifications.

Eventually, the training system produced technicians,

mechanics, and repairmen qualified to work on specific tasks on specific airplanes. And there were new

specialties in such areas as electronics, radar, and

medicine. The need for highly trained specialists, in

turn, reinforced the long-standing policy of recruiting

only the most intelligent and technically oriented individuals. The AAF saw continued success in gaining

the largest percentage of those scoring highest on the

Army’s General Classification Test and Mechanical

Aptitude Tests. This, in turn, further reinforced the

elite image of the enlisted airmen.4

3

During World War II, the shortage of spruce used in aircraft and the shortage of loggers in the northwest United

States prompted the Army Signal Corps to establish a Spruce Production Division, using soldiers as loggers in

the forests. Here a group of enlisted men stand beside a twenty-ton section of a spruce tree they are

transporting to a mill in Washington state.
The changes in training reflected the expansion

of the enlisted specialties. From the beginning, enlisted airmen have served in a number of air power

support roles, and those roles became more numerous and diverse over time. During World War I, for

example, in addition to serving as aircraft mechanics,

enlisted personnel in the Air Service acted as photo

specialists, balloon squadron specialists, and pilots.

Others served in the Spruce Division, responsible for

vastly increasing the nation’s production of spruce, a

vital construction material in early airplanes. Enlisted personnel serving in the Ordnance Department

helped to make sure that the guns mounted on the

early airplanes were installed correctly and remained

in good repair. They also shouldered the responsibility for loading bombs properly and safely on the

often-fragile pioneer bomber aircraft.5

During the 1920s and 1930s, enlisted airmen

began to take on a number of other roles. While mechanics remained among the most highly prized of

the enlisted specialists, the fledging Air Service and

its successor organization, the Air Corps, also needed

armorers, clerks, radio operators, painters, welders,

and a whole host of other enlisted specialists. By the

mid-1930s, the Air Corps had organized its enlisted

occupations into twelve broad trade groups: airplane

and engine mechanics; aircraft radio mechanics and

operators; aircraft instrument mechanics; clerks;

stewards and cooks; aircraft metal workers; aircraft

armorers; meteorologists; parachute riggers; auto

mechanics; aircraft machinists; and aircraft photo

technicians. Further, as noted, the enlisted serving in

these various specialist occupations needed to upgrade their skills continually as the rapid evolution of

aircraft technology brought increasingly sophisticated and complex aircraft into the service.6

And the late 1930s brought the first of the new,

large bombers. The enlisted air crewmen on these

aircraft served primarily as gunners. The B–17, for

example, had a crew of ten, seven of whom were enlisted gunners. In fact, after mechanics, aerial gunners made up the second largest group of enlisted

specialists during World War II, with more than three

hundred thousand trained for that specialty. Enlisted

aircrew, thus, joined officer pilots as vital members

of the teams that would deliver air power during

World War II.7

The ability of the Air Service/Air Corps to recruit and retain the highest quality enlisted personnel

varied across time, particularly in the interwar period. During the 1920s, perceptions about slow promotions and the health of the U.S. economy often made

recruitment and retention difficult. However, the

technical training offered with enlistment did act as a

strong incentive. During the 1930s, the depressed

U.S. economy made recruitment and retention easier.

4

Photo specialists piece together individual

reconnaissance photos to make a photo map.

Enlisted weather observers (left to right) Larry Windt,

William Franklin, and John P. Casey inflate a weather

balloon at the AAF weather station, Keflavik, Iceland.
Though promotions remained slow, the pay and benefits available to Air Corps enlisted personnel appeared attractive. As noted, the Air Corps had the authorization to pay for skills. Therefore, as enlisted

personnel increased their skill level, their pay could

increase significantly, even in the absence of promotion to a higher grade. The pay available to the Air

Corps enlisted members not only put them in a better

position than the enlisted personnel in other branches

of the Army, but it also compared quite favorably

with available civilian wages. Add to that the glamour associated with aviation, and the Air Corps

proved quite successful in recruiting, training, and retaining a high quality enlisted force.8

Further challenges came with the admission of

African Americans to the Army Air Corps/Army Air

Forces in 1941. The Tuskegee Airmen were officer

pilots who helped to break down racial barriers in the

U.S. military in general and in the AAF in particular.

Not all of the African American personnel serving in

the AAF during World War II were officer pilots,

however. Others were enlisted members serving in

segregated aviation squadrons. At first, these enlisted

members were allowed only to drive trucks or tend

lawns. African American leaders soon complained.

The Army sent veteran enlisted personnel from its

existing segregated units to provide basic training to

the new recruits. And the AAF enrolled African

American enlisted members in technical training

classes at Chanute Field in Illinois, where, by virtue

of their small numbers, they attended the same classes as white trainees. As Judge William O. Hastie,

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson’s Civilian Aide

on Negro Affairs, reported, “The men did well.”9

But because of segregation, the AAF trained

only enough African American mechanics, radiomen, and other technicians to serve the segregated

flying units. Most of the African American enlisted

members serving in the AAF were assigned to Air

Service Command (ASC), where they served as drivers and laborers, very traditional roles for African

Americans in the military. They also experienced

racism and discrimination. Segregation did ease as

the war went on, but racism remained a great problem.10 The newly independent U.S. Air Force, which

began its organizational life with a commitment to

integration, nonetheless had a difficult history to deal

with before it could reach both integration and equality.

In contrast, the AAF seemed quite willing during the war to integrate women into its organization,

within limits. For example, women could not serve as

pilots, even in noncombatant roles, and the famous

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) were civilian employees. But the AAF was willing to utilize

women officers and enlisted in other roles. In fact, it

was the first Army command to employ women. Of

the approximately 100,000 women serving in the

Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during the war, about

40,000 served in the AAF. By early 1945, more than

1,600 women served as officers and more than

30,000 women served as enlisted.11

The AAF admitted enlisted women to all of its

noncombat schools, and it was willing to train

women for technical and mechanical jobs. But the

5

This member of the WAF assigned to the Combat

Operations Center at Continental Air Defense

Command headquarters, Ent Air Force Base,

Colorado, worked behind the plotting board in the

command post, writing backward so that the

information was readable by the battle staff on the 

other side of the board.
service often found that it made more sense for the

women to serve in jobs matching their civilian skills.

So, although enlisted women served as weather observers, radio operators, and mechanics, about half

served in administrative or office jobs. At the conclusion of the war, the final report of the head of the Air

WAC Division, Lt. Col. Betty Bandel, concluded that

the women had served well and had proven their

value. Issues such as housing; separate training; conflicts with civilian workers; and fraternization, concerning both officers and enlisted, remained unresolved, but she believed that they posed no great

obstacle to women’s continued service in the AAF.12

However, though the AAF had been ready to integrate women into the service during wartime, it was

a different story once the war was over.

Throughout the history of the U.S. Air Force and

its predecessor organizations, officers—almost exclusively—flew and enlisted served in support roles.

Occasionally, however, and especially during a brief

period during World War II, enlisted men joined the

ranks of pilots. Interestingly, although at times officials considered the idea of training enlisted men as

navigators and bombardiers, for the most part officers served in those specialties. Thus, while a few enlisted members were able to serve in the air specialty

with the highest prestige, their role in the air primarily involved filling support positions, especially that

of gunner.13 Within that context, the total number of

enlisted pilots was never large, and many ended their

careers as officers. Nonetheless, there was a time

when enlisted members successfully flew as military

pilots.

Though he retired as a colonel, Vernon Lee

Burge began his military flying career as the U.S.

Army’s first “soldier pilot.” In 1912, the Army sent

Burge to the Philippines to serve with pioneer Army

aviator Lt. Frank B. Lahm at a newly established

flight school located at Fort William McKinley.

Lahm had orders to train two officers as pilots. When

only one officer volunteered, Corporal Burge stepped

forward. Lieutenant Lahm agreed to provide instruction to his mechanician. Flight training began in

April 1912; by June, Burge had earned a Federation

Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) aviator’s certificate. When Lahm sent in the required paperwork, the

Army informed him that it did not authorize training

enlisted pilots. Nonetheless, Burge and a handful of

other enlisted pilots, also trained under somewhat informal arrangements, earned their wings before Congress officially established limited authority for

training enlisted pilots. By World War I, many of

these pioneer enlisted aviators, including Burge, had

received commissions.14

Training of enlisted pilots continued with the

U.S. declaration of war in 1917. By the end of the

war, it became clear that the Army still officially disapproved of the training and service of enlisted pilots. For example, despite legislation in 1914 and

1916 that had called for the training of enlisted pilots, the Army concluded that the grade of “enlisted

aviator” had never been established; therefore, enlisted pilots were not authorized to wear the military aviator badge. In many ways, according to the Army, enlisted aviators officially did not exist. New legislation

in 1920 temporarily ended any authorization for the

training of enlisted aviators.15

Despite the fact that the Army proved very reluctant to acknowledge their existence officially, enlisted pilots continued to serve during the 1920s. In

1923, the Air Service once again authorized flight

6

In 1967, MSgt. Duane C. Sopp, from Flint, Michigan,

instructed members of the South Vietnamese Air

Force on the operation of the F–5 aircraft engine.

Enlisted airmen served in various capacities during

the Vietnam War.
training for enlisted servicemen. Those selected for

training were already serving as noncommissioned

officers and were experienced airplane mechanics.

This enlisted pilot training program lasted until 1933,

when the Hoover administration’s economy measures

in response to the onset of what became known as the

Great Depression ended the program. Seventy-eight

NCOs sought flight training under the program; thirty-three graduated. Those who received their wings

under this program flew a variety of missions. They

carried passengers, piloted reconnaissance flights,

and scouted routes for possible airways, thus participating in the kinds of public demonstrations of aerial

might and proficiency that aimed at building public

support for military aviation. And when the Air

Corps agreed to fly the mail in the wake of the cancellation of the civilian airmail contracts, enlisted pilots flew a number of support missions.16

The onset of the Great Depression brought an

end to the Air Corps enlisted pilot training program,

but the ranks of the enlisted pilots continued to grow.

The economic hard times led a number of former

military pilots to enlist. Some of them had served on

active duty with reserve commissions as officer pilots; others had been discharged upon completion of

their flight training and the awarding of the reserve

commissions. Regardless, many saw enlistment as a

viable option, even though they served and flew as

7

In 1941, African-Americans were first admitted to the Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces. The Tuskeegee Airmen,

some of whom are pictured above receiving instruction in aircraft maintenance at Selfridge Field, Michigan, 

were officer-pilots.
privates. Up to one hundred men who received training as cadets between 1923 and 1933 eventually

joined the military as enlisted pilots. The Air Corps,

though, remained uncomfortable with the idea of enlisted pilots. The National Defense Act of 1926 had

officially required that 20 percent of Air Corps pilots

assigned to tactical squadrons be enlisted pilots, but

the Air Corps never came close to meeting that requirement. The number of enlisted pilots on active

duty rose to a pre-World War II high in 1935, when

117 enlisted pilots served. A number of these were

former reserve officers who went on to receive Regular Army commissions before World War II. By

1940, therefore, the number of enlisted pilots had

once again decreased to a mere handful. Most of the

remaining few returned to the officer ranks when

they were recalled to active duty as officers after the

United States declared war.17

By early 1941, as it became clear to many that

the United States could no longer avoid involvement

in the conflict that had erupted in Europe in September 1939, the Air Corps began to explore the idea of

once again training enlisted pilots. As envisioned, the

new program would offer flight training to enlisted

members who, lacking the required college degree,

were otherwise barred because they were ineligible

for commissioning. After completing the training,

the men would serve as sergeant pilots. The new program became a reality with the passage of Public

Law 99 in June 1941. Army enlisted members would

8

WAC Cpl. Evelyn Rivers served as a teletype operator

at Lockbourne Air Base, Ohio, in December 1947.

WAF Sgt. Lois Spahn worked as a control tower operator at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.,

in July 1951.
enter flight training as “aviation students.” Upon

graduation, they would receive the rank of staff

sergeant, regardless of their rank before they began

training. While an opportunity for privates and corporals, the program represented a sacrifice for interested enlisted members who had already attained the

rank of technical or master sergeant. And the men

had to agree not to marry for three years following

the completion of training. Despite the built-in disincentives, 122 enlisted aviation students reported for

the first training class. Subsequent classes also readily filled. As the number of enlisted pilots rose, the

AAF grew increasingly uncomfortable with their

presence. The image of pilots as a special and elite

group, held by much of the leadership of the service,

hindered its ability to fully accept the idea of enlisted

pilots. As early as November 1942, the AAF, under

authority of Public Law 658, decreed that upon graduation, aviation students would hold the rank of

flight officer—equivalent to a warrant officer rank—

not staff sergeant. By early 1943, the AAF authorized

the promotion of all sergeant pilots to the rank of

flight officer. Eventually, most flight officers received commissions as second lieutenants.18

When the U.S. Air Force was established as a

separate service in September 1947, two enlisted pilots remained on active duty. Both had received commissions during World War II and then separated

from the service. Both then reenlisted at their permanent grade of master sergeant and retained their

wings. MSgt. Tom Rafferty died in an aircraft accident in 1949. MSgt. George Holmes retired in 1957.

The U.S. Air Force and its predecessor organizations all valued the technical skills of enlisted members. At a number of times, the Air Service and then

the Army Air Corps experimented with the idea of

enlisted pilots. In the end, however, the Air Service,

the Army Air Corps, the Army Air Forces, and the

U.S. Air Force retained the elite vision of pilots that

precluded the otherwise qualified enlisted members

from finding a permanent role as enlisted pilots.

The formative period, 1907–1947, resulted in an

image of the enlisted airman as a highly skilled, intelligent person. The service provided extensive training in order to allow its enlisted members to serve in

a wide variety of roles, though in the end it barred

them from becoming enlisted pilots. With its independence, the U.S. Air Force faced the challenges of

developing the personnel policies necessary to allow

it to recruit, train, and retain exactly the type of enlisted person it desired. In devising those policies, the

service focused on a number of areas, such as promotion reform and quality of life issues, including

pay, housing, and medical care. Professional military

education (PME) for enlisted members witnessed its

somewhat tentative beginnings. And the new United

States Air Force revised its rank structure to better

recognize the contributions of its noncommissioned

officers, especially the most senior NCOs.

ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT AIR FORCE

Between 1947 and the late 1950s, the newly created

U.S. Air Force witnessed an important period of transition and transformation. During a period of often

rapid and massive swings in the number of personnel

serving, Air Force leaders in many ways had to create

a distinctive culture and identity for the service. They

also had to confront a widely perceived problem—

the loss of prestige associated with service in the

NCO ranks. The actions taken to address these issues

9

U.S. Rep. L. Mendel Rivers (D., S.C.), shown on the

right during a 1965 visit to South Vietnam, piloted

major revisions in the enlisted promotion policy.
and to create an Air Force culture included new uniforms for all and a new rank structure for the enlisted. To reinforce this new culture, the Air Force began

its first early efforts at PME for its enlisted personnel. It also sought means to recognize and utilize

more fully its more senior NCOs. Additionally, recruiting and retaining the type of highly skilled enlisted personnel desired required a sustained effort to

improve pay and benefits. Housing shortages and

problems with the promotion system received particular attention during the 1950s. Larger forces at work

in U.S. society also influenced the Air Force, as

African Americans and, to a lesser extent, women

sought broader and more equal roles. And finally,

new Cold War missions and advancing technology

meant new skills and occupational specialties for

USAF enlisted personnel.

In 1945, more than eight million Americans

were in uniform in the U.S. Army. Within a year, that

number dropped to just under two million, including

1,435,496 in the Army and 455,515 in the Army Air

Forces. By 1947, the newly created U.S. Air Force

had only 305,827 individuals, including 263,082 enlisted members, on active duty. The numbers rose

gradually in 1948 and 1949 before experiencing an

upward spike with the commencement of the Korean

War in 1950. By the time of the ceasefire in 1953, the

USAF had 977,593 individuals on active duty, including 846,824 enlisted members. Active duty numbers peaked the year before with 983,261, including

854,519 enlisted. In 1952, at the peak point in enlistments, enlisted airmen represented 87 percent of the

total force. By 1959, the active duty enlisted force

had dropped to 707,219. Enlisted personnel as a percentage of the total force also dropped by 1959,

standing at 84 percent in that year.19

During World War II, the total number of individuals in uniform in all of the services soared from

1,801,101 in 1941 to 12,055,884 in 1945.20 For the

most part, these were citizen-soldiers, drawn into the

services “for the duration” and fully expecting to return to civilian life once the war ended. This rapid expansion overwhelmed the veteran noncommissioned

officers in all of the services. There were not enough

of them to fill the new positions, and they did not

have the time or the opportunity to provide much

training to those new to their ranks. As a result, all of

the services came out of World War II facing the

issue of the proper role of the noncommissioned officer. In the peacetime Army, for example, individuals

worked for years to attain NCO status. That hardwon status afforded them a measure of prestige as

well as responsibility and authority. In wartime, in

contrast, NCO status could be won within months.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (CMSAF)

Paul W. Airey, for example, enlisted in November

1942. He went from private first class to sergeant,

bypassing the rank of corporal, the first NCO rank,

and had attained the rank of sergeant by August

1943. In addition, the manpower needs of World War

II resulted in a higher percentage of NCOs in the

total enlisted force. In December 1941, only 20 percent of enlisted personnel served as NCOs; by 1943,

50 percent were NCOs. Many of these citizen-sol10

SSgt. Mitchel H. Baker used his collection of snakes

at the Cam Ranh Bay veterinary office to identify

poisonous reptiles encountered by troops in 

the jungles of Southeast Asia.
diers acquitted themselves well; nonetheless, the

rapid growth of the NCO ranks often seemed to diminish the position, image, and prestige of the noncommissioned officer.21

In the earliest years of Air Force independence,

the service took a number of steps to address the

issue of NCO prestige and to establish its separateness from the U.S. Army. These included the adoption of new uniforms and the development of USAF

designations for a number of enlisted ranks. Until the

early 1950s, Air Force enlisted members continued to

wear what was essentially surplus Army garb while

the service worked to produce enough of the new

uniforms. This new uniform, designed in 1948, had

an important characteristic: both officers and enlisted

would wear the same basic uniform. In the Army, officers wore better-constructed uniforms made with

higher quality materials. This had led to some resentment among the enlisted personnel. In the spirit of

unity and teamwork, the leadership decided that

there would be one USAF uniform in Shade 84

Blue.22

As the new uniforms became available in the

early 1950s, the U.S. Air Force also adopted new

rank designations. It retained the same basic sevenlevel structure as that of the U.S. Army, but the rank

titles took on a decided USAF sound. Instead of private, corporal, and buck sergeant, the Air Force had

airman basic, airman third class, airman second

class, and airman first class. Only the top three

ranks—staff sergeant, technical sergeant, and master

sergeant—remained unchanged.23 The revised rank

structure also changed the point at which an enlisted

member attained NCO status. Corporals and buck

sergeants kept their stripes but lost their NCO status

as they became airmen second class and airman first

class, respectively.24 As CMSAF Richard Kisling recalled, those who lost their NCO status did not welcome the change, and it even temporarily hurt revenues at NCO clubs. He did, however, believe that it

brought some additional prestige to the senior noncommissioned officers who remained.25 CMSAF

Thomas Barnes, who made staff sergeant in 1952,

believed that the change did create a clear separation

between the noncommissioned officers and the rest

of the enlisted force.26 At the same time, efforts also

focused on making the enlisted not only look like airmen, but also think like airmen.

11

Mechanics stood by their planes during inspection at Randolph Field, Texas, in October 1938.
“Professional” and “professionalism” have

proven very controversial terms when used in relation to the military. The classic definitions of a military professional, proposed by scholars such as

Samuel Huntington and Morris Janowitz, are rather

narrow, focusing almost exclusively on the role military officers play as “managers of violence.”27 And

while these definitions encompass the generally recognized characteristics of a profession—expertise,

responsibility, and corporateness—they have come

under criticism from a number of quarters. The critiques include the charge that these definitions failed

to take into account changes over time—changes in

technology, in professional military education, and in

the roles and responsibilities of officers and enlisted

personnel. Also, the examples upon which Huntington and others built their definitions seemed limited

to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy.28 Later scholars

developed a far broader view of what constituted a

profession and, thus, offered a vision of a profession

that could include U.S. Air Force noncommissioned

officers.29

In his work, Foundation of the Force: Air Force

Enlisted Policy, published in 1997, Mark Grandstaff

drew on the scholarship of Robert Wiebe and Andrew Abbott, both of whom developed a broad definition of a profession and identified what they termed

a “subordinate profession”—a profession such as

that of nurse within the larger medical profession in

which doctors are members of the dominant profession. Grandstaff also drew on the work on Harold

Wilensky, who identified the process by which an occupation might attain professional status. These steps

included “establishing schools, setting standards,

providing longer training, demanding commitment to

the profession and the group, promoting and creating

a professional association, and finally, establishing a

code of ethics, eliminating internal competition, and

protecting the client.”30 Grandstaff wrote that the

U.S. Air Force began the process of transforming enlisted members into professional airmen as early as

the 1950s. Early actions taken by the service included creation of career programs and a new promotion

system for enlisted personnel, further revisions to the

rank structure to recognize the increased role and responsibility of the noncommissioned officer, the

preservation of the Army tradition of the first

sergeant, and the initial establishment of schools for

enlisted professional military education.31

In the early 1950s, the Air Force leadership took

actions aimed at upgrading the skill levels of the enlisted force generally and enhancing the position of

the noncommissioned officer in particular. In 1950,

the Air Force introduced its Airman Career Program,

designed to accomplish two fundamental goals. First,

it established a career path for each enlisted career

field. Second, it tied promotion more closely to

merit. This moved the Air Force away from the promotion system it had inherited from the Army. Before World War II, eligibility for promotion was

based on achieving certain skill levels, but actual

12

Two enlisted members of an Air Force ground control

team are shown coordinating an airborne operation.
promotion depended upon unit vacancies. Each unit

had a certain number of positions available at each

grade. Until a position opened, no promotion was

possible, regardless of an individual’s skill. Vacancies

were filled based on both skill and longevity. In times

of rapid expansion, such as during the Korean War,

the unit vacancy rule was less of an issue. But during

times of static or decreasing manning levels, the unit

rule worked to slow down promotions at the expense

of morale. Under the new Airman Career Program,

and a new quota system implemented in 1953 that

formally eliminated the unit vacancy requirement,

the Air Force moved toward a promotion system in

which an enlisted member moved up in rank on the

basis of job knowledge and skill level, rather than on

longevity or unit vacancies. The service struggled,

however, due to the lack of data processing equipment fully capable of managing this more complex

system.32 So, while this was a step in what many considered the right direction, problems remained.

The Air Force also wrestled with the problem of

how best to recognize the growing responsibilities of

its senior noncommissioned officers. The practice of

recognizing them by promoting them to the rank of

warrant officer proved problematic, and the service

seemed unable to decide whether warrant officers

were officers or enlisted. With an eye to addressing a

number of personnel issues, the Air Force supported

the creation of two new senior enlisted ranks: senior

master sergeant (E–8) and chief master sergeant

(E–9). The new ranks offered to the service’s master

sergeants (E–7s) further promotion opportunities and

recognized better senior supervisory positions. The

new ranks did not immediately bring increased responsibilities, but they laid the groundwork for senior NCOs to gain more responsibility over the following decades.33

With the idea of enhancing the role of its noncommissioned officers, the Air Force also retained an

important enlisted role from its Army heritage. The

position of first sergeant has a long tradition in the

U.S. military, dating from before the Civil War. The

role of the “top kick” involved the assumption of a

great deal of day-to-day management and responsibility. Tasks required of the first sergeant included

completing vital paperwork, enforcing discipline,

acting as both a personal and career counselor, helping to shape unit policy, and maintaining unit facilities. Overall, the first sergeant was the person most

responsible for the morale and welfare of enlisted

personnel. The Air Force created the career field for

first sergeants in 1951. Over the years, the job description saw a number of revisions, and it was even

temporary eliminated in the late 1950s and early

1960s. But, generally, the basic emphasis on managerial and leadership responsibilities remained.34 In

1973, the service established the predecessor of what

is today the First Sergeants Academy at Maxwell Air

Force Base (AFB)–Gunter Annex, Alabama. 

A number of those who went on to serve as chief

master sergeants of the Air Force recognized the importance of the role of the first sergeant, and several

served as a first sergeant at times in their careers.

CMSAF Paul Airey declared that next to serving as

the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, his favorite job was that of first sergeant, a job he held sev13

In 1967, Donna M. Shutter (standing), an educational

specialist, and Florence L. Pelekai, a personnel clerk,

processed personnel records at Offutt Air Force 

Base, Nebraska.
eral times during his long career. Even those who did

not hold the job recognized its importance. CMSAF

Robert Gaylor believed that his success as the senior

military policeman on a base depended on the relationships he built with the first sergeants. He would

often work with the first sergeants when dealing with

young airmen who ran afoul of rules and regulations,

resolving issues informally. As he concluded: “A

good First Sergeant was worth more than his weight

in gold, a good First Sergeant who really cared about

people. He’d rip your knickers if you were out of line,

but if you had a problem he was the one to go to.”35

Education has been central to the professionalization of the USAF enlisted force. As noted, the predecessor organizations of the U.S. Air Force always

placed a premium on recruiting and retaining the best

educated and most highly skilled enlisted personnel.

Up through World War II, most training focused on

developing technical skills. After the creation of the

independent U.S. Air Force, the service continued to

emphasize technical skills and education, but during

the 1950s, the Air Force added professional military

education to the types of training available to its enlisted force. These schools emphasized leadership

and management skills.

The service’s first noncommissioned officer

academy (NCOA) opened in Wiesbaden, Germany,

in 1950. Gen. John K. Cannon, the commander in

chief of United States Air Forces in Europe

(USAFE), ordered its establishment, but the school

remained open for only about a year. In 1952, the

Strategic Air Command (SAC) opened another

NCOA in England. This school remained open for a

longer period, and other commands soon followed

the SAC example.36i

While generally emphasizing leadership and

management skills development, the precise curriculum of the Air Force NCO academies has changed

over the years. In the mid-1950s, for example, the

Second Air Force’s NCOA included within its curriculum “ten hours of Military Management (Organizational Phase); twelve hours of Military Instructor

Training; twenty two hours of Speech; ten hours of

Problem Solving,” out of a total of 265 hours of instruction.37 By the late 1950s, the major subjects

taught at NCOAs included world affairs; USAF history, communicative skills; supervision and management; human relations and leadership; drill and ceremonies; military customs; courtesy and protocol;

physical training and conditioning; and military justice.38

As early as the 1950s, the Air Force found that

retaining a skilled, professional career enlisted force

also depended on the ability of the service to meet

expectations in pay, housing, and medical care. Studies completed for Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson recommended that Congress act quickly to address issues of pay and incentives for reenlistment.

The Air Force worked hard to publicize the conclusions of the Womble Committee, named for its chair,

RADM J. P. Womble, Jr. In 1954, Congress responded with a law reforming the incentive pay system for

reenlistments, increasing the rewards for reenlistments by younger service members, thus encouraging them to become part of the career force. The following year, Congress reformed the pay system by

increasing the size of the raises available to those in

the middle grades, creating further incentives for

these members to continue as career airmen. These

were the people with the training and experience the

Air Force needed to retain.39

The problems associated with housing were

probably most acute during the late 1940s and 1950s.

In fact, the Air Force declared housing its major personnel problem in 1948. An investigation in 1949

found USAF personnel living in “garages, tents, and

decrepit World War II post housing.” While the United States as a whole also experienced a housing

shortage at this time, the lack of housing provided by

the Air Force was identified as an issue affecting retention and morale. Housing grew as an issue between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, as the percentage of the enlisted force who were married and

had families increased from 29.7 percent of the total

to 44.1 percent.40

By 1952, under the Wherry Mortgage Insurance

Act of 1949, the Air Force was busy building base

housing. The number of houses built on bases and

14
those built by private contractors off base, available

for rent to military families, grew but not quickly

enough to meet needs. By 1955, the service faced a

housing shortage estimated at 250,000 units. As bad

as conditions were at and near U.S. bases, the situation was even worse for personnel stationed overseas,

where high costs and cultural issues complicated the

situation. Further, the housing available to single enlisted airmen through the mid-1950s consisted mostly of World War II open-bay type barracks.41

In 1955, the Capehart Amendment to the National Housing Act called for the construction of

17,000 units of military housing per year. The law assigned 8,100 of the total per year to the Air Force.

This act brought enough of an improvement that, by

the late 1950s, airmen were reporting a general satisfaction with the quarters available to them.42 Part of

this might also be due to the explosion of housing

construction generally in the United States during the

1950s.

While recruiting, training, and retaining enlisted

personnel seemed basic issues at all stages of Air

Force history, the late 1940s witnessed the introduction of another set of issues that would prove vital

and persistent in many ways to the present—the integration of African Americans, other nonwhites, and

women into the military.

Within a year of becoming a separate service,

the U.S. Air Force, along with the other services,

faced the challenge of making the racial integration

of the military work. On July 26, 1948, President

Harry S Truman issued Executive Order 9981. The

order did not specifically mention integration, but its

call for the military to follow a policy of “equality of

treatment and opportunity to all persons in the

Armed Services without regard to race” led to actions associated with making the military one of the

first integrated institutions in the United States.

The newly created U.S. Air Force had already

been studying the issue of integration before the issuance of Executive Order 9981. It had concluded

that the policy of segregation hindered the service

from making the most efficient use of its manpower.

And its first deputy chief of staff for personnel, Lt.

Gen. Idwal H. Edwards, simply stated that integration was the right thing to do. The service had a history of some integration but also of persistent discrimination dating to the days of the Army Air Forces

during World War II. As a younger service, though,

with perhaps fewer negative traditions to overcome

compared to the more senior services, the Air Force

generally managed to implement Truman’s order

rather smoothly. Integration, while not universally

accepted, did have the support of a number of officers and enlisted, many of whom engaged in activities that foreshadowed tactics used by later civil

rights advocates when they insisted that local businesses serve the African American personnel at nearby bases.43

CMSAF Robert Gaylor recalled an incident in

Texas in 1958. He managed the Lackland Air Force

Base baseball team, which included three African

American players. On the way to a game, the team

stopped at a restaurant in Uvalde. The person in

charge at the restaurant told Gaylor that he would be

willing to feed the African Americans in his group,

but that they would have to eat outside. Only the

whites could enter the restaurant. Gaylor told the

man that either all of them would come in to eat or

15

In 1950, Gen. John K. Cannon (shown here before he

became commander-in-chief of USAFE) ordered the

establishment of the first noncommissioned officer

academy.
none of them would. He and his team got back on

their bus and went on to Del Rio, where they found a

place where they all could eat.44 Though certainly

one could find examples like this of other individual

efforts to work in the spirit of integration, organizationally the Air Force faced a number of challenges

over the next decades as it strove to make true integration an institutional reality.

Under the pressure of an executive order and the

reality of efficient manpower utilization, the Air

Force moved toward the integration of African Americans. When it came to women, on the other hand,

their participation, though required by law, was far

from enthusiastically accepted. The Women’s Armed

Service Act of 1948 opened military service to

women, but it limited participation to two percent of

the regular forces. Based on the successful use by the

Army Air Forces of female personnel, both officer

and enlisted, during World War II, the new U.S. Air

Force seemed perhaps best positioned to fully utilize

female personnel. Instead, the entry of women into

the service was marked by segregation and smaller

than planned numbers.

As noted, women had served in the U.S. Army

during World War II in the Women’s Army Corps. A

number of these women had been assigned to the

Army Air Forces and became known as Air-WACs.

The AAF had welcomed their service, and, during

the war, women filled positions in a wide variety of

career fields, even that of aircraft mechanic. In 1948,

thus, the prospects for women in the U.S. Air Force

seemed promising. The reality proved far different.

First, while at the same time rejecting the Army’s

corps system for the Air Force as a whole and working to fully integrate African Americans, the Air

Force nonetheless created a separate organization,

Women in the Air Force (WAF), for its women officers and enlisted members. While some of the

women who had served in the Women’s Army Corps

during the war welcomed this organization, it worked

against the full integration of women. For example,

while women were assigned to various organizations

at a base, they went to a separate WAF squadron for

“guidance, counseling, and off-duty supervision.”

Second, though the Air Force was authorized 4,000

enlisted women in June 1948, only 1,433 women enlisted in the new service. That total grew to only

3,800 in June 1950. Recruiting women, both officers

and enlisted, to fill even the modest number of positions authorized remained problematic. In part, the

failure to fully fill the ranks reflected social attitudes

in the country at the time. None of the services

seemed capable of convincing Americans in general,

and women in particular, that the military represented a suitable career choice for a woman. And, finally,

the Air Force severely restricted the number of specialties in which enlisted women could serve. Of the

349 specialties identified by the new service, 158

were closed to women.45

Though USAF enlisted women saw their roles

shrink during the 1950s, for enlisted men the initial

years of the Cold War, with its “hot” Korean War,

meant the creation of a number of new career fields.

The Korean War witnessed the contributions of the

enlisted members of the Airways and Air Communications Service (AACS), part of the Military Air

Transport Service (MATS). Enlisted members of the

16

TSgt. Jim Cook (left) served as NCOIC of the Life

Support Section, 56th Air Commando Wing in 1967.

He is pictured checking a pilot’s survival and flying

equipment.
AACS served as air traffic controllers, radio operators, radar technicians, and equipment repairmen.

The Air Weather Service (AWS) was another part of

MATS. This worldwide air traffic control system demanded the services of a number of enlisted specialists, including flight engineers, dropsonde operators,

and flight maintenance technicians. Another part of

MATS, the Air Rescue Service (ARS), provided its

enlisted members with a number of challenging assignments. Enlisted personnel not only maintained

the service’s aircraft, which included both fixed-wing

and rotary-wing (helicopter) craft, but enlisted medical technicians provided the first medical aid to

those rescued. Enlisted personnel also served as

photo processors and photo interpreters in reconnaissance squadrons during the Korean War.46i

And, finally, the early Cold War saw enlisted

personnel taking on the role of missile crewmen. Beginning in the late 1950s, the Air Force began training enlisted missile technicians. They became responsible for maintaining those powerful weapons in

a state of continuous readiness. Missiles had to be

ready to be launched with a 15-minute notice 24

hours a day, 365 days a year. Missile crews, both officer and enlisted, served in isolated locations. The Air

Force and the Strategic Air Command realized early

on that those serving in missile crews would need to

be carefully trained, well-screened, career airmen.47

THE VIETNAM YEARS

The controversial nature of the Vietnam War placed

great stress on people serving in the military during

the 1960s and early 1970s. Those stresses, together

with the pressures created by the civil rights and

women’s rights movements and persistent complaints

about pay, benefits, and, especially, promotions, created the environment in which fundamental changes

occurred. The demands of the war itself opened new

roles for enlisted personnel. These new roles, in turn,

resulted in situations that produced some of the first

enlisted heroes of the U.S. Air Force. The 1960s and

early 1970s also witnessed difficulties associated

with recruiting and retaining a quality enlisted force.

Congress and the Air Force responded to a number of

issues, most importantly to complaints voiced about

the promotion system. The full integration of African

Americans and women remained challenging.

Through the turmoil, USAF enlisted members continued to grow professionally. While progress was

often uneven, the Vietnam War years saw the creation

of a professional organization, the eventual expansion

of professional military education, and the establishment of the Community College of the Air Force

(CCAF). With the growing professionalism of the enlisted force came greater responsibility, especially for

senior noncommissioned officers. Other landmark

changes of this period included the creation of a top

enlisted post at the Air Staff level and at many other

subordinate levels of the USAF organization.

The Vietnam War saw enlisted airmen filling

more varied roles. Some of these roles were traditional, such as gunner and loadmaster, but they involved service on aircraft that had previously not

been armed. For example, during the Vietnam War,

the United States converted a number of cargo air17

Sgt. Steve M. Northern, from Riverside, California,

completed 51 combat rescues during two consecutive tours as a pararescueman in Southeast Asia.
craft—from the C–47 to the C–130—into gunships.

The enlisted gunners on these new craft actually

served as gun loaders. The aircraft pilots aimed and

fired the guns, but the enlisted aerial gunners made

sure that the rapid-fire guns remained loaded and operating. The loadmasters on these cargo-aircraftturned-gunships released hot, explosive, and dangerous flares over the target areas, illuminating them so

that the pilots could aim the guns. In addition, an expanded Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service

(ARRS) continued the work of its predecessor organization, the Air Rescue Service. The ARRS included among its enlisted specialties that of pararescuemen (PJs). The ARRS is credited with saving over

twenty-six hundred lives in Vietnam as a result of its

work. The Vietnam War also witnessed the creation

of the tactical air control party (TACP) and the combat control team (CCT). Consisting of both officers

and enlisted personnel, the TACP coordinated close

air support for ground troops. Combat control teams

acted as air traffic controllers at remote airstrips, directed fighter strikes, provided control for emergency

airdrops, and aided aerial evacuations.48

Individuals filling a number of these new roles

emerged as new enlisted heroes. The first U.S. Air

Force enlisted Medal of Honor winner, A1C John L.

Levitow, served as a loadmaster on an AC–47 gunship. During a combat air patrol over South Vietnam

in February 1969, orders came to divert to the Army

post at Long Binh, which was under mortar attack.

While attempting to knock out the mortar positions,

the gunship, Spooky 71, was rocked when a mortar

landed and then exploded on the plane’s right wing.

Levitow and a fellow crewman, Amn. Ellis Owen,

who had been dropping parachute illumination flares

from the cargo compartment, were knocked to the

floor. One of the flares activated within the cargo

compartment, giving off toxic smoke and threatening

to explode. Airman Levitow, though suffering from

shrapnel wounds, made his way to the flare and covered it with his body. He then moved himself and the

flare to the cargo door of the aircraft and tossed the

flare out of the plane moments before it fully ignited.

Levitow suffered severe burns, but he saved his fellow crew members and the gunship. After recovering

from his wounds, the twenty-three-year-old Levitow

returned to fly twenty additional combat missions before completing his term of enlistment as a loadmaster at Norton Air Force Base, California. President

Richard Nixon presented him with the Medal of

Honor on May 14, 1970.49

After leaving the Air Force, Levitow continued

to work on behalf of his fellow service members. For

twenty-two years, he held various positions in the

area of veterans’ affairs. Before his death, he was involved with veterans’ affairs programs for the state of

Connecticut. Levitow was remembered as a hero

throughout his life. All noncommissioned officers,

after studying their promotion books, know that he

was the lowest ranking airman to earn the Medal of

Honor. Due to the efforts of CMSAF Sam Parish, the

top graduates of the Air Force’s airmen leadership

schools receive the Levitow Honor Graduate Award.

18

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. McConnell

announced creation of the position of chief master

sergeant of the Air Force in 1966.
The headquarters building for the 737th Training

Group at Lackland Air Force Base is named in his

honor. In 1998, John Levitow had the opportunity to

inspect the cockpit of the C–17 named for him, the

Spirit of John L. Levitow. That same year, his name

was added to the Walk of Fame at Hurlburt Field in

Florida. After a lengthy battle with cancer, John L.

Levitow died on November 8, 2000. He is buried in

Arlington National Cemetery.50

Shortly after the death of the USAF’s first enlisted Medal of Honor winner, Secretary of the Air

Force F. Whitten Peters presented the nation’s highest

military honor to the family of A1C William H. Pitsenbarger on December 8, 2000. The actions that resulted in this posthumous award took place in April

1966. Pitsenbarger was the pararescueman on the

crew of one of two helicopters, part of Detachment 6,

38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at

Bien Hoa, called in to rescue members of Charlie

Company, 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, who

were deep in the Vietnamese jungle, surrounded by

Vietcong. The first helicopter experienced a number

of problems, including a lack of direct communication with the soldiers below and the fact that the litter

kept snagging on the jungle cover. When Pitsenbarger’s helicopter arrived, he asked to be put down on the

ground, believing that way he could help more people, more quickly. Once on the ground, Pitsenbarger

began to help extract the wounded. He did so while

facing intense ground fire. During the course of the

rescue, automatic weapons fire severely damaged

Pitsenbarger’s helicopter, call sign Pedro 73, and it

had to withdraw. Pitsenbarger remained on the

ground, aiding the wounded and returning enemy

fire. He continued to work until he was hit at least

four times by enemy fire, including a fatal round to

the head. He was twenty-one years old.

Though Pitsenbarger was nominated for the

Medal of Honor at the time, a number of the witnesses were so severely wounded that they could not offer

timely testimony of his bravery. Instead, Pitsenbarger’s family received his Air Force Cross in September

1966. In the years that followed, Pitsenbarger’s extraordinary heroism did not pass unnoticed by the Air

Force. A number of memorials, buildings, streets,

and awards bear his name. His fellow pararescuemen, though, never abandoned their efforts to have

his award upgraded. In 1996, the Airmen Memorial

Museum, an arm of the Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA), gathered evidence of the events, including the testimony of surviving members of Charlie

Company. Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio)

formally requested the upgrade in 1999. With the

support of Secretary of the Air Force Peters, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2000 included

the authorization for Pitsenbarger’s award. Pitsenbarger’s father accepted the Medal of Honor on his

behalf.51

Enlisted airmen also filled a number of noncombat roles in Vietnam. These included their traditional

roles as aircraft and engine mechanics as well as acting as ordnance experts, construction engineers, inflight refueling boom operators, firefighters, and

civic actions personnel.52

Certainly, the stress and turmoil associated with

the Vietnam War complicated the ability of the Air

Force to recruit and, more importantly, retain quality

enlisted personnel. On the home front, those choosing to serve in the military often found themselves

the focus of an undercurrent of antimilitarism that

swept across the country, particularly on college

campuses. Men and women in uniform often became

the targets at which Americans aimed their anger

concerning the war.53 CMSAF Paul Airey, however,

noted that more basic issues such as promotions and

quality of life—pay, housing, and medical care—

played important roles as well. The unpopularity of

the war could not be ignored, nor could these more

fundamental issues. Many of the most severe criticisms centered on the promotion system. 

Complaints focused on the inadequate implementation of the system and also on the perceived

unfairness of the entire promotion process. Enlisted

personnel complained repeatedly that the process

was neither systematic nor understandable. Much of

the discontent was centered on the promotion board

system. The questions board members could ask

were not standardized, and it also seemed as if there

19
were no standards for answers. CMSAF Robert Gaylor pointed out, for example, that one board member

might decide that because candidates for promotion

had taken a number of Extension Course Institute

courses, they were, therefore, worthy of promotion.

Another member of the same board could conclude,

instead, that these individuals were not doing their

jobs because they were spending so much time taking courses. The whole process seemed overly subjective.54

The concerns of the USAF enlisted force finally

garnered the attention of Congressman L. Mendel

Rivers (D-South Carolina), the long-serving chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He

chaired a series of hearings that resulted in a major

revision of Air Force enlisted promotion policy.

Known as the Weighted Airman Promotion System

(WAPS) and adopted in 1970, it made promotion

contingent on a number of clearly defined, weighted

criteria. These included time-in-grade and test

scores. This new, more objective system received a

warm welcome from enlisted personnel. The chief

master sergeants of the Air Force serving during the

development and early years of the system praised it

highly, even going so far as declaring it the best promotion system ever.55

Less enthusiastically embraced, but also aimed

at opening up opportunities for advancement, was

TOPCAP (Total Objective Plan for Career Airmen

Personnel). Coming three years after WAPS, it created an “up or out” career path for noncommissioned

officers by setting a high-year-of-tenure mark for the

various enlisted ranks. Under the original TOPCAP

program, E–5s had to retire after twenty years of service, while E–9s could stay to thirty years. Like

WAPS, TOPCAP aimed at creating the ideal enlisted

force structure.56 However, CMSAF Paul Airey decided that, by the mid-1980s, TOPCAP had perhaps

outlived its usefulness. CMSAF Thomas Barnes further noted that it seemed to have forced some key

NCOs to leave the Air Force and that it resulted in a

drop in the overall experience level in a number of

career fields. CMSAF Donald Harlow personally

concluded, in the mid-1980s, that while it met the

needs of the time, perhaps it was time for the Air

Force to reconsider the program.57 The service eventually revised TOPCAP in 1991.

The Air Force also focused a great deal of attention on addressing quality of life issues for its enlisted members, including such key issues as pay, housing, and medical care. The service worked repeatedly

to address such issues. At points, progress would be

made. But then larger forces—the Vietnam War, inflation, fluctuating defense budgets—often contributed to a renewed decline in conditions. The

Weighted Airmen Promotion System seemingly provided a long-term answer to promotions. Long-term

answers to quality of life issues, however, seemed

more elusive.

Finding answers, though, was and remains crucial. As has been pointed out, the lifestyles of military personnel and their families differed from that of

20

During the Vietnam War, Air Force sentry dog handler

A2C Leonard Bryant, of St. Louis, Missouri, patroled

the fence at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam,

with his German shepard Nemo. The military is

generally considered the most integrated U.S.

institution.
any other work organization. The special stresses included “frequent moves, isolation from extended

family, frequent and sometimes prolonged periods of

separation of service members from their spouses

and children, residence in foreign countries, and the

potential for violent injury and death.” Though individuals in other occupations can experience some of

these same stresses, “military life has a unique combination of them,” and “most military families experience all of them at some point in their career.”58 The

Air Force leadership, and NCO leaders in particular,

had to give special attention to these quality of life issues in order to recruit and retain the high-quality enlisted force required.

Medical care, especially that for military dependents, proved important to the retention of Air Force

enlisted personnel and witnessed reform during the

1960s. Up until the mid-1950s, the benefits available

to military members compared favorably to those

available to private sector employees. By the mid1950s, though, the private sector had moved to expand significantly its fringe benefits packages. Included in these were medical benefits for both

employees and their dependents, and 70 percent of

industrial workers had a health benefit package that

included dependent medical care. The military, on

the other hand, made no provisions for medical care

for dependents beyond offering access to military

medical facilities on a strictly space-available basis.

The authorization for medical care for retirees and

dependents on this space-available basis came in

1956, with the passage of the Civilian Health and

Medical Program of the Uniformed Services

(CHAMPUS) Act. Though technically available,

medical care remained difficult to acquire for service

spouses and children.59 In response to concerns

voiced, CHAMPUS was expanded in 1966 to include

more individuals, including the spouses and children

of retired members, and a greater range of medical

care and services.60

The Air Force also faced continuing issues involving the full integration of African Americans and

women. While, as noted, the military had formally

integrated by the 1950s, discrimination still occurred. Further, integration and equality are different,

and the integration of the Air Force did not mean that

its African American members immediately enjoyed

complete equality, either in the service or in U.S. society. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and

1960s that pushed for the full integration of society

and the full equality of all African American citizens

clearly touched and influenced events in the Air

Force. The young African American men and women

who joined the service in the 1960s and early 1970s

had been in many ways shaped by the accomplishments and by the frustrations of the movement. The

Air Force had to respond, and it initiated its social actions programs in 1969. These programs aimed at

tackling problems that ranged from overt racism to

21

SSgt. Michael L. Greene of the Eleventh Air Force

Hospital, U-Tapao, Thailand, is shown holding an 

orphan during a flight from Phnom Penh, Cambodia,

in April 1975. Enlisted airmen have been integrally 

involved in rescue missions worldwide.
the misunderstandings bred of a lack of awareness of

cultural differences. Two years later, the military as a

whole established the Defense Race Institute (DRI),

which offered training to both officers and enlisted

personnel to provide them with the skills to deal with

race and human relations issues. Those trained at the

DRI were then charged with educating their fellow

service members.61

CMSAF Thomas Barnes, to date the only

African American to achieve that rank, spoke extensively of the challenges raised by the civil rights

movement and Americans’ negative and positive responses to it. Many of the problems, he believed,

grew out of cultural ignorance or insensitivity. Noncommissioned officers in particular had to learn to

deal with a wide variety of issues—everything from

haircuts to language to music.62

Before serving as chief master sergeant of the

Air Force, Barnes, then a chief master sergeant and

Air Training Command’s (ATC’s) senior enlisted adviser (SEA), had to deal with one of the most serious

post-World War II racial incidents in the Air Force. In

1971, a group of young African American airmen

had barricaded themselves inside the dining hall at

Laredo Air Force Base, Texas.63 They were frustrated

by the fact that command staff at their base seemingly refused to do anything about the discrimination

these airmen faced on and off base. By the time

Barnes arrived, the airmen had been in the dining

hall for most of the night, communications had been

cut off, and armed police had surrounded the facility.

Barnes realized that the best way to deal with the

situation was to get someone inside who could talk

with the airmen and assure them that their issues

would be addressed. That someone turned out to be

Barnes, who gained access to the dining hall when

some of the airmen inside recognized him and allowed him to come in through a window. He then assured the airmen that their message had been

heard—not only by the military, but by the civilian

community as well, as the incident received widespread media attention. He finally convinced them

that continuing their sit-in would be wrong, because

it would begin to affect the mission capability of the

base by preventing people from eating. To continue

their protest despite that fact would put it “in an entirely different category.”64 The young men agreed,

and the sit-in ended peacefully.

African Americans were not the only members

of the service feeling the bite of discrimination.

Women serving the Air Force had to fight to ensure

their right to serve in positions of prestige and responsibility. Even though the need for manpower expanded as U.S. involvement grew, the participation of

women in the military declined in the 1960s. The

vast majority of enlisted women in the military

served in what U.S. society deemed traditional female roles—clerical, administrative, and medical.

Such actions and attitudes were devastating to the

morale of women in the military.65

The position of women especially eroded during

Gen. Curtis E. LeMay’s tenures as vice chief of staff

and then as chief of staff of the USAF. Maj. Gen.

Jeanne Holm, appointed Women in the Air Force director in 1965, was unsure whether or not LeMay

wanted to eliminate the WAF entirely. It was clear,

however, that the number of women serving in the

U.S. Air Force had declined to an all-time low of

4,700 at the time of her appointment. Under Holm’s

leadership, the service gradually expanded the number of career fields open to women, both officers and

enlisted. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to

the U.S. Constitution, while failing of passage,

nonetheless also created political pressure for action.

The number of women serving in the Air Force increased during the 1970s, the opportunities open to

them expanded, and the separate WAF was eliminated in 1976.66

The professionalization of the enlisted force also

continued during the Vietnam War, often in the face

of some substantial challenges. In the early 1960s,

Air Force enlisted personnel formed a professional

organization to advanced enlisted issues. Enlisted

professional military education matured, albeit at an

uneven pace as enlisted leaders had to fight to

reestablish schools that had been eliminated as a result of budget pressures caused by the Vietnam War.

They achieved a major victory with the establish22
ment in 1973 of a school for senior noncommissioned officers. And, despite the existence of some

policies that seemed to undermine the role of NCOs,

the Air Force and the other services created a top enlisted post and followed that by authorizing the commanders to appoint a senior enlisted adviser.

In 1961, Air Force noncommissioned officers

emphasized their professional status by creating their

own professional organization, the Air Force

Sergeants Association (AFSA), membership of

which is open to all active duty and retired members

of the Air Force, Air National Guard, and the Air

Force Reserve. Since its creation, the AFSA has

emerged as an important advocate for the rights and

entitlements of Air Force enlisted personnel. In addition to its lobbying work, the AFSA publishes a magazine called Sergeants, administers a scholarship

program, conducts a number of seminars for retiring

enlisted personnel, and supports a museum dedicated

to the heritage of the Air Force enlisted force.67

While Air Force enlisted personnel always embraced the opportunities for professional military education, provision of such training sometimes lost

out to budgetary or other concerns. The Strategic Air

Command, an early leader in providing enlisted

PME, for example, closed its noncommissioned officer academies (NCOAs) in March 1966 and did not

reestablish them until July 1968.68 Many biographies

of the chief master sergeants of the Air Force included in this volume indicate clearly the degree to which

noncommissioned officers themselves valued professional military education. Not only did they view it

as vital that NCOAs reopen, but enlisted leaders also

pushed for the establishment of an advanced level of

PME in the form of an academy for senior noncommissioned officers. 

After a great deal of lobbying effort on the part

of enlisted leaders, the Air Force established the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy (SNCOA)

in 1973 for those serving in the “top three” enlisted

23

Maj. Gen. Jeanne Holm (shown here as a colonel)

served eight years as the director of the WAF 

and greatly expanded the number of career fields

open to women in the Air Force.

Sgt. Celestine Gates, a command and control

specialist, is shown updating a fighter aircraft status

board in the Elmendorf Operations Center, Elmendorf

Air Force Base, Alaska, in January 1981. The

percentage of women in the Air Force in the 1980s

varied from 11 to 14 percent.
ranks. With some encouragement and persuasion

from its enlisted leaders, the service recognized that

these senior NCOs needed additional training to prepare them for their increased leadership and management duties. The SNCOA opened at Gunter Air Force

Base, now Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex, in

Montgomery, Alabama. Those who study there receive instruction in military professionalism, leadership planning, civil service personnel management,

executive decision making, and organizational management.69

In addition to establishing the various academies, the Air Force also created other venues for its

enlisted members to continue their education. In

1950, the service had established the Extension

Course Institute (ECI) to provide correspondence

programs for members. The institute offered over

four hundred courses, including a number that closely paralleled those offered at the noncommissioned

officer academies.70 Then, in 1972, the Community

College of the Air Force (CCAF) came on the scene.

It offered general education and management courses and two-year degree programs aimed at broadening “the noncommissioned officer as a technician,

manager and citizen.”71

Enlisted professional military education and

other educational opportunities played important

roles in the professionalization of Air Force enlisted

personnel. Equally significant were the advances

made generally in recognizing the importance of

NCO leadership. This recognition often came at an

uneven pace, as it had with respect to professional

military education. Within the military, especially between 1968 and 1972, young service members expressed deep resentment at the fact that they were

being asked to fight a very unpopular war. The early

chief master sergeants of the Air Force spoke of the

challenges they faced, both as senior noncommissioned officers and as the top enlisted person in the

Air Force in meeting the problems associated with

the Vietnam War. In the opinion of many of these

men, the problems stemmed from Pentagon policies

that worked to undermine the role and prestige of the

NCOs. For example, they pointed out that, during the

1960s, the Pentagon, whether explicitly or implicitly,

sent the signal that it was acceptable for young ser24

Women in the Air Force are no longer offered only administrative and support positions. Among the myriad

options available to female enlistees are jobs as ground and flight crew members, missile facilities technicians,

and security forces members. 
vice members to take their complaints directly to

their commanders, bypassing the senior NCOs.72 In

the face of these challenges, Air Force noncommissioned officers needed, more than ever, to develop

strong leadership skills in their role as the most immediate supervisors of the enlisted force. Within this

context evolved the efforts to establish a top enlisted

post in each of the services.

The position of chief master sergeant of the Air

Force grew out of both the experience of the USAF

and examples set by the other services. In some

ways, it came up through the ranks, but then it gained

powerful support in Congress. The idea was to create

the position of an enlisted adviser to the chiefs of

staff of the Air Force and the Army, the chief of naval

operations, and the commandant of the Marine

Corps. It was thought that, in light of the ongoing

personnel issues, as well as those surrounding the

role of the noncommissioned officer and the professionalization of the enlisted force, it would be helpful

to have strong voices for the enlisted in the halls of

the Pentagon. By the summer of 1967, each of the

services had created such a position.

Groups representing enlisted personnel first

raised the idea of a senior-level enlisted adviser. The

Air Force Association’s Airman Council, now known

as the Enlisted Council, voiced the idea of creating a

“top NCO” post in 1964. The council members believed that it would improve communication between

the rank and file and the leadership of the Air Force.

Service leaders studied the idea but decided not to

take any action.73 That same year, the Army’s

Sergeants Major Personnel Conference made a similar recommendation to the Office of Personnel Operations, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. The

Army initiated staff studies to examine the possibility. The idea received the personal support of the chief

of staff of the Army, Gen. Harold K. Johnson. He and

other Army leaders believed that the position “would

promote confidence within the enlisted ranks and simultaneously increase the prestige, operating effectiveness, and career incentives for senior enlisted personnel.” The following year, the Sergeants Major

Personnel Conference once again recommended the

creation of such a position. Within weeks, the Army

began to move in that direction.74

Immediately, however, those proposing the creation of a top NCO position began to encounter resistance. In many ways, the arguments first voiced in

the Army echoed those later raised in the Air Force

and in the Navy. Opponents’ major concern was that

such an action might create a separate enlisted chain

of command. It had to be made clear that the person

occupying this role would do so in a strictly advisory

capacity. General Johnson helped to address many of

the concerns raised, and on July 4, 1966, General Orders No. 29 officially created the position of sergeant

major of the Army (SMA). The first sergeant major

of the Army, William O. Woolridge, a combat veteran

of both World War II and Vietnam, took the oath of

office on July 11, 1966.75

General Johnson had originally anticipated that

his actions would lead to the creation of similar positions in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.

When action was not forthcoming, Congressman

Rivers—who, as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, had been hearing a great deal

about problems facing enlisted servicemen and

women—proposed a bill mandating the creation of

such a position in the other services. The bill stayed

in committee, however. When congressional staff

conducted an investigation, they found that the Marine Corps had created the position of sergeant major

of the Marine Corps in 1957. However, the noncommissioned officer occupying that position did not really have the same relationship to Marine Corps leaders that the Army had granted SMA William

Woolridge. The incumbent, Sergeant Major of the

Marine Corps Herbert Sweet, reported to a colonel,

not to the commandant of the Marine Corps. After

Woolridge assumed office, though, Sweet called

Woolridge to report that he had been moved to an office next to the Marine Corps commandant.76 It remained for the Air Force and the Navy to take action.

The Navy had established a task force to study a

range of personnel issues, especially those that affected retention, in 1964. The task force published its

results on February 14, 1966. One of its recommen25
dations called for the establishment of a “Leading

Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.” The Navy began

immediate action on a number of the commission’s

recommendations, including the one dealing with the

creation of a senior enlisted post. As they had been in

the Army, objections were heard. Again, the main

fear was that such a post would interfere with the

chain of command. Nevertheless, Navy commands

sent forward the names of hundreds of individuals

who might fill the new position during the fall of

1966. A master chief selection board reviewed the

nominations and narrowed the possible candidates

down to eleven individuals. A special board then reviewed those packages and selected Master Chief

Gunner’s Mate Delbert Defrece Black as the first

master chief petty officer of the Navy (MCPON). He

took office on January 13, 1967.77

With top enlisted positions already or about to

be established in the Marine Corps, Army, and

Navy,78 the Air Force continued to debate the idea

through most of 1966. In October of that year, however, the Air Force leadership decided to create such

a position. Gen. John P. McConnell, the chief of staff,

announced the decision and called for nominations.

The selection criteria reached the major commands

in November. To be eligible for the new position, a

candidate had to be a chief master sergeant (E–9) and

had to have served in that grade for at least two years;

in addition, he had to have served at least twenty-two

years on active duty, be a high school graduate, and

have a service record that reflected high degrees of

integrity and professionalism. Unlike the Navy, the

Air Force limited the number of nominations to

twenty-one: each command could nominate at least

one person, and major commands could nominate

two. A selection board headed by Brig. Gen. William

S. Harrell met and forwarded the names of three finalists to the chief of staff. The three finalists met

with General McConnell in January 1967. That same

month, McConnell announced the selection of

CMSgt. Paul W. Airey as the first chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. He began his tour in July

1967.79

The first few men to hold the title “Chief Master

Sergeant of the Air Force” had to establish the credibility and authority of the office in a time of great

challenge and turbulence. U.S. involvement in the

Vietnam War was reaching its height, the civil rights

movement required that the Air Force closely examine the degree to which it lived up to the ideals of integration, and women were also pushing for an expanding role in the service. By 1973, the draft had

been abolished, and the Air Force had to learn how to

recruit and retain the best enlisted members in the

context of an all-volunteer force. And while the service’s leadership officially supported the job, the first

chief master sergeant of the Air Force was, in reality,

moving into uncharted territory.

As expected, most of the responsibility for shaping the new position fell to its first incumbent, Paul

Airey. He spent his first few weeks in office introducing himself to the Air Force leadership, military

and civilian, and to certain members of Congress. He

also worked to establish the procedures by which the

office would operate. One of his chief goals was to

win broader support for the position itself by over26

John L. Levitow is one of six enlisted airman to

receive the Medal of Honor.
coming the perception that the Air Force had created

it only because of the threat of action from Congressman Rivers. Although he was uncertain how strongly

General McConnell agreed with the idea in the first

place, Airey was certain after a few months that he

had the chief of staff’s full support.80 CMSAF Donald Harlow and CMSAF Thomas Barnes further

noted that they needed to establish their credibility

not only with the service’s leaders but also with the

enlisted force. The first chief master sergeants of the

Air Force found themselves in an important middle

position between the leadership and the enlisted personnel. They needed to explain Air Staff policies to

the members in the field and to represent the needs

and concerns of the enlisted effectively to the Air

Staff. And they needed to learn how to negotiate the

often tricky territory of the Pentagon and the halls of

Congress. The early chiefs found these challenges

daunting but also exciting, and most seemed to relish

the opportunity to take the new position and build it

into an important and effective professional leadership position.81

As a result of the work of CMSAF Paul Airey

and his successors, those holding the job have moved

beyond their “official” responsibility “to advise and

assist the chief of staff and the secretary of the Air

Force in matters concerning enlisted members of the

Air Force” by taking on a number of additional duties, including 

Representing the enlisted force at ceremonies

and official social functions.

Serving as a point of contact for other services

and civilian organizations on issues that affect the enlisted.

Representing the enlisted force on a variety of

boards, including Air Force Welfare, Uniform, Commissary, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Air Force Aid Society, and

Outstanding Airman of the Year boards.

Serving as advisor to the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s

Home and the CMSAF Selection Board.

Accompanying the Chief of Staff on base visits—and conducting still other visits on his

own.82

Many of those who have served in the CMSAF

position have concluded that in the years since its

creation, senior Air Force enlisted members have witnessed a significant increase in their ability to communicate with senior service leadership.83

With the creation of the top enlisted position, the

chief of staff had a senior enlisted adviser. Soon

thereafter, commanders at other levels of the Air

Force saw the utility of having such an adviser on

their staff. The appointment of such individuals

27

In 1966, the family of A1C William H.

Pitsenbarger received his Air Force

Cross posthumously from Air Force

Chief of Staff Gen. John P. McConnell.

Thirty-four years later, Pitsenbarger’s

selfless heroism was acknowledged 

by the upgrade of his award to 

the Medal of Honor.
began in the field. For example, before he became

the third chief master sergeant of the Air Force,

Richard Kisling was named the chief master sergeant

of the Security Service. Kisling’s commander asked

him to investigate the situation of the enlisted members of the command—what they were thinking,

what personnel programs were working, what problems they were facing. Kisling then reported back to

the commander. Shortly thereafter, and as the idea of

establishing such a position spread to other Air Force

commands, the service officially authorized the appointment of individuals to such a position and standardized the job title as “Senior Enlisted Adviser.”

This position proved a training ground for future

chief master sergeants of the Air Force. For example,

CMSAF James McCoy served as Strategic Air Command’s first senior enlisted adviser beginning in

1975. While in that position, McCoy chaired two

worldwide conferences for senior enlisted advisers.

Both Kisling and McCoy believed that their time as

senior enlisted advisers prepared them to serve in the

top spot. CMSAF Thomas Barnes, though uncertain

as to whether service in the position was a necessary

prerequisite to service as chief master sergeant of the

Air Force, also viewed the establishment of senior

enlisted advisers as a positive development. He believed that it was “an extremely good thing because it

made a network of immediate contact points for the

person occupying the position of CMSAF.”84 The

title “Senior Enlisted Adviser” was never universally

accepted. In the late 1990s, during the tenure of

CMSAF Eric W. Benken, it was replaced by the title

“Command Chief Master Sergeant” (CCM).85

POST-VIETNAM THROUGH THE REAGAN YEARS

The period between the end of the Vietnam War in

the mid-1970s and the end of the Cold War in the late

1980s witnessed dramatic swings in the fortune and

status of the U.S. military. In the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War, the services faced a number of significant challenges. One of the greatest involved the end of the draft and the switch to a purely

voluntary military. The Air Force seemed, for a number of reasons, best positioned to make this transition; nonetheless, it also had to deal with a number of

fundamental issues, including the further integration

of a larger number of African Americans and, more

controversially, women into the ranks. At the same

time, the transition to an all-volunteer military came

during a period great stress. The Vietnam War had

soured the public’s view of the military, and the budgets of the late 1970s hurt readiness. This was known

as the period of the “Hollow Force.” The advent of

the Reagan administration in 1981 marked the start

of generally better conditions and, in many ways, an

improved image of the military. However, one important benefit—retirement—saw a significant reduction during these years.

Congress abolished the draft in 1973 and introduced the all-volunteer force (AVF) in 1974. The reasons behind the end of the draft and the creation of

the AVF were many. Most immediately, the Vietnam

War and problems with the selective service system

speeded the transition. But, overall, the change came

due to longer-term forces, including the Cold War,

the need for a relatively large military “in place,” and

demands for a better standard of living that made traditional military life unattractive.86 In the past, the

Air Force had never relied on the draft directly: draftage men often chose to enlist in the Air Force instead

28

SSgt. Harry H. Cash, a flight engineer with the 

40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron,

adjusts the direct viewing device on an HH–53

helicopter, April 1971.
of being drafted into the Army. But now it had to

compete for members along with the other services.

In terms of recruiting, the Air Force was seen as

having a number of advantages over the other services. First, compared to the other services, the

USAF had relatively few enlisted members expected

to serve in combat conditions and thus was viewed as

having a higher degree of “civilian equivalence.” The

Air Force also rated highly in terms of perceived

prestige as well as the working conditions and the

lifestyles its enlisted members could expect to experience. And it also appeared that because the Air

Force anticipated and planned for the advent of the

all-volunteer force in a perhaps more efficient way

than the other services, it experienced fewer difficulties in making the move.87

Nonetheless, the challenges posed by the allvolunteer force were real, and they included successfully integrating a larger percentage of both women

and African Americans within the enlisted force.

They also included convincing young airmen that indeed the Air Force offered a great opportunity to take

on responsibility at a younger age than in the civilian

world. And it involved efforts, particular by the senior NCO leadership, to help protect the military retirement system, which was recognized as a major incentive that could be used to encourage

reenlistments, particularly to second-term enlistees

and above.88

Many issues involving race and discrimination

continued into the 1970s and 1980s. But, in some

ways, the more prominent issue during this period in29

For their actions in Somalia,

SSgt. Jeffrey W. Bray (left) 

and MSgt. Scott C. Fales

(center) received Silver Stars. 

TSgt. Timothy A. Wilkinson

(right) received the 

Air Force Cross.
volved gender. With the advent of the all-volunteer

force and the need to meet accession goals, the percentage of women serving in the Air Force increased

rapidly in the mid- to late 1970s, from 6 percent in

1976 to 10 percent in 1979. The percentage then varied, generally rising, from between 11 percent and 14

percent during the 1980s.89

The chief master sergeants of the Air Force who

served during the 1970s acknowledged a number of

difficult issues the Air Force had to deal with in integrating women more fully, but they generally believed that women deserved the right to serve in the

force. CMSAF Robert Gaylor stated, “[P]eople

should have the opportunity to do that for which they

have been trained and prepared, and which fits their

desires.” He added, “I think we just have to ensure

our people are given an opportunity. If they can’t cut

it, regardless of race, creed, color or sex then someone else should get in there, but they should be given

a chance to show whether they can do it or cannot do

it.”90

In the early 1980s, a number of circumstances

arose that challenged the role of women in the military as whole. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter

called for a resumption of a program to register individuals for the draft. This immediately raised the

question of whether or not women would now be required to register along with the men. In turn, discussion of that issue soon evolved into one involving the

role of women in combat. The often heated debate

led to a number of legislative and judicial decisions

that exempted women from registration for the draft

and continued to restrict them from combat. Though

some individuals, including some military leaders,

believed that such decisions signaled an opportunity

to further limit the participation of women in the military, other circumstances soon intervened to actually

expand the number of military women. President

Ronald Reagan’s plan to build up U.S. military

strength depended in many ways on the services’

ability to recruit more women. In January 1982, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger issued a statement in which he reaffirmed the Reagan administration’s support of women in the military and

expressed the goal of expanding the roles available to

them.91

30

During World War II, SSgt. J. R. Gilmore, from Merced, California; SSgt. William M. Finney, from New York City;

and SSgt. Donald J. Stewart of Erie, Pennsylvania, served as enlisted pilots flying L–5 liaison aircraft.
As the Air Force opened up opportunities for

women, its noncommissioned officers, who are often

responsible for providing the most direct “leadership

on the spot,” as CMSAF Robert Gaylor described it,

were challenged to make sure that, despite the

changes, the mission was still accomplished.92

CMSAF James C. Binnicker believed that, despite

efforts made, women continued to experience discrimination. Eventually, though, he asserted, the Air

Force succeeded in eliminating many of the barriers

faced by women, and he stated, as have many other

former chiefs, that he believed that a woman would

soon serve in the top post.

The period between the end of the Vietnam War

in 1975 and the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1981 became known as the era of the “Hollow

Force.” It was a time when the U.S. military might

have looked like that of a superpower, but, underneath the surface, it suffered from poor readiness, inadequate training, falling retention rates, and low

morale. By the late 1970s, the pay situation had deteriorated so severely that many in the military threatened to follow the example of some European militaries and form a union.93 During a period of high

inflation and general economic stagnation, the military found its pay raises capped at levels below that

of inflation. Many were forced to take second jobs.

As a result, the reenlistment rates for career airmen—those with between six and thirty years of service—declined significantly in the late 1970s. The

reenlistment rate for first-term airmen plunged by

over 10 percent. When CMSAF James McCoy took

office in 1979, he was warned by his predecessor,

CMSAF Robert Gaylor, that the “Air Force [was]

probably in the worst shape that it has ever been in.”

Gaylor frankly blamed it on “an administration that

doesn’t really care for the military.” CMSAF Gary R.

Pfingston remembered serving as a young senior

noncommissioned officer during the late 1970s. He

described the situation as “not very good” and recalled “killing” work routines, lack of parts, and inadequate training. General conditions and retention

rates did not improve until the 1980s.94

The post-Vietnam drawdown of military personnel strength essentially ended in the early 1980s.

With the inauguration of the Reagan administration,

the military began a period of growth, both in personnel strength and in budgets. Though the expansion in overall personnel strength was not particularly dramatic, it did mark a reversal of the decline. Air

Force enlisted numbers increased from 455,909 in

1980 to 495,244 in 1987, the height of the so-called

Reagan buildup.95 In some ways, spending on the

military increased more dramatically than the personnel numbers, and this brought relief, not only in

terms of new equipment and spare parts but also in

quality of life. As CMSAF Arthur L. “Bud” Andrews

pointed out, many of the pay and benefits complaints

of the late 1970s ended with a substantial military

pay raise in 1980.

In one area, however, the military witnessed an

important revision of a crucial benefit. As noted, the

promise of a significant retirement benefit had always been an important tool for recruiting and retaining career military personnel. Such a benefit, however, comes with a cost. In the 1980s, Congress twice

took measures to decrease the costs of military retirement by first revising and then significantly reducing

the retirement benefit. In 1980, Congress changed

the formula for determining the amount of a person’s

retirement pay. Under the original system, for example, after a twenty-year career, a service member was

entitled to a pension equaling 50 percent of their

final pay rate. In 1980, Congress introduced the

“high-three” formula. Retirement pay would no

longer be based on the final pay rate; it would now be

based on the average of the pay earned during service

members’ three highest-earning years—for most,

their last three years in the service. This served to reduce a member’s retirement pay by an average of 5 to

7 percent.96

A more fundamental change in the retirement

system came in 1986. Known as “Redux,” the new

plan reduced the retirement benefit at twenty years to

40 percent based on the high-three formula. At the

thirty-year mark, the retirement benefits of the 1980

plan and the 1986 plan reached equality (75 percent

31
based on the high-three formula); but for those serving between twenty and twenty-nine years, the Redux

plan meant a 12 to 15 percent reduction of their retirement benefit. During congressional deliberations,

CMSAF Sam Parish and other military leaders opposed the measure, but it nevertheless passed. By the

late 1990s, CMSAF Eric Benken identified the retirement system adopted in 1986 as one of the key

factors hurting retention of career airmen.

THE END OF THE COLD WAR TO THE PRESENT

Though the Cold War ended, challenges to the U.S.

military remained and in some ways increased.

Throughout the 1990s and into the new century, U.S.

forces have been deployed in support of contingency

operations all over the globe. The increased demands

placed on the military have come at a time when the

number of people serving has decreased, partly because of budgetary pressures. Those same pressures

also led to changes in benefits. While the changes in

medical benefits proved the most unpopular, the

need to meet even reduced recruiting goals and to

maintain retention goals resulted in some positive reforms in terms of housing and retirement. And unlike

other periods of drawdown and budgetary constraints, the 1990s saw a renewed commitment to enlisted professional military education. Most importantly, though, in the late 1990s, the Air Force engaged in a fundamental reorganization of its forces to

better meet current and projected demands.

In the autumn of 1989, the world order shaped

by the Cold War came to an end. The pivotal moment

came in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall—

symbol of the division between east and west,

democracy and communism—fell. The number of

individuals serving in the U.S. military had begun to

decline as early as 1988. With the fall of the Berlin

Wall, however, came an expectation of a “peace dividend” and a more dramatic reduction in spending on

the U.S. military. Despite the fact that the 1990s

would soon prove a decade of great activity and

obligation on the part of the military—from Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm in the early 1990s

to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003—the number of

individuals serving in the military declined rapidly.

What was true of the military overall was true of

the USAF enlisted force. Until the late 1990s, the

number of enlisted had fallen below 300,000 only

once before in the history of the U.S. Air Force, in

1947: fifty-two years later, at the end of 1999, the

number stood at 299,373. The number of enlisted

members continued to fall until 2001, when it

32

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois,

photographed in 1986, was 

named for Cpl. Frank S. Scott, the

first enlisted man to die in 

a military accident.
reached a post-1947 low of 280,410. At the end of

fiscal year 2002, however, the number showed a

small rebound to 292,268.97 As CMSAF Gary Pfingston noted, the Air Force moved aggressively to

meet the demand for personnel cuts. For the most

part, it was able to meet its goals without resorting to

involuntary separations.

Personnel cuts were only part of the picture.

Medical care and other benefits became subject to

the same budgetary strains as those facing the military as a whole in the 1990s. Yet medical care remained an important incentive for those considering

careers in the military. Facing escalating costs and

the realities of a post-Cold War drawdown of forces,

all the services revised their health care programs in

the mid-1990s. CHAMPUS was replaced by TRICARE, a combined Air Force, Army, and Navy

health care program that combined medical service

in military facilities with patient care provided by

civilian health care professionals. The advent of the

TRICARE program led to a great deal of protest, especially from military retirees. They argued that as

the services had sought to recruit and retain career

officers and enlisted beginning in the 1950s, service

members had been promised free medical care in

military facilities for life. Under the new TRICARE

program, military retirees had to join the Medicare

program once they reached age sixty-five. The services argued that the rising costs as well as the rising

number of military retirees—in 1995, retirees outnumbered active duty personnel for the first time—

made it impossible to continue to deliver on the

promise of free, lifelong medical care in military facilities. Retired CMSAF James McCoy, the first enlisted person to serve as president and then chairman

of the board of the Air Force Association, concluded

that the promise of free medical care had been broken with the creation of TRICARE. However, he asserted that the best option was to work to improve

TRICARE. Since its creation in 1995, TRICARE has

been expanded and revised.98 Medical care as a military benefit for both active duty and retired members

has been and will remain an important issue for the

Air Force and the other services as they continue to

try to recruit and retain high-quality candidates as officers and enlisted members.

In terms of benefits, some progress was seen. As

CMSAF Gary Pfingston pointed out, the Air Force

paid particular attention to housing for young airmen

during the 1990s. CMSAF James C. Binnicker had

first raised the issue, but it was during Pfingston’s

tenure that the Air Force adopted the Vision 2020

policy, later known as the DoD (Department of Defense) one-plus-one dormitory standard. Under this

policy, airmen would have their own living area.99

Both Pfingston and Binnicker believed that it made

no sense that under Air Force housing policies, Binnicker’s young son, for example, was authorized his

own room in base housing while eighteen-year-old

airmen were required to have roommates.

Perhaps the most significant advance came in

the form of a revision of the retirement benefit. As

noted, Congress adopted the Redux system in 1986.

By the late 1990s, it emerged as one of the issues driving retention problems. In 2000, Congress offered a

new alternative. Service members who entered the

service on or after August 1, 1986, could, at the fifteen-year mark in their careers, make a choice of retirement systems. They could choose to switch to the

same high-three system enjoyed by service personnel

who entered between September 8, 1980, and July

31, 1986. Or, they could choose to stay under the

Redux system and receive a $30,000 bonus. The assumption was that members choosing the bonus

would invest the money. Depending on their investment decisions, the bonus could provide the basis for

a considerable nest egg. Though not as generous as

the system offered to those who entered before September 8, 1980, the action in 2000 marked a significant improvement in the retirement benefit.100

In the 1990s, unlike during the Vietnam period

when noncommissioned officer academies closed,

the Air Force gave increased attention to enlisted education and training despite the drawdown and the

other pressures facing it. In 1993, the service established the College for Enlisted Professional Military

Education (CEPME). Located at Maxwell Air Force

Base-Gunter Annex, the new college provides a cen33
tralized chain of command and a cadre of curriculum

developers for each level of enlisted PME, and its

overall mission is to prepare enlisted personnel for

positions of leadership and responsibility. The creation of the CEPME was part of a larger reform

movement, highlighted during the “Year of Training,”

that also included the elimination of the E–4 sergeant

rank, after which the existing NCO Leadership

School was renamed the Airman Leadership School

(ALS). The reorganization also reemphasized the

connection between professional military education

and promotion. Since the mid-1990s, promotion to

the rank of staff sergeant required completion of the

ALS; to master sergeant, completion of the NCOA;

and to chief master sergeant, completion of the Senior NCOA. All schools had to be completed in residence.101

The 1990s also brought changes significant to

women in the Air Force. During the 1990s, the percentage of enlisted women rose from 14 percent in

1990 to 19 percent in 2000.102 Operations Desert

Shield/Desert Storm dramatically demonstrated the

increased importance of military women in general.

The performance of women during that conflict

raised again the fundamental question of equality.

Between 1992 and 1994, Congress, the President,

and the Department of Defense acted to remove the

remaining barriers to women serving in combat. A

handful of specialties are still closed to them because

of physical strength limitations. But, as CMSAF

Gary Pfingston noted, enlisted women now serve in

nearly every Air Force specialty code (AFSC) for

which they are qualified. 

Though the Air Force, like the military as a

whole, was drawing down in the 1990s, the operational tempo (OPTEMPO), was increasing. Immediately after the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Air

Force engaged in two major operations. The first,

Operation Just Cause, began on December 17, 1989,

and ended on February 14, 1990. This operation focused on removing from power Gen. Manuel Noriega, Panama’s military strongman, and bringing him

to the United States to face trial on drug trafficking

and money-laundering charges. The ultimate goal involved not only bringing Noriega to justice but also

returning democracy to Panama. Though personnel

faced difficult weather and other problems, Operation Just Cause fulfilled its objectives.103 A few

months later, U.S. troops were involved in the largest

U.S. military operations since Vietnam, Operation

Desert Shield followed by Operation Desert Storm,

actions aimed at driving invading Iraqi forces out of

Kuwait. CMSAF Gary Pfingston, who served in the

top enlisted position during this time period, believed

that the performance of enlisted members during

these operations clearly demonstrated their dedication and professionalism.

With the rapid conclusion of Operations Desert

Shield and Desert Storm, the drawdown began in

earnest. Nevertheless, the Air Force participated in

no fewer than six major contingency operations between the conclusion in March 1991 of Desert

Shield/Desert Storm and January 1996. These operations took USAF personnel to such far-flung locations as Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti and lasted

from months to years, with Operation Southern

Watch still ongoing. The high demands of these operations, coupled with the falling number of personnel,

resulted in great stress upon the forces. By the late

1990s, these stresses, combined with a strong economy, hurt USAF recruiting and retention goals.104 In

response to the continued high OPTEMPO, the Air

Force underwent a fundamental restructuring. It had

to transform itself organizationally from a Cold War

garrison force to what it called the Expeditionary

Aerospace Force (EAF).

The idea behind the EAF dates back to 1994. In

October of that year, Iraqi forces once again threatened Kuwait. Most of the U.S. forces that had deployed to the region in 1990 and 1991 had returned

home. To meet this renewed threat, the United States

had to deploy forces very quickly. The United States

was able to deter renewed Iraqi action, but the deployment uncovered a number of problems. To address those problems, and to more generally prepare

the Air Force for rapid deployment, Chief of Staff

Gen. Ronald Fogleman asked the commander of Air

Combat Command (ACC), Gen. Joseph W. Ralston,

34
to develop a plan for standing air expeditionary

forces (AEFs). The goal was “to be able to deploy a

package of ‘shooter’ airpower—including air-toground, and defense suppression airplanes—into a

theater and begin generating combat sorties within

48 hours of the ‘execute’ order.” By 1997, the Air

Force had executed four AEF deployments. Each

AEF drew on thirty to forty aircraft from three or

four wings.105

Following these early experiments, the Air Force

began a series of operational exercises in 1998. That

year’s Expeditionary Force Experiment, EFX 98, for

example, aimed at testing and refining the AEF concept. The goal of these exercises was to test the

warfighting capabilities of the air expeditionary

forces and whether or not adoption of the AEF concept would help to address the many stresses caused

by the increased OPTEMPO of the late 1990s. As the

concept evolved, the Air Force moved to divide itself

into ten AEFs. Each AEF would be available for a

ninety-day deployment at a predictable time within a

fifteen-month cycle. Further, each AEF could plan

for twelve months between each period of vulnerability for deployment. The AEF members could use

those twelve months for rest, normal training, and

preparing for their next potential deployment. Initially, the AEFs involved primarily fighter aircraft. As

the concept matured, more assets—including

bombers, gunships, and reconnaissance aircraft—became part of the package. At the same time, though,

the Air Force worked to reduce the size of the deployment by learning to operate “lighter, leaner, and more

lethal.”106

CMSAF Frederick Jim Finch recalled that the

creation of the Expeditionary Aerospace Force involved not just an organizational change but a cultural change as well. He noted that the Air Force had to

transform structurally and also had to reeducate its

people. Personnel had to learn to move from a garrison-based Cold War force mind-set to that of an expeditionary force. This cultural education began at

basic training, where enlisted recruits engaged in

Warrior Week, a week of field training aimed at

preparing them for the conditions they might encounter as a member of an air expeditionary force.

In 1947, the year the Air Force became an independent service, 263,082 enlisted members served in

its ranks. At the end of the fiscal year 2002, the number of USAF enlisted stood at 292,388. The similarity in numbers, however, masks the tremendous and

often volatile changes that have shaped the U.S. Air

Force in the last half-century. The airmen serving in

2003, for example, are in many ways far different

from those who served in the past. First, today’s enlisted members are much more diverse. Over time,

women and nonwhites have come to serve in far

greater numbers and make up a growing percentage

of the force. Second, today’s airmen are far better educated. In the late 1940s, only about half of the enlisted force had a high school diploma. Today, only a

small percentage of enlisted members lack such a

diploma, and the number of enlisted with college and

advanced degrees has grown.107 Third, today’s airmen are more professional. Over more than fifty

years, the U.S. Air Force has institutionalized the notion of a professional enlisted force, embodying it in

the current PME and training structure. But in other

ways, today’s enlisted members share much with

their predecessors. They are still valued for their

skills and, when called, they serve at locations all

over the world. And, at a fundamental level, pay and

benefits, quality of life, and training remain at the

core of their day-to-day concerns.

Today’s enlisted force can learn much from the

past. The passage of time involves both continuity

and change, and over the course of any individual career, an enlisted member could experience much of

both. Through the study of their own enlisted heritage, they can learn that many issues remain, despite

much effort to solve them, and they can prepare

themselves for the possibility of sudden and sweeping change. Through the biographies of the former

chief master sergeants of the Air Force included here,

they can see how more than a dozen very successful

enlisted members coped with both continuity and

change over their own careers.

35
1. These studies include Mark R. Grandstaff,

Foundation of the Force: Air Force Enlisted Personnel Policy (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and

Museums Program, 1997); Janet R. Bednarek, ed.,

The Enlisted Experience: A Conversation with the

Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program,

1995); and Janet R. Bednarek, “Not Soldiers—Airmen: The Development of the USAF Enlisted Force,”

Air Power History 39, no. 2 (summer 1992): 29–31.

For a study of professionalization of the enlisted in

the Army, see Ernest F. Fisher, Jr., Guardians of the

Republic: A History of the Noncommissioned Office

Corps of the U.S. Army (1994; reprint with a new

foreword, Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books,

2001).

2. Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, pp. 7–10.

3. Ibid., pp. 10–12.

4. Ibid., pp. 36–47.

5. Airmen Memorial Museum, Unsung Heroes: A

History of the Enlisted Airmen from the Dawn of

Flight to Desert Storm (Washington, D.C.: Airmen

Memorial Museum, 1997), pp. 50–60.

6. Ibid., pp. 77–84.

7. Ibid., pp. 98–103.

8. Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, pp. 27–36.

9. Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight (New

York: Free Press, 1986), pp. 141, 146–48.

10. Ibid., pp. 154–56.

11. Mattie E. Treadwell, The Women’s Army Corps

(Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History,

1985), pp. 281, 769.

12. Ibid., pp. 282–95.

13. See Rebecca Hancock Cameron, Training to

Fly: Military Flight Training, 1907–1945 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program,

1999), pp. 313–49, 421–50.

14. Lee Arbon, They Also Flew: The Enlisted Pilot

Legacy, 1912–1942 (Washington and London:

Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), pp. 1–3, 22–26,

35.

15. Ibid., pp. 25, 35–49.

16. Ibid., pp. 45–77.

17. Ibid., pp. 79–89, 111–13.

18. Ibid., pp. 122–51.

19. Department of Defense (DoD), Selected Manpower Statistics, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington,

D.C.: DoD, Washington Headquarters, Directorate of

Information, Operations and Reports, 2000), pp.

47–48, 64–65.

20. Ibid., p. 47.

21. Fisher, Guardians of the Republic, pp. 249–59.

22. William I. Chivalette, “History of the Air Force

Enlisted Uniform,” (Washington, D.C.: The Airmen

Memorial Museum, The Airmen Heritage Series,

1997), pp. 5–6.

23. Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, p. 140.

24. Ibid.

25. CMSAF Richard Kisling, “Enlisted Force History,” Draft, Address given to the Senior NCO Academy, ca. 1980–1981 (typewritten manuscript available

36

NOTES
in the files of the Office of Air Force History, Bolling

AFB, Washington, D.C.).

26. Telephone interview with the author, October

22, 2002.

27. See Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the

State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1957), esp.

pp. 7–18; and Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait (New York: Free

Press, 1960).

28. This last critique could also be extended to

much of the classic work on the enlisted, in particular

that of Charles Moskos, whose studies of the U.S. enlisted force are based almost exclusively on examinations of Army units. See Charles C. Moskos, Jr., The

American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in

Today’s Military (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1970).

29. For a sense of the evolution of a definition of

professionalism and an evaluation of the Air Force’s

NCOs as fitting with the definition of a professional

group, see SMSgt. George H. Day, “Nonsense, Common Sense, and the Professional NCO,” Air University Review 29, no. 5 (July-August 1978); 66–72;

Bednarek, “Not Soldiers—Airmen,” pp. 29–31; and

Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, pp. 3–4,

191–200.

30. Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, pp. 194–95.

31. Ibid., pp. 195–200.

32. Ibid., pp. 138–44; Bruce D. Callendar, “The

Evolution of the Air Force NCO,” Air Force Magazine 69, no. 9 (September 1986): 170, 173.

33. Callendar, “The Evolution of the Air Force

NCO,” p. 169.

34. MSgt. Paul J. Turner, “USAF’s Middleman,” The

Airman 2, no. 6 (June 1958): 16–18.

35. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 86–88.

36. MSgt. Frank J. Clifford, “School for Zebras,” Air

Force 38, no. 4 (April 1955): 28–29; TSgt. Harold L.

Craven, “Schools for Air Force Sergeants,” The Airman 2, no. 10 (October 1958): 12–13; Ted R. Sturm,

“They Make Military Managers, The Airman 10, no.

2 (February 1976): 17–18.

37. Clifford, “School for Zebras,” pp. 28–29.

38. Craven, “Schools for Air Force Sergeants,” pp.

12–13.

39. Grandstaff, Foundation of the Force, pp. 173–76.

40. Ibid., pp. 164–65.

41. Ibid., pp. 164–66.

42. Ibid., p. 177.

43. Purposeful action on integration was not taken

until ten months after Executive Order 9981 was issued. But Gen. Carl Spaatz, the first Air Force chief

of staff; Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington;

and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene

Zuckert were all on record as supporting integration

even before the issuance of the order. Lt. Gen. Idwal

H. Edwards, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, had studied the issue and had concluded as

early as the spring of 1948 that segregation resulted

in waste and inefficiency. Alan L. Gropman, The Air

Force Integrates, 1945–1964 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1978), pp. 86–142; Oral

History Interview of Gen. Idwal H. Edwards by Maj.

Alan Gropman, February 10, 1973, typed transcript,

p. 10, K239.0512–915, in USAF Collection, Air

Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA),

Maxwell AFB, Ala.

44. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 38.

45. Jeanne Holm, Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution, rev. ed., (Novato, Calif.: Presidio

Press, 1992), pp. 113, 129, 130–47.

46. Airmen Memorial Museum, Unsung Heroes,

pp. 186–95.

47. Ibid., pp. 225–26.

48. Ibid., pp. 248–56, 263–64. For more detailed

discussions of some of the combat roles played by

USAF enlisted in Vietnam, see SMSgt. James A.

George, “They Work the Night Beat,” The Airman

11, no. 10 (October 1967): 44–47; Sgt. John C. Gundersdorf, “90 Acres of Hell,” The Airman 15, no. 4

(April 1971): 24–26; Lt. Carol Habgood, “Com37
bat–Ready Communicators,” The Airman 10, no. 3

(March 1966): 26–28; and Lt. Jerry Poppink,

“Pararescueman!” The Airman 10, no. 8 (August

1966): 12–14.

49. Carl Berger, ed., The United States Air Force in

Southeast Asia, 1961–1973: An Illustrated Account,

rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1984), p. 363; John L. Frisbee, “The Saving of

Spooky 71” at http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor.

50. “Medal of Honor recipient Levitow dies” at

http://www.af.mil/news/Nov2000; SrA. Oshawn Jefferson, “Levitow’s legacy will live forever” at

http://www.afsadivision610.org/levitow2.

51. John T. Correll, “Pitsenbarger, Medal of Honor,”

Air Force Magazine 84, no. 2 (February 2001):

26–32.

52. Airmen Memorial Museum, Unsung Heroes,

pp. 265–71. For a more detailed discussion of other

roles played by enlisted in Vietnam and throughout

the USAF, see Ed Blair, “Strength of the Giants,” The

Airman 16, no. 9 (September 1972): 32–36; SMSgt.

James A. George, “Those ‘No Sweat’ Knuckle

Busters,” The Airman 12, no. 1 (January 1968): 4–7;

Capt. Carroll S. Shershun, “A Tiger in Every Tank,”

The Airman 11, no. 4 (April 1967): 30–34.

53. For an overview of the antiwar movement, see

Charles DeBenedetti, An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era (Syracuse, N.Y.:

Syracuse University Press, 1990). For more contemporary views, see Maj. Joseph W. Kastl, “Antimilitarism in the Age of Aquarius,” Air University Review 23, no. 1 (November-December 1971): 32–38;

and Herman S. Wolk, “Antimilitarism in America,”

Air University Review 23, no. 4 (May-June 1972):

20–25.

54. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 112–13.

55. Jacob Neufeld and James C. Hasdorff, “The

View from the Top: Oral Histories of Chief Master

Sergeants of the Air Force,” in David R. Segal and H.

Wallace Sinaiko, eds., Life in the Rank and File: Enlisted Men and Women in the Armed Forces of the

United States, Australia, Canada, and the United

Kingdom (Washington, D.C.: Pergamon-Brassey’s,

1986), pp. 121–22.

56. See Maj. Norbert R. Kaus, “They Call it TOPCAP,” The Airman 15, no. 9 (September 1971):

11–15.

57. Neufeld and Hasdorff, “View from the Top,” p.

129; Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp.

114–15.

58. Mady Wechsler Segal, “Enlisted Family Life in

the U.S. Army: A Portrait of a Community” in Segal

and Sinaiko, Life in the Rank and File, pp. 184–85.

Though Wechsler Segal based her work on the examination of life on a U.S. Army post, she emphasized

that enlisted families in all of the armed services

shared these experiences.

59. Ibid., pp. 177–79; Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 79.

60. Ted R. Sturm, “Don’t Overlook CHAMPUS,”

The Airman 14, no. 4 (April 1970): 27–31.

61. See Sgt. Craig Pugh and Robert K. Ruhl, “Up

Front—Where the Action Is,” The Airman 25, no. 2

(February 1981): 37–42; Nalty, Strength for the

Fight, pp. 318–19.

62. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 104.

63. For an overview of the Laredo incident, see

Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 104–105;

Neufeld and Hasdorff, “View from the Top,” pp.

123–24.

64. Neufeld and Hasdorff, “View from the Top,” p.

123.

65. Holm, Women in the Military, pp.175–85.

66. Ibid., pp. 171–85, 246–88, 313–46.

67. Air Force Sergeants Association, “Fact Sheet,

September 1989” (International Headquarters, P.O.

Box 50, Temple Hills, Md.).

68. Lt. Col. Ernest M. Magee, “The Evolution of

NCO Academies,” Air University Review 17, no. 6

(September-October 1966): 57; MSgt. Ken Allen,

“Academies of Leadership,” The Airman 12, no. 6

(June 1968): 26.

69. Sturm, “They Make Military Managers,” pp.

38
16–17.

70. Fact Sheet, United States Air Force, Secretary of

the Air Force, Office of Public Affairs, subj: Extension Course Institute, no. 87–42.

71. Fact Sheet, United States Air Force, Secretary of

the Air Force, Office of Public Affairs, subj: Community College of the Air Force, no. 86–1.

72. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 89–99.

73. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The

Chiefs (Arlington, Va.: Air Force Association, 1984),

pp. 5–6.

74. Mark F. Gillespie, Glen R. Hawkins, Michael B.

Kelly, and Preston E. Pierce, eds., The Sergeants

Major of the Army (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1995), p. 6.

75. Ibid., pp. 6–8.

76. Ibid., p. 50; Fischer, Guardians of the Republic,

pp. 343–44; Enlisted Council, Air Force Association,

The Chiefs, p. 6. Though Congressman Rivers’s bill

failed to emerge from committee, he carefully monitored the actions of the services. CMSAF Richard D.

Kisling believed that Congressman Rivers played an

essential role in the creation of the top enlisted positions. Enlisted Council, The Chiefs, p. 7.

77. Charlotte D. Crist, Winds of Change: The History of the Office of the Master Chief Petty Officer of

the Navy, 1967–1992 (Washington, D.C.: Office of

the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy and the

Naval Historical Center, 1992), pp. 3–4. Originally,

the Navy’s top enlisted person held the title “Senior

Enlisted Adviser of the Navy.” In April 1967, the

name was changed to master chief petty officer of

the Navy, to make it more similar to the titles in the

other services.

78. The Coast Guard established its top enlisted position in 1969. Charles L. Calhoun served as the first

master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard.

79. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The

Chiefs , pp. 6–7.

80. Ibid., pp. 7–8.

81. For an extended discussion of the challenges

faced by the first few CMSAFs, see Bednarek, The

Enlisted Experience, pp. 123–36.

82. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The

Chiefs, p. 4.

83. Neufeld and Hasdorff, “View from the Top,” p.

131.

84. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 125–26.

85. For an example of the discussion surrounding

the title “Senior Enlisted Adviser,” see Enlisted

Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 8.

86. Morris Janowitz and Charles C. Moskos, Jr.,

“Five Years of the All-Volunteer Force: 1973–1978,”

Armed Forces and Society 5, no. 2 (winter 1979):

172–73.

87. Ibid., pp. 187–88.

88. For a brief discussion of the impact of the allvolunteer force, see Walter J. Boyne, Beyond the Wild

Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947–1997

(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), pp. 227–28.

89. Based on statistics available on-line at

http:/www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/demograf/.

90. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 142.

91. Holm, Women in the Military, pp. 347–98.

92. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 141–42.

93. For more on the military union movement, see T.

Roger Manley, Charles W. McNichols, and G. C.

Saul Young, “Attitudes of Active Duty U.S. Air Force

Personnel Toward Military Unionization,” Armed

Forces and Society 3, no. 4 (August 1977): 557–74

and Lt. Col. William V. Rice, Jr., “Unionization of the

Military: A Fable for the Seventies?” Air University

Review 25, no. 5 (July-August 1974): 55–58.

94. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 143–44;

Neufeld and Hasdorff, “View from the Top,” p. 127.

95. DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

96. Tom Philpott, “The New World of Retirement

Options,” Air Force Magazine 83, no. 2 (February

2000): 59.

97. See DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000;

39
pp. 64–66. The most recent available total for USAF

enlisted can be found on-line on the DoD, Directorate for Operations and Reports, Statistical Information Analysis Division web site at

http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/military/rg0210.pdf.

98. For information on the controversies surrounding the establishment and perceived limitation of the

new Tricare system, see Suzann Chapman, “Sizing

Up Tricare” at http://www.afa.org/magazine/perspectives/ sizing_up_tricare.html; John T. Correll, “Issue

No. 1” at http://www.afa.org/magazine/0298issue.html;

and “It’s Showdown Time on Tricare” at

http://www.afa.org/magazine/0400tri.html.

99. Suzann Chapman, “The Housing Problem,” Air

Force Magazine 79, no. 4 (April 1996): 41.

100. Philpott, “The New World of Retirement Options,” pp. 59–60.

101.SMSgt. Murray, “Enlisted Professional Military

Education: A Journey Through Time,” U.S. Air Force

Enlisted Heritage Hall student paper, February 22,

1996, pp. 8–9; MSgt. Kammie Short, “CEPME Internationally Recognized as Center of Excellence for

Professional Military Education,” Maxwell-Gunter

Dispatch, February 7, 1997, p. 12.

102.Based on statistics available on-line at http://

www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/demograf/.

103. A. Timothy Warnock, ed., Short of War: Major

USAF Contingency Operations, 1947–1997 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2000), pp. 167–78.

104.See Bruce D. Callendar, “The Recruiting and

Retention Problems Continue,” Air Force Magazine

83, no. 6 (June 2000), pp. 64–68.

105.John A. Tirpak, “The Expeditionary Air Force

Takes Shape,” Air Force Magazine 80, no. 6 (June

1997): 30.

106.See Robert Wall, “Expeditionary Nerve Center,”

Air Force Magazine 81, no. 8 (August 1998): 64–66;

Bruce D. Callendar, “The New Expeditionary Force,”

Air Force Magazine 81, no. 9 (September 1998):

54–56; John A. Tirpak, “The Long Reach of On-Call

Airpower,” Air Force Magazine 81, no. 12 (December 1998), pp. 22–26; and John A. Tirpak, “The EAF

Turns One,” Air Force Magazine 83, no. 10 (October

2000): 20–25.

107.Tracing the educational achievement levels of

USAF enlisted can be challenging. Up through the

1970s, the DoD Selected Manpower Statistics provided the figures by service. After the mid-1970s,

however, this publication simply reported the educational achievement of all enlisted, not providing separate statistics for each service. The USAF Military

Personnel Center at Randolph AFB does provide

USAF-specific statistics on educational achievement

levels beginning in FY 1976. However, the Air Force

reported the statistics differently than had the DoD.

The DoD statistics were cumulative in nature. For example, in 1959, the DoD reported that 65.6 percent

of USAF enlisted had earned a high school diploma.

This statistic included both those who had only

earned a high school diploma as well as those who

had gone on to college. The USAF figures since

1976 were not cumulative. For example, the Air

Force reported the number of enlisted who had only a

high school diploma. It did not include in that figure

those who had gone on from high school to earn college or even advanced degrees. Without careful use

of the figures, one could underestimate the educational achievement level of USAF enlisted. Looking

at the year 2001, though, it is clear that the vast majority of USAF enlisted now have at least a high

school diploma, because only 6,351 have an unknown level of educational achievement (6,170), no

high school (4), or a General Education Diploma

(GED) (177). See DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Statistical Services Center,

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD)

(Comptroller), January 31, 1959), p. 45; DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Directorate for Statistical Services, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), February 2, 1962), p. 43;

DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics (Washington,

D.C.: Directorate for Statistical Services, OSD, April

15, 1968), p. 36; DoD, Selected Manpower Statistics

(Washington, D.C.: Directorate for Statistical Services, OSD, April 15, 1970), p. 34; DoD, Selected

40
Manpower Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Directorate

for Information Operations, DoD, OASD (Comptroller), May 15, 1974), p. 42; DoD, Selected Manpower

Statistics (Washington, D.C.: Directorate for Information Operations and Control, DoD, OASD

(Comptroller), May 1975), p. 41. For USAF statistics

since FY 1976, see http://www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/ demograf/.

41
42
CHIEF MASTER SERGEANTS

OF THE AIR FORCE

★

Paul W. Airey

April 3, 1967– July 31, 1969

★

45
Paul W. Airey

April 3, 1967– July 31, 1969

★
P

aul Wesley Airey became the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force on April 3,

1967.1 Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States, Harold Brown was the

secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. John P. McConnell was the Air Force chief of

staff. During Airey’s little more than two-year term, U.S. involvement in Vietnam reached a

peak, in terms of the troops involved and, in many ways, of the protests against the war. The

number of enlisted personnel in the Air Force reached 761,507 in 1968 before falling slightly

to 722,507 in 1969.2

Paul Airey was born on December 13, 1923, and was raised in Quincy, Massachusetts,

an overwhelmingly Navy town. During World War II, Quincy’s Fore River Shipyard operated

at full tilt, producing such famous ships as the USS Wasp and the USS Quincy. In that booming atmosphere, Airey’s earliest plan was to join the Navy. At age eighteen, less than year

after Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Airey quit high school to enlist.

An unpleasant experience with a Navy recruiter, however, changed his mind about that

branch of the service. He opted instead to enlist in the Army Air Forces on November 16,

1942—a decision he never regretted.3

Airey went to accelerated basic training in Atlantic City and at Brigantine Field, New

Jersey. “The entire town of Atlantic City was taken over by the Army Air Forces for basic

training,” Airey recalled. “All of the hotels were used by the various squadrons.” Basic

trainees learned close order drill and customs and courtesies—the usual subjects that went

into the making of a soldier. Airey said trainees also were given a significant responsibility:

“We had complete blackouts on the coast to prevent our ships from showing up as silhouettes

out on the water,” he said. “Due to this action, and to the fact that the Germans had landed

some spies on the east coast, we also trained to patrol the famous Atlantic City boardwalk

against a German landing.”

Airey left basic training for radio operator school at Scott Field, Illinois. Following a

promotion to private first class, he went to aerial gunnery school at Tyndall Field, Florida.

When he graduated from that school in August 1943, newly promoted Sergeant Airey and his

classmates traveled by troop train to Salt Lake Army Air Base, Utah, for crew assignment and

refresher training in radio operation. His crew was assigned to Gowen Field, Idaho, for B–24

47

Biography by SMSgt. Valerie McGovern 
transition training and eventually reported to Fairmont Army Air Base, Nebraska, to help

form and activate the 485th Bombardment Group. Airey was promoted to staff sergeant while

at Fairmont.

By March 1944, Airey and the 485th Bombardment Group were on their way to join the

Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, via Puerto Rico, British Guiana, Brazil, Senegal, and Tunis in

Tunisia. “On the leg from Atkinson Field, British Guiana, to Belém, Brazil, the radio operator

was issued a coop with some pigeons,” Airey said. “It was a long stretch across the Amazon

jungle. [If] you went down, there was no radio equipment that you could use, so we had pigeons to use in case we crashed in the jungle. We lost several planes in the Amazon Basin

during those years. I guess those pigeons logged many an hour going back and forth.”

The crew stopped in Tunis for two months to await the completion of a runway in Italy.

There, for the first time, the war struck close to Airey:

...something happened that had a profound effect on me.... It started out as rumor that

the convoy which most of my squadron was coming over on was hit by German planes in

the Mediterranean Sea and the whole shipload was lost. This was very strongly denied as

a vicious rumor. Rumors aided the enemy. Those who spread rumors could be courtmartialed. However,...it was all true; we lost the entire squadron. The ship was carrying

gasoline and explosives and received a direct hit shortly after nightfall. There were no

survivors. My entire squadron had disappeared—all the ground crews, the orderly

room—there was no one left.4

Once in Europe, Airey flew missions to some of the most heavily defended targets in

Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. Airey once flew over Ploesti, though he was not

on the mission that made it famous. He remembered the flak as both frightening and frustrating—all one could do was watch it. While he never saw it so thick that you could walk on

it, as some grimly joked, he did see “it so thick that it darkened the sky, almost blotted out the

sun.” Once at the initial point, aircrews were not allowed to take evasive action because they

had to fly in formation to the target. “Flak took a terrible toll, and many thousands of casualties could be attributed to it. Thousands of POWs [Prisoners of War] could testify that flak

was what got them.” A few months after arriving in Europe, Technical Sergeant Airey and the

crew were shot down on his twenty-eighth mission. Their B–24 was hit by flak shortly after

they bombed oil refineries on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria. “I can recall the pilot feathering one engine and then another,” said Airey. “By this time, we were well across the Danube

[River] over Hungary.” The oil pressure in a third engine started going down, and the pilot ordered everyone to get out because, as they all knew, the B–24 could not fly on one engine and

would go into a spin.5

48
Airey had hoped that the crew members would

be able to get out if their aircraft were ever hit. “I’d

seen other planes go down over a target,” Airey recalled.

I’d seen B–24s go into a spin. I’d stood at the

waist window praying for the chutes to come

out, and no chutes would come out. Centrifugal

force prevented them from bailing out.... So

when the pilot said, ‘Go,’ there was no hesitation

on my part. Right out the camera hatch I went.6

All of the crew members got out. They bailed

out at 18,000 feet—so high that Airey had time to

tear up his radio operator code card and look for

possible places to hide after landing. The welcome

on the ground was not friendly. “I never got out of

my harness,” Airey remembered. “I landed, and they

were waiting for me, and I received some punches. They were very angry. I was happy to see

the authorities show up.” Airey and his fellow crew members were rounded up and incarcerated for several days in a large civilian prison in Budapest. After processing, they were placed

in groups of twenty and taken by train to Stalag Luft IV, a POW camp for Allied airmen near

Gross Tychow, in German Pomerania, now part of Poland, a journey that lasted several days.

“The first thing that struck home was the fact that I knew so many people who were already POWs,” Airey said. “To a degree, it was comforting to be around old friends, even if we

had to meet under those circumstances.”

On February 6, 1945, Airey and six thousand other prisoners were ordered to march west

from Stalag Luft IV to an unknown destination. “The Germans didn’t want us to fall into

Russian hands,” he said, “so they herded us around. Nearly ninety days later, we were still

marching, with only a short layover at Stalag 11B. It was pretty primitive. We stayed in barns

at night, sometimes out in open fields; sometimes we were fed and sometimes we weren’t.”

Men died from disease, malnutrition, exposure, and exhaustion before their liberation by

the British Second Army on May 2, 1945. When he was freed, Airey was suffering from

dysentery and weighed less than one hundred pounds. He was taken to France and then spent

three months on recuperation leave in the United States.

Following his experiences in World War II, Airey remained firmly grounded in the principles of duty, honor, and devotion to country. “Even as a prisoner of war,” he said, “I was

49

Airey and his wife, Shirley Babbitt

Airey, on their wedding day, 

February 10, 1946
giving much consideration to staying in the military. I liked it. There was something about it I

wanted. I came back from that recuperation leave and reenlisted.”

Though Airey found much about the military to admire, there were certain features of

his early career he was glad to see fade into the past. When Airey entered the military, for example, the men with whom he had served ranged from college graduates to those who could

not read or write. The latter would never be allowed in the U.S. Air Force today, he noted. In

addition, in the 1940s, local judges often “sentenced” men to the military. And military prisoners were paroled in order to come on active duty. Travel between duty stations also left

much to be desired. During the war, Airey and his fellow soldiers frequently endured long

and uncomfortable trips by troop trains and transports. During the 1940s and into the 1950s,

enlisted personnel had to report to a pay table once a month to receive their pay. Depending

on the size of the unit, this activity could take up an entire day. The state of medical care in

the 1940s through the 1950s was also different. Airey believed that many airmen worked

while sick because of the perception they would be seen as “malingering” or “goldbricking”

if they went on sick call. Doctors during that era were considered officers, rather than

medics, and were referred to by rank, not by the title doctor. This led to a military atmosphere and not the doctor-to-patient relationship that Airey sees in military medicine today.

And until the mid 1950s, the military was not required to provide medical care to military dependents.7

But the positives outweighed the negatives, and Airey decided to stay in the service.

After the war, he married his high school sweetheart, Shirley Babbitt. He spent the next six

years as a radio school instructor at what in 1948 became Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. He

was promoted to master sergeant in 1948 and was sent to Naha Air Base, Okinawa, in 1951.

As noncommissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) of wing communications, he devised a corrosion control assembly line for aircraft radio and radar equipment and, as a result, was

awarded the Legion of Merit for saving money and extending equipment life.

In 1953, Airey was offered a position he would later believe to be one of the most important in the Air Force. He took the job of squadron first sergeant at Scott Air Force Base. During the next twelve years, he served as first sergeant, guiding airmen and noncommissioned

officers, at the 3318th Training Squadron, Scott Air Force Base; the 3407th School

Squadron, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi; the 611th Aircraft Control and Warning Site,

a remote base in the mountains on the Chiba Peninsula, Japan, where he was promoted to senior master sergeant in 1960; the 478th Fighter Group, 468th CAMRON (Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance) Squadron, Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, where he was promoted to chief master sergeant in 1962; the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Grand Forks;

and the 4756th Civil Engineering Squadron, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

“I still think the first sergeant is a key position in the United States Air Force today. As

much emphasis should be placed on that position as possible,” Airey said. The first sergeants

50
of today must deal with day-to-day leadership and discipline problems, and they must also

deal with families. Unlike in the early years of the Air Force, now the majority of enlisted

personnel are married. Airey also noted that the first sergeants must be able to deal with both

men and women. First sergeants must know their jobs and be able to offer help when needed.

They must also know when they cannot offer help, and when they need to look elsewhere for

assistance. Airey stated that the first sergeant must be a role model and must always keep as

the top priority the welfare of the enlisted people. However, the first sergeant must balance

that with the realization that the mission of the unit and the mission of the Air Force are paramount. “My many years as a first sergeant was of great help for me when becoming the

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.”8

He also believed that establishing the position of senior enlisted adviser was a major advancement for the enlisted forces:

The establishment of the Senior Enlisted Adviser (SEA)—now Command Chief Master

Sergeant—was a major development in upgrading the enlisted force. The position places a

senior NCO in direct contact with a commander, which enables the SEA to represent the enlisted people in the command on all matters pertaining to health, welfare, morale, discipline,

and organizational problems. It is also a training ground for future Chief Master Sergeants of

the Air Force.9

51

Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown (left), CMSAF Paul Airey, and Air Force Chief of Staff

Gen. John Paul McConnell at Airey’s installation ceremony
Airey realized that, in addition to his service as a first sergeant, education was essential

to advancement and preparation for higher rank. When stationed at Scott Air Force Base, he

earned an associate degree in business administration at McKendree College in Lebanon,

Illinois. He took follow-on courses at the University of North Dakota and Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida.

When Airey was appointed chief master sergeant of the Air Force in 1967, he was the

first such noncommissioned officer charged with the responsibility of aiding and advising

the secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force chief of staff on all matters pertaining to enlisted service members.

Before his appointment, Airey never expected he would get the position: “I thought,

‘Whoever gets that job is really going to have to go through a lot. What a great honor it would

be.’ But I didn’t think I had any chance of being selected.” According to Airey, twenty-two

hundred chief master sergeants were eligible for the job at the first selection. Several records

reviews and in-person board interviews reduced the number to twenty-two semifinalists.

From that number, three were chosen: Conrad Stevens, from Military Airlift Command

(MAC); “Red” Marsh, from Pacific Air Forces (PACAF); and Airey. They went to Washington, D.C., and were interviewed by several senior officers, including the vice chief of staff,

Gen. Bruce Holloway, and the chief of staff, Gen. John P. McConnell, who selected Airey as

the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

Of his selection, Airey remarked, “I can honestly say of the twenty-two hundred, I never

will be convinced that I was the most qualified or the most eligible. I ended up with the job—

so you go out and do the best you can.”

Almost immediately upon assuming his new responsibilities, Airey began tackling the

problem of personnel retention, an issue he identified as one of the greatest challenges he

faced. The first-term reenlistment rate was the lowest it had been in twelve years. While

fighting raged in Vietnam, the Air Force was battling to retain 25 percent of its first-term enlisted force. Airey, however, did not attribute the great decline in reenlistments to the unpopularity of the war in Vietnam. Rather, he saw it as a consequence of a number of issues, including “poor pay, numerous remote assignments, good civilian employment opportunities,

and an inequitable promotion system.”10

“We had people who were in grade for ten years or more, in frozen career fields with absolutely no opportunity for promotion,” he recalled. The Air Force had what was referred to

as “hard-core” and “soft-core” career fields, terms that Airey despised because he believed

that it took all career fields to make the Air Force a viable team.

Airey was informed that Representative L. Mendel Rivers (D., South Carolina), who

then chaired the House Armed Services Committee, began receiving thousands of letters

from embittered enlisted people regarding promotions. He formed a subcommittee to investigate the services’ enlisted promotion systems. That investigation resulted in some criticism of

52
the Air Force’s promotion system. To tackle the problem, the service assembled a team, on

which Airey acted as an adviser. His efforts helped to produce the Weighted Airman Promotion System, which eliminated the old local enlisted promotion boards and equalized promotion opportunities across career fields. It established clear, weighted criteria for promotion,

including test scores and time-in-grade. Airey, who remembered the days of local promotion

boards when promotion depended in many cases on how well one did within a “fair-haired

boy” system, noted that WAPS is the most equitable promotion system for enlisted personnel

in any of the U.S. armed services. With minor changes, the WAPS adopted in 1970 remains

in effect today. 

Though he applauded the Weighted Airman Promotion System, Airey did not agree with

all of the measures taken to enhance retention. He believed that the Air Force lowered standards, and he strongly objected to the decision to create the “buck sergeant” rank, giving

E–4s noncommissioned officer status. Even though retention did go up once that decision

was put into effect, Airey stated, “I do not believe it was the right way to go.”11

Airey was also a strong advocate for enlisted professional military education. He believed that senior and chief master sergeants needed more advanced management training

than was available at the major command academies, and he suggested that an Air Forcelevel senior noncommissioned officer academy be established.

“I looked upon it more as an inducement, something to strive for,” Airey said. “It would

be the tops in professional military education, and one who went through it should graduate

with much pride.” Establishment of the academy was not approved until 1971, two years after

Airey stepped down from the Air Force’s top enlisted position. The Senior Noncommissioned

Officer Academy opened at Gunter Annex, Alabama, in 1973.

During his tenure as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Airey made four visits to

Vietnam, twice with the chief of staff and twice on his own. He always came back from these

trips feeling proud of what he had seen and of what the troops were doing.12

After completing his twenty-seven-month term as CMSAF, Airey returned to Tyndall Air

Force Base as the first sergeant of a combat crew training squadron because he wanted to

complete thirty years of service. He is the only former chief master sergeant of the Air Force

to have remained on active duty.

Airey is very proud of the enlisted force of the early twenty-first century. He notes, “We

have young airmen performing duties that are being done by field grade officers in foreign

air forces. The NCO force is the best it has ever been and we are the envy of foreign air

forces all over the world.”13

Airey and his wife, Shirley, stayed in the Florida panhandle after he retired. He became

the regional director of the Air Force Sergeants Association and held that position for ten

years. He now spends most of his time on speaking engagements for the Air Force. He is also

a member of the Air University Foundation, a member of the board of trustees for the Airmen

53
Memorial Museum, and a member of the Airmen Memorial Foundation. The Aireys have

three children and two grandchildren.

Airey lived his values of duty, honor, and devotion to country, and, as the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force, he instilled the same desire in many other service members. On

the day he took office, he told his fellow airmen the following:

I pledge myself to work for ever better utilization of the more than three quarters of a

million Air Force enlisted members. I am particularly interested in the areas of retention, career development, educational progression, and civic responsibilities. I plan to

get out and talk to airmen all over the world. In this way I hope to develop recommendations to the Chief of Staff on how we can continue to improve the working situations in

which personal pride and service can best be combined to accomplish our mission.

I welcome this opportunity to work toward making our Aerospace People an increasingly valuable asset to the Air Force and to the Nation.14

In accomplishing many of the goals he set for himself, he also firmly established the position of chief master sergeant of the Air Force. He faced the critics and—while he did not

win over everyone—convinced many of the importance and value of the position.

He is very proud that his oldest son, Dale Paul Airey, followed him into the Air Force

and flew over eleven hundred combat sorties as a loadmaster on a C–123 with the 19th Special Operations Squadron out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam. Dale later became

commandant of two leadership schools and retired as a first sergeant with the rank of chief

master sergeant. He now teaches in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program.15

When asked about his greatest accomplishments, Airey demurred. He responded, “Let

history answer.”16 “I did my best to do what I was trained to do,” Airey said. “That’s how I

want to be remembered.”

54
NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched and compiled by SMSgt. Valerie McGovern.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington, D.C.: DoD, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate of Information, Operations

and Reports, 2000), p. 65.

3. Janet R. Bednarek, ed., The Enlisted Experience: A Conversation with the Chief

Master Sergeants of the Air Force (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1995), p. 25.

4. Ibid., p. 31.

5. Ibid., p. 32.

6. Ibid., pp. 32–33.

7. Ibid.., pp. 27, 41, 80–81.

8. As part of this project, each surviving former chief master sergeant of the Air Force

was presented with a copy of the biographical interview and a questionnaire. They were

asked to make changes and corrections to the interview and to answer the questionnaire.

They were allowed to respond to the questionnaire in the manner easiest for them. Some responded by telephone, some by tape recording, some by e-mail, and some in writing.

CMSAF Airey chose to provide a handwritten response to his questionnaire (hereinafter

Airey Questionnaire). A copy of the Airey Questionnaire and Airey’s response are available

in the files of the Office of Air Force History, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

9. Airey Questionnaire.

10. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs (Arlington, Va.: Air Force Association, 1984), p. 11.

11. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 107.

12. Airey Questionnaire.

13. Ibid.

14. United States Air Force, Information Sheet, “Statement by Chief Master Sergeant

Paul W. Airey, First Chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force,” SAF-OIPC, Pentagon, Washington, D.C., OXford 7–9835.

15. Airey Questionnaire.

16. Ibid.

55
56
Donald L. Harlow

August 1, 1969–September 30, 1971

★

57
Donald L. Harlow

August 1, 1969–September 30, 1971

★
D

onald L. Harlow became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 1,

1969.1 Richard Nixon was President of the United States, Robert Seamans, Jr., was

the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. John D. Ryan was the Air Force chief of staff.

U.S. involvement in Vietnam was beginning to diminish as he began his new assignment, but

it would not end before his retirement in 1971. In Vietnam, a few months before Harlow became the highest-ranking enlisted member, A1C John L. Levitow’s courageous act saved the

crew of Spooky 71. The following year, Levitow became the lowest-ranking airman awarded

the Medal of Honor. In 1969, the number of enlisted personnel in the Air Force stood at

722,936. When Harlow retired, the number had dropped to 624,980.2

Donald Harlow was born in Waterville, Maine, on September 22, 1920, one of two boys

and the youngest in a family of nine children. His father died when Don was two years old.

As his older siblings grew up and moved away, Harlow found himself the last child still living

at home. To help his mother, he left high school during his sophomore year and took a variety of jobs. He worked at a grocery store and a movie theater and then got a job at a department store, working for more than three years for a man he remembered as “one of the greatest bosses I ever had.” Under his guidance, Harlow quickly learned the value of good

business skills. “[The boss] gave me all kinds of opportunities to use my own initiative to get

the job done,” Harlow said. On the day he left the store, his boss told him something he never

forgot: no matter how good others say you are, or how good you believe you are, there is always someone who will come along and do the job just a little bit better. Harlow left Maine

to finish his education in Groton, Massachusetts, where he graduated from the Lawrence

Academy in 1942. He had worked as a hotel night clerk and music instructor to pay his tuition bills at the private prep school.3

In August 1942, at age twenty-two, Harlow was drafted. He reported to the Army Air

Forces at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and entered basic training at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

After basic training, he went to technical school at Buckley Field, Colorado. His first duty assignment took him to Eagle Pass, Texas, where he served as an armament and gunnery instructor, teaching cadets to fieldstrip and reassemble their weapons and to synchronize firing

the guns through the propellers of the aircraft on which they were mounted.

59
After a year at Eagle Pass, Harlow transferred to Matagorda Island, located off the coast

of Texas. There he continued to teach armament and gunnery to second lieutenants fresh

from pilot training, and he developed an end-of-course test. “I found [the job] very fascinating,” he recalled. “I love teaching, and it was a great challenge. There was so much opportunity as an instructor, and I found there was so much I could do to help others.”

When a hurricane forced his unit to leave Matagorda Island in the spring of 1945, Harlow sought a different field of employment. He believed that service members were not treated very well in personnel matters such as finances, family care, and career planning. He went

to the personnel office at Foster Field in Victoria, Texas, and asked for a job. “I took a chance

because I figured, if I went into personnel, I could help people develop their personal lives

and their careers,” Harlow said. He happened to be in the right place at the right time, and he

was put in charge of processing records, working for a female major at a time when most female Air Force officers were nurses. Harlow had found his niche in personnel and was excited and challenged by the tasks he performed there. He was promoted to staff sergeant and

worked continually to find new ways to do a better, more efficient job.

When World War II ended, Harlow was discharged. He mustered out in 1946, but, knowing he would be subject to recall for the next fourteen years, he joined the inactive reserve.

He decided that if he did have to come back into the service at some time, he did not want to

have to start all over again. By staying in the inactive reserves, he could maintain the rank he

had earned during the war.4 His wife, Dorothy, had been living with her parents in Fitchburg,

Massachusetts, while Harlow was in the service. At the time of his discharge, Harlow’s mother had become ill, so Harlow and Dorothy moved briefly to his hometown of Waterville. Between 1946 and 1950, Harlow embarked on a career in the civilian sector. He and his wife

moved to California, where he attended the California College of Commerce at Long Beach

and taught three undergraduate classes. However, before he earned enough credits to graduate, a business machine company hired him as a sales training instructor. He earned a respectable $400 per month at the Clary Multiplier Corporation. His life as a civilian was cut

short by the Korean conflict.

Harlow’s return to active duty came in August 1950. He reported to Travis Air Force

Base, California, and was told he would be returning to the armament field. Instead, he

asked to see the personnel officer. Harlow handed the officer his portfolio and told him he

had not seen a gun in years and did not know much about current armament. The personnel

officer assigned him as the sergeant major of personnel for the 5th and 9th Maintenance

Squadrons at Travis. He received promotion to the rank of technical sergeant in December.

When the Air Force decided to open a base in the North African country of Morocco,

Harlow had to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. He was required to stay on reserve status for only two years, but to go to Morocco he needed to reenlist.

60
I told the colonel I worked for that I never made a big decision without talking to my

wife. I took leave and went to Long Beach, California, where Dorothy and our two

young daughters were living at the time. I explained to her that I wasn’t sure she and the

children would be able to go overseas with me. Of course, there were all kinds of tears,

but we finally decided. My thoughts were that I had a good job, working with good people—so we decided I would stay in the Air Force.

Harlow was promoted to master sergeant in July 1951 and reported to the 5th Air Division as personnel sergeant major at Rabat, Morocco. For the next three years, Harlow also

found himself working in other positions, such as manager of the noncommissioned officers’

club for a year and as steward of the officers’ club for eight months. It was not long before he

earned a reputation for taking seemingly complex tasks, examining them, and finding simple

management solutions.

In July 1954, Master Sergeant Harlow became personnel sergeant major at the 3635th

Survival Training Wing at Stead Air Force Base, Nevada. In May 1955, he became detachment sergeant major, Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC) Detachment

815, at Southern Methodist University in Texas. He also served as tactical instructor and director of the AFROTC band and as noncommissioned officer in charge of cadet training during the 1956 AFROTC Summer Encampment at Harlingen Air Force Base, Texas. While

there, he earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the California

College of Commerce. 

Harlow was then assigned as sergeant major of personnel at Pease Air Force Base, New

Hampshire. In his off-duty hours, he used his musical talent as director of a forty-eight-voice

Protestant choir for the Pease base chapel. He and Dorothy also got involved in the base

youth activities program. An active member of the International Toastmasters Club at Pease,

Harlow reached the club’s fifth level at the Canadian/New England open competition. He

was a busy member of the Strategic Air Command speakers’ bureau and was elected president of the largest parent-teacher association chapter in New Hampshire. His activities were

rewarded at Pease when he was promoted to senior master sergeant in June 1960 and was

made chief master sergeant in April 1963, with only sixteen years in service.

He went on to serve as personnel supervisor and first sergeant for the Air Force element

at United States European Command (USEUCOM) headquarters in Paris. He was the senior

Air Force member and chaired the rules committee of the Joint Service Noncommissioned

Officers/Commissioned Officers Mess Board of Governors for USEUCOM. He also directed

the Camp des Loges chapel choir, composed of active-duty members and dependents from

the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Normally, Harlow would have served a four-year tour at USEUCOM. However, his tour

was cut short in 1965, when the Air Force assigned him as the sergeant major of executive

61
services in the Office of the Vice Chief of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. During

his tour at the Pentagon, he adopted the following maxim as his philosophy: “Nothing that is

needs to be, just because it was.” He worked with his supervisor, Col. Harry Russell, and the

enlisted personnel there to reorganize executive services into a smaller, more efficient operation by applying the personal and business skills he had developed earlier in his life. He

served as master of ceremonies at several retirements for both officers and enlisted personnel

assigned to the Pentagon, and he conducted Pentagon tours for visiting dignitaries.

“I never asked those under me to do what I myself would not,” Harlow recalled, “and I

never expected those above me to make exceptions to the rules for me, based on my prominent position in the vice chief’s office.” He was a critic of regulations he believed were unnecessary or unfair, and he did not hesitate to share his own ideas. He was outspoken, but his

reputation was solid.

In 1967, he was selected Outstanding Airman for Headquarters Command, Bolling Air

Force Base, Washington, D.C. In honor of his selection, he and Dorothy were guests at the

Air Force Association convention in San Francisco, California.

His personal and professional abilities resulted in his appointment to the Air Staff committee that shaped the charter for the Office of the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.

One of his many recommendations while on that committee was to fill the position with chief

master sergeants who had twenty-two years of service, under the agreement that they would

serve a two-year term. Harlow had no idea when he made his recommendations and voiced

his opinions that he was developing the rules for a position he soon would occupy.

Harlow was not a man who took things for granted, so he was surprised when he was

chosen to replace Paul Airey in the top enlisted post. “There were twenty other people in the

62

Harlow, shown speaking with airmen in April 1970, directed his attention to the

problems and concerns of the young troops.
running, but there were four chiefs that I specifically remember. I said to myself, ‘They are

the best for the job, as far as I’m concerned.’ But I went through the interview and returned to

work—never dreaming I would be selected.”

Harlow recalled that it was tough to follow the act of Paul Airey, the first chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. But as the second to take the reins, Harlow cut a path through the

misunderstanding, confusion, and mistrust that surrounded the position. Harlow’s challenge

was to keep the way clear for those who followed in his footsteps.

An ever-vigilant Harlow made several recommendations to the Air Staff during the

twenty-five months he served as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, but he did not see the

fruits of many his efforts until several years later. Although some would scoff at anything but

instant gratification, Harlow learned long before entering the military that a person’s greatest

contribution is knowledge, which is necessary for change, and that change takes time.Yet,

once in office, Harlow learned some tough lessons:

You go out to all the bases and meet with all the chiefs, and you think they’re going to

jump up and do what you want because you’re the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air

Force. Well, it doesn’t happen that way. Those people don’t necessarily admire you.

Some are envious. You can see it in their eyes when they look at you across the table.

They think they should be Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force because they’re just as

good as you. And some of them are right. They are just as good as you. So you have to

show them why they should help you. You have to sell yourself each time.

[The commanders] thought I was going to spy on them, tattle, and get them in trouble. Airey had a tough job being the first because many general officers would tell him,

“I want you to know I voted against this position. We don’t need guys like you running

around the Air Force creating problems.” But Airey persevered and was great for the position, as he spent a lot of time with the senior NCOs, explaining and garnering support

for the position.

During the Vietnam War, Harlow directed his attention to where he thought it was most

needed—to the young troops and their problems, including racial tensions, assignment concerns, and promotion problems. He listened to the young enlisted personnel, took good notes,

and reported his findings to the chief of staff. Harlow was also known for his blunt honesty.

When a young airman told him he was getting out because he wanted to let his hair grow

long, Harlow wished him well. “I think he wanted me to give him a sales pitch,” he recalled,

“but it was a stupid reason to leave the Air Force.”

Although some problems proved harder to solve than others, Harlow took a thoughtful

approach to the issues of the younger troops and their families. He took action only after

careful consideration of the perspectives of those who looked to him for guidance.

63
At one time, his staff was receiving many complaints from the wives of enlisted members. When the chief visited a base, the women reported, the troops were not getting home

until three or four in the morning because they had been told they could not leave the club

until the chief left. “Of course, they didn’t realize the chief was in bed no later than eleven o’-

clock,” Harlow said, with a chuckle. The solution? No more dining in, he announced; only

dining out. “And the wives would come, and what was really amazing is some of these

young, two-stripers—both men and women—would attend [wearing] the mess dress uniform. They would spend their money because they wanted to be part of the program, the Air

Force, and the social event. I was so proud of those kids.”

His no-nonsense approach to daily operations and his keen ability to listen helped Harlow advise the chief of staff on matters concerning everything from uniform wear to promotions, assignments, and family assistance. He readily admits, however, that many of his recommendations did not result in changes to policy during his tenure:

It takes time, and, besides, all these types of recommendations probably affect something else. How does promotion affect the job? How does training affect promotion? For

example, if an individual is reassigned, and he is supposed to be testing for promotion

and doesn’t get the opportunity—well, that’s not good. I firmly believe each one of us

[the chief master sergeants of the Air Force] served at the right time, for the right reasons, under different circumstances. Subsequently, each one of us has contributed more

and more to the overall composition of our present force.

A student at the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy studied the careers of the

first chief master sergeants of the Air Force. He concluded that Harlow made two significant

contributions during his tenure as CMSAF. First, he championed an early reform of the

newly established Weighted Airman Promotion System and, second, he helped bring about a

revision of the regulation dealing with eligibility for flight pay.5

The effort to revise the Air Force’s enlisted promotion policy began during the tenure of

CMSAF Paul Airey. After hearing repeated and widespread complaints, Representative L.

Mendel Rivers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called for special

hearings. The House Special Subcommittee on Enlisted Promotion Policy Review took testimony from August to November 1967. Prompted by the subcommittee, the Air Force proposed a significant change in its policies. The service presented its new program to the subcommittee in 1968 and received a favorable report. As a result, the Air Force implemented its

new policy with its clearly defined and weighted criteria—such as test scores and time-ingrade—on June 1, 1970.6 As good as the new system was, Harlow soon identified and worked

to fix a weakness. The WAPS criteria included off-duty education. However, many career

fields did not easily allow for such education. Harlow worked to give less weight to that particular criterion, creating a more level playing field for promotion across career fields.

64
In terms of enlisted

flight pay, at a time when

the Air Force was pushing

for its noncommissioned

officers to attend in-residence courses, personnel in

such courses were away

from their duties so long

that they lost their eligibility for flight pay. Harlow

led the campaign to allow

personnel to stay on flight

pay status while pursuing

in-residence professional

military education.

When asked to identify his “greatest satisfaction,” Harlow named the

fact that he was able to

help the position of the

chief master sergeant of the

Air Force grow and gain in

prestige during his term.

He believed that it became

more accepted by the Air

Staff and by commanders.

He pointed to a number of instances that he believed demonstrated the position’s increased

acceptance and prestige. For example, in a first, the Air Force Association asked him to serve

as the master of ceremonies at the annual awards banquet honoring the Outstanding Airmen

of the Year. Further, the secretary of the Air Force asked him to present a reading at a USAF

service held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.7

Harlow counted as his greatest disappointment the fact that “so many of the initiatives that

the Air Force took and wanted to take were somewhat stymied because of the system.” According to Harlow, “the system” included the decision-making process in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. He believed that “the system” worked on the notion that all of the services had to be

treated the same. It failed to take fully into account the different missions and requirements of

the services. As Harlow explained, some initiatives that would have served Air Force needs

died because they were not seen as valuable or were objected to by the other services.8

65

Chief Harlow and his wife, Dorothy, attended the Air Force

Sergeants Association International Convention in 

Phoenix, Arizona, in August 1982.
When Harlow retired in 1971, he was well armed with knowledge of the Air Force system, and he waged war where he thought it would make the most difference—on Capitol

Hill. As the senior lobbyist for the Air Force Sergeants Association, he took his messages to

the House of Representatives and to the Senate, and he was well known for getting results.

As Harlow recalled, “I learned while I was in the position of Chief Master Sergeant of

the Air Force that a lot of things could not be resolved administratively within the Air Force

or the Department of Defense. They had to go to Congress. I saw problems that needed to be

corrected and could only be [corrected] through legislation.”

Harlow attributes part of his career success to his tenacity in the military and as the

“super salesman on Capitol Hill.” One of the protracted battles he took on was the fight for

equal per diem pay for officers and enlisted personnel. He patiently continued to push for it,

but it was twelve years before he finally saw results. Also through his stubborn persistence,

enlisted parachute and explosive ordnance disposal troops gained the same hazardous duty

pay for doing their jobs as that given to the officers. 

Harlow is proudest of the fact that he served as chief master sergeant of the Air Force

and as a lobbyist at a time when someone had to fight for enlisted equality. In the late 1970s,

some military members were threatening to join a military union. According to Harlow,

In July 1975, the American Federation of Government Employees stunned the military

community by announcing that it was studying the feasibility of unionizing military

members. It was a catalyst because I think some members of Congress saw that military

lobbyists were telling the truth. That was a big victory because it made people on the Hill

more responsive to our problems. I wanted higher pay for enlisted people, more medical

care dollars, and a better deal for military widows. Most important, I wanted to change

the way that too many powerful people in Washington thought about enlisted men and

women. Enlisted people were viewed as second-class citizens by some.

In a January 9, 1978, supplement to the Air Force Times, Harlow described the problem:

Officers have more basic pay because they have more responsibility, which is fine. But

officers also receive more per diem pay, more flight pay, more hazardous duty pay, better

housing, and better hospital accommodations for their wives. Compared to enlisted people, officers endure less regimentation of their private lives by the military services.

Many of these inequities are based on simple tradition. Most people—including enlisted men and women—once expected officers to get a better deal simply because they

were officers. But the social turbulence of the last decade and the country’s reliance on

an all-volunteer force have brought sweeping changes in the way enlisted people think

about themselves and their jobs. They no longer will tolerate the wide gap between their

lifestyle and that of officers.

66
Harlow and others got the attention of congressional leaders, and the quality of life for

enlisted members began to improve. His contributions were key to several victories, including the establishment of the survivor benefit plan and saving the federal subsidy for commissaries. And, of course, there is no military union.

Harlow relied heavily on his sense of humor when things got tough. Humor, he has said,

helped him to stay young. Before his death on June 18, 1997, he spoke several times a year at

graduation ceremonies at professional military education schools. “I am particularly fond of

those who work long hours in very technical jobs in base hospitals,” he said, “and I often

drop by to remind them what an important job they perform in today’s Air Force. I also spend

time with PME instructors before graduation ceremonies to commend them on the great job

they are doing with tomorrow’s leaders.” 

Long after departing from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill, Harlow continued to participate in committee work. He served as a member of the Air Force Retiree Council and as chair

of the Richard D. Kisling scholarship fund, a fund established by CMSAF Sam Parish during

his tenure.

After Harlow retired from the Air Force, he was inducted into the Order of the Sword.

According to Harlow, it was his work as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, “trying to correct the inequities that couldn’t be resolved otherwise,” that helped him to earn the nomination.

“I want to be remembered,” Harlow said, “as somebody [who] likes people, enjoys doing

what he does, and continues, even after leaving the service, to contribute to the overall professionalism of our Air Force and our enlisted corps.”

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched

and compiled by SrA. Deborah Van Nierop.

2. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 14.

4. Ibid.

5. SMSgt. D. DuFrane, “Background Paper on Significant Contributions to the Enlisted Force by the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force (CMSAFs),” July 11, 1997, SNCOA

Student Files, Research Institute, Enlisted Heritage Hall, Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex,

Montgomery, Ala.

6. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 10, 110–11.

7. Oral History Interview of CMSAF Donald L. Harlow by Hugh Ahmann, December

9–10, 1980, typed transcript, pp. 254–55, K239.0512–1260, IRIS No. 1049795, in USAF

Collection, AFHRA.

8. Ibid.

67
68

THE ORDER OF THE SWORD

Induction in the Order of the Sword is an honor reserved for people who have given outstanding leadership and

support to enlisted people.

The induction ceremony occurs at a formal evening banquet held to honor the inductee as a “Leader among

Leaders and an Airman among Airmen.” The entire event is conducted with the dignity that reflects its significance as the highest recognition enlisted people can bestow on anyone.

Each command that has an Order of the Sword develops its own selection and induction procedures.

(Taken from Air Force Pamphlet 36-2241, Volume I, Promotion Fitness Examination Study Guide, Chapter 7)

RECEIVING THE HONOR

On May 20, 1980, Donald L. Harlow became the first enlisted recipient of the Order of the Sword. The proclamation read:

Whereas this proclamation is issued by the Noncommissioned Officers of the Tactical Air Command

proclaiming you, CMSAF Donald L. Harlow, a chief among chiefs and a leader among men, who has

established a new epitome of leadership in the Distinguished Assemblage of United States Air Force

leaders as our champion in the fight to stop the erosion of military benefits.

Established in 1522 by Gustavus Vasa (Gustav I) of Sweden, the military Order of the Sword is presented in a

ceremony conducted by noncommissioned officers to honor officers and civilians who have made significant

contributions to the enlisted corps. Although he made several improvements to the corps during his tenure as

chief master sergeant of the Air Force, it was not until after he retired in 1971 that Harlow made some of his most

significant contributions, as a lobbyist for the Air Force Sergeants Association.

Of the 176 people who have received the Order of the Sword, including four civilians, Harlow remains the

only enlisted member to be so honored.

★
Richard D. Kisling

October 1, 1971–September 30, 1973

★

69
Richard D. Kisling

October 1, 1971–September 30, 1973

★
R

ichard D. Kisling became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on October 1,

1971.1 Richard M. Nixon was President of the United States, Robert Seamans, Jr., was

the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. John D. Ryan was the Air Force chief of staff.

During Kisling’s two years as the Air Force’s top enlisted person, the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy opened at what was then Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Before his retirement, three future chief master sergeants of the Air Force—Thomas

Barnes, James McCoy, and Sam Parish—would graduate as part of the academy’s first class.

In 1971, the Air Force had 624,980 enlisted personnel. By 1973, it had 571,790.2

Richard Kisling was born in 1923 and was raised on the Iowa farm his grandfather had

homesteaded. One of ten children, he and his family struggled through the Great Depression

and dust bowl years. His parents were respected members of the local community. His

mother worked as a schoolteacher, and his father served as the township assessor for over

twenty-five years. Though his parents sometimes strained to feed their large family, Kisling

remembers his childhood as happy and secure. His parents taught him many lessons including the importance of having integrity and following the Golden Rule—doing unto others

what you would have them do unto you.3

His childhood environment also set the stage for his service in the military. “When I was

growing up, there was a great feeling of patriotism and a desire to do something for the country,” Kisling recalled. He received an initial deferment from military duty because he worked

as an inspector at the grain exchange in Sioux City, Iowa. The job was considered “war essential,” and men working there were exempt from service. But a few months before his

twenty-first birthday, in July 1944, Kisling’s draft status was changed to 1–A. The Allies had

landed in Europe on June 6, 1944, and, as they drove across France, casualties were mounting. Because replacements were needed, the Army started drafting men who had previously

been deferred.

Kisling went to Fort Crook, Nebraska—now Offutt Air Force Base—for his preinduction

physical. In less than a month, he was ordered to report for duty. “At that time, I had hopes of

getting into the Navy or the Army Air Forces. It just happened to be my lucky day, and I got

picked for the infantry,” Kisling recalled, with a laugh. He went to Little Rock, Arkansas, for

71
seventeen weeks of combat infantry training. Most of the instructors were combat veterans,

many of whom had earned Purple Hearts, and the training was rigorous and realistic.

He volunteered for paratrooper duty, for an extra fifty dollars a month, but an attack of

appendicitis cut short his airborne trooper career. That illness was a lucky break, because

many of the men in paratrooper training with him perished in the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944.

Private Kisling’s military travels took him to Camp Gordon, Georgia; Fort Meade, Maryland; and Camp Miles Standish, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1945, he finally boarded the

SS Mariposa, an old luxury liner that had been converted to a troop ship. “The ship was very

crowded, and we changed course every three minutes to avoid German submarines. It took us

about twelve days to get to Europe. We landed in Marseilles, France, where we piled [into]

trains and headed up to Germany,” he said.

The war in Europe ended within a month of Kisling’s arrival in France. He was assigned

to the intelligence section at 3d Infantry Division headquarters in Salzburg, Austria. When

the division moved to Germany, the intelligence section negotiated the repatriation of displaced persons with the Soviets and monitored the repatriation process.

“This was a very complex and sensitive mission,” Kisling noted, “and we soon learned

that we could not trust the Russians.” The Soviets consistently falsified the number of people

being repatriated through their checkpoint to the Western Zone. When their numbers were

challenged, they vehemently denied any responsibility. Seeing these political machinations

almost immediately after V-E Day was a lesson for the young soldier. The gunfire had ceased,

and the Cold War had begun—and he had witnessed it at close range.

Kisling did not intend to stay in the service. “I thought I would go back to Iowa, get my

old job in the grain exchange, and then decide if I was going to be a farmer or go back to

school,” he said. He was anxious to get home, but the experience was disappointing. Civilian

life seemed boring. He missed the GI camaraderie, and he wanted to travel. After only ninety-three days as a civilian, Kisling reenlisted and volunteered for an overseas assignment. He

went to northern Italy, where he was assigned to the 80th Infantry Division. After a few

months, he was offered an early release from active duty.

“When I got back to the states, I found I could take terminal leave, get paid for all the

leave I hadn’t taken while on active duty, and reenlist in another branch of service,” Kisling

said. He recalled that in Europe during the war, as he and his fellow infantrymen slogged

along muddy roads, they frequently were passed by Army Air Forces men riding in dry, comfortable trucks. That memory was not lost on him, and, when he reenlisted in 1947, he joined

the Army Air Forces, soon to become the United States Air Force. By April 1947, he was

headed to his first duty station in his new branch, at Chanute Field, Illinois—a place where

he found that the Army’s air arm had developed very different military culture:

72
When I moved into the open-bay barracks at Chanute, I couldn’t believe it. Here were

master sergeants, tech sergeants, staffs, and one- and two-stripers talking about their

work and socializing—all on a first-name basis. In the Army, you didn’t call anyone of

senior rank by his first name. You could ask a question in the line of duty, but otherwise

only if they spoke to you first. I couldn’t believe this and thought, my gosh, what a

change!

Kisling worked as a clerk in the modification shop of a mobile training unit—the forerunner of today’s field training detachments—and he soon became a supply specialist. In that

capacity, he ordered the first jet engine the Air Force used to make mockups for trainers. He

found the work interesting and considered going to technical school.

A brief hospital stay to treat a shoulder problem, however, changed his direction. Kisling

was told that regulations for patients being released allowed him to go wherever there was an

opening in his specialty. The sergeant in the processing unit told Kisling about “the nicest little base in the Army Air Forces. Beautiful airfield and the weather is nice year ’round.”

Kisling headed west to Hamilton Field, California—a hasty choice and a major turning point

in his professional and personal life.

When he arrived at Hamilton in June 1948, “they put me in the enlisted branch at Headquarters, Fourth Air Force,” Kisling said. “At that time, we didn’t have personnel specialties—we were classification specialists. The branch chief, MSgt. Donald Shank, had a hell of

a good training program.” Shank trained his men in all phases of personnel work and took a

personal interest in them. “He was a strong, positive role model—the first such military supervisor I had,” Kisling said. Under Shank’s tutelage, Kisling decided he had finally found

his preferred career field. He liked helping to resolve problems while dealing with people

one-on-one. While still at Hamilton, he married Alene O’Dell on July 2, 1949, and their lifelong partnership began.

Kisling volunteered for the European theater and went to Wheelus Field, Tripoli, Libya,

in April 1950. He was assigned to the 1261st Air Transport Squadron, Military Air Transport

Services. It was not the post he had wanted, but the assignment turned out well. “I went in

there as a staff sergeant and was promoted rather quickly to tech sergeant. After about six or

seven months as the chief clerk in the squadron, I moved up to become the first sergeant,”

Kisling said. That promotion was unexpected. “The squadron commander and the first

sergeant didn’t get along,” Kisling remembered. “The commander called me in and said, ‘Tomorrow morning, you’re the first sergeant. If you can do the job, you’re a master. If not, I am

going to bust you to staff sergeant.’” He did the job and left Wheelus in March 1952 as a

master sergeant.

73
Kisling next reported to West Palm Beach, Florida, with three Air Force specialty codes:

first sergeant, personnel, and administration. But again his expectations did not match the

outcome:

In 1952, you didn’t know what your job was going to be when you went to a base. I reported to the base personnel office and the NCOIC [noncommissioned officer in charge]

said, “Sarge, I will give you two choices—you can go to the military police squadron or

you can have the food service job.” That is really a choice? I thought I was going to a flying squadron. So I took the food service squadron. I ended up having the only outfit on

base that was still standing reveille. We had a lot of AWOLs [absent without leave] and

all sorts of disciplinary problems. It was a rough outfit.

Six months later, he welcomed a transfer to the 1739th Ferrying Squadron in Amarillo,

Texas. Although Kisling was assigned as the first sergeant, the unit’s commander had something else in mind. He asked Kisling to run the personnel department, breaking it away from

the orderly room and running it independently. Kisling accepted and was back in the career

field he enjoyed.

In February 1954, he applied for duty with the recruiting service and went to Abilene,

Texas, for an interview. The Southwestern Recruiting District needed someone right away, so

ten days later the Kislings headed for Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. At that time, Army

74

During his two-year assignment at Wheelus Field inTripoli, Libya, Kisling (shown above in 1951)

was promoted from staff sergeant to tech sergeant to first sergeant to master sergeant.
and Air Force recruiting efforts were combined, and they shared the same stations; but, shortly after Kisling’s arrival, the two separated. Air Force recruiting moved to Lackland Air Force

Base, Texas, to set up recruiting school and the 3504th Recruiting Group. Although Kisling

did not work in the field as a recruiter, his contributions to the unit were recognized in 1956,

when he was named Outstanding Support Airman of the Year for the Air Force Recruiting

Service.

While the Kislings lived in Texas, their two daughters were born—Kathy in Amarillo

and Karen in San Antonio. The old Wherry quarters at Lackland were crowded for the family, so Kisling used his last reenlistment bonus of $1,300 as a down payment on a small house.

There were a lot of new expenses, and Kisling did what so many enlisted personnel have

done over the years: he moonlighted to supplement his $300 monthly take-home pay. Selling

vacuum cleaners door-to-door in the evenings and on Saturdays, he made more money than

he did as a master sergeant.

After almost four years in Texas, Kisling was a prime candidate for an overseas assignment. Once again, he volunteered for Europe and received orders to the 48th Tactical Fighter

Wing, Chaumont, France. This was his first Air Force combat unit and one of the first bases

where the concept of a consolidated personnel office was being tested.

They were flying F–86 planes and later transitioned to F–100s. It was different. When I

got there I was the personnel sergeant major for the air base group. It wasn’t long before

we took the records out of the groups and consolidated them all, and I became the base

personnel sergeant major. I think it served a purpose during that time, although I have always felt we were better off with the records in the squadrons. I feel we lost a lot of the

personal, individualized touch when we consolidated.

In September 1958, Kisling was promoted to senior master sergeant in the first group of

Air Force people to wear the supergrades.

When his three-year assignment in France ended in 1959, Kisling and his family returned to the United States and to an assignment as the base personnel sergeant major at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. His office was the test site for Tactical Air Command’s consolidated base personnel office. In December 1959, when the Air Force announced its first

promotions to the new rank of chief master sergeant, Kisling was on the list. In recognition of

his efforts at Nellis, he was also named Twelfth Air Force Outstanding Airman of the Year.

Kisling began thinking about retiring with twenty years of service. Interested in settling

where he and Alene would enjoy retirement, he took a position as a technical adviser to the

Reserves at March Air Force Base in California. The Kislings bought a house, expecting to

establish some roots at last. But Reserve headquarters converted all the personnel adviser authorizations to maintenance, ending Kisling’s tour only a year after his arrival.

75
Because he wanted to stay in California, he found a job as base personnel sergeant major

at George Air Force Base, where the first F–105 wing, the 335th Tactical Fighter Wing, was

forming. When the Cuban missile crisis erupted in October 1962, the base went on alert and

deployed planes, with pilots and support people ready around the clock. The threat of war

was very real, and military members and their families were caught up in the uncertainty and

potential chaos.

A year later, Kisling had decided to stay in the service, and he sought one more overseas

tour—this time with an assignment at Security Service. There were openings in Turkey and

Germany, and the Kislings chose Germany. He became the personnel sergeant major for the

European Security Region in Frankfurt. The new job meant traveling two weeks a month,

making technical personnel visits, and talking with first sergeants and troops about assignments, billeting, and other issues.

When his tour in Germany ended in 1967, Kisling was assigned to U.S. Air Force Security Service headquarters (USAFSS) at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas. That same year, the Air

Force selected its first chief master sergeant of the Air Force. The new program and position

caught Kisling’s attention, and he told his family that it was the job he most wanted. Two

years later, he was USAFSS’s nominee for that position. Don Harlow was selected, and

Kisling was chosen to fill a new role—USAFSS senior enlisted adviser. The USAFSS commander charged him with learning what the enlisted people were thinking and how the personnel programs were working. Kisling believed that his efforts in this new job would better

qualify him to become the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, if he were nominated again:

To a degree [I was] really an IG [inspector general] because I went out and found out

about any problems. I came back from trips with a fistful of things to talk about—from

living conditions to training issues—anything in the book that the troops wanted to talk

about. Back at Kelly, I’d talk to the general. I didn’t have to make written reports, which

was good. It was a simple thing of going in and having an outbrief with him, the chief of

staff, and the deputy commander—then going to the directorates.

Career motivation was always a part of it. I talked to a lot of people one-on-one to

explain what the Air Force had to offer and why they should stay in for a whole career.

In 1971, Kisling was again the USAFSS’s nominee to be the next chief master sergeant

of the Air Force. Twenty-four other chiefs competed for the position, and, when the field narrowed, Kisling was one of three finalists chosen to go to the Pentagon for an interview. Two

weeks later, he was named the chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

Once in the Pentagon, Kisling went to his new boss, Gen. John D. Ryan. Kisling told

him that he believed that in order to go out to the field and talk about what was happening at

the chief of staff level, he and the general needed to meet regularly. General Ryan responded

76
that he wanted to meet with Kisling every ten days to two weeks. With that in mind, Kisling

then tackled his new job.4

His first challenge involved the long list of bases requesting a visit from the chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. At many of these bases, service personnel expected him to be able

to discuss particular issues and problems. Kisling set about learning all he could about the

Air Staff’s position on those issues and problems before leaving on his visits. As he noted, “I

could see nothing worse than the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force arriving at a base

and in a meeting unable to answer the questions or provide the rationale for the decisions.”5

As he undertook his new role, Kisling found an enlisted force struggling through the development of a new Air Force. “We had become too sophisticated and centralized,” the chief

noted. “We expected people to be highly technical specialists, supervisors, and NCOs, without the benefit of adequate training and experience. We needed to develop our NCOs like we

did our officers. We depended on the process of osmosis, if you will, to teach them. Most [senior NCOs] felt we needed a first-class PME system for our enlisted force.” So Kisling

placed those concerns in the forefront of discussion at the Pentagon. His persistence paid off

when the first Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy was approved by Congress in the

77

When Air Force Chief of Staff John D. Ryan (at the center) started to pin CMSAF Kisling’s new

brass in the wrong place, Kisling’s wife, Alene, gave him some good-natured help.
autumn of 1972, and officially opened its doors at Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, the following January. 

In an interview, Kisling was asked if he believed there was any significance to the fact

that the Senior NCO Academy was located at Gunter Air Force Base rather than at nearby

Maxwell Air Force Base, the home of Air University. Kisling believed that a lack of space

was the prime reason for locating the academy at Gunter rather than Maxwell. He further

stated that in hindsight the decision to locate at Gunter was a good one. He believed that it

helped the new school. “I think it probably has more prestige being away from the officers,

separated from the rest of A[ir] U[niversity].” Maxwell did not offer the office, classroom, or

billeting facilities such a school needed. At Gunter, the Air Force constructed what Kisling

described as a “first-class facility” for a “first-class school.” He also noted that noncommissioned officers from the other services who attended school at Gunter rated the Air Force

school as “just head and shoulders above the rest.”6

Before the Senior NCO Academy accepted its first students, however, Kisling had one

more battle to fight:

There was a lot of talk about making [this academy strictly for] first sergeants. I felt all

of our senior NCOs needed this type of professional military education; to limit it to

only one career field would be wrong for the entire Air Force. The Senior NCO Academy should be putting the finishing touches on these people. It should be the equivalent

of Air War College.

These...[academy graduates] came back to their units...better qualified and motivated. They certainly had their horizons broadened and, in many cases, they were more

ambitious than they ever were before. It was the best thing that happened to the Air Force

in thirty years.

The academy was a giant step forward in education and personnel development, but

Kisling strongly believed that there was more to leadership and management than what was

taught in a classroom. He saw management as a subset of leadership, not as a separate endeavor.

Kisling had learned from his three enlisted supervisors that a true leader treats people

with respect, is honest and sincere in his dealings with them, and exudes leadership twentyfour hours a day, without being caught up in his own importance. Describing his commitment

to effective and humane leadership, the Enlisted Council of the Air Force Association wrote

this about Kisling:

The effective leader takes the time to listen: ‘Even if you already know what someone is

going to say, you have to let them put it into their own words,’ the chief said. Chief

78
Kisling has always maintained that people are of great importance, and that a proper

concern for them as individuals is a prime quality of every outstanding leader.

Like most of his generation, Kisling learned leadership fundamentals through experience. Since he had not had an opportunity to attend any professional military education

courses, he considered himself extremely fortunate to have been on the first selection list for

promotion to chief master sergeant.

He believed that, prior to the mid-1970s, the Air Force did a good job of technical training but a poor job of professional military development for the total enlisted force. In a 1972

interview, he said, “A lot of our young Air Force people have never had a serious conversation

with an adult. They have never talked about their objectives in life or expressed their personal feelings. Professional military education alone is not enough to mould NCOs because an

individual has to be in a situation where he can see leadership by example.”

He also believed that many enlisted people did not understand how they fit within the

Air Force as a whole. He noted that

We had people who were specialists. They really didn’t understand their job, how their

job contributed to what the Air Force was doing, what the Air Force mission was. They

couldn’t see that the supply guy at Kincheloe Air Force Base [Michigan] didn’t understand that his job was very important to making sure those birds were launched every

day. If he didn’t do his job right, someone didn’t get the supplies whether it be in the

housing or wherever.7

Kisling believed that by the time he finished his tour as chief master sergeant of the Air

Force, the office had grown and the Air Staff had come to realize more of its value. He saw

that the Air Staff increasingly included him in briefings on issues before taking final action.8

Kisling retired on September 30, 1973. Staying involved in Air Force activities, he

worked for the Air Force Sergeants Association for eighteen months and then went back to

the Pentagon’s directorate of personnel as a management specialist and program analyst. He

was still employed by the Air Force when he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in January 1985. He died on November 3, 1985. Throughout four decades of military service,

Kisling’s efforts helped improve the quality of life for the enlisted force. His concern for such

enlisted issues as housing, pay, promotions, education and training, and assignments earned

him the respect of his peers and the nickname, “the GI’s man in Washington.”

The hallways of the Senior NCO Academy at Maxwell Air Force Base-Gunter Annex reflect Kisling’s contributions and forethought. In 1986, Kisling Hall was dedicated to the former CMSAF in recognition of his tireless efforts to promote professional military education.

In 1995, a life-size bronze statue of the chief was added to the lobby of the academy—a

79
memorial made possible by contributions from civilians and from members of every part of

the Air Force.

At the statue’s dedication ceremony, Gen. Billy Boles, commander of the Air Education

and Training Command, credited Kisling with establishing many Air Force programs that

benefit enlisted members: “He knew what to do,...and he knew how to do it and make everyone come out a winner,” the general said. “No one ever lost an argument with Dick Kisling.

He always had his way, and you thought it was your idea. He did that with gentle persuasion.”

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographic interview is based on material researched

and compiled by SSgt. Ginger Schreitmueller.

2. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 17.

4. Oral History Interview of CMSAF Richard D. Kisling, by Hugh Ahmann, December 14, 1982, June 13, 1983, and September 11 and October 4, 1984, typed transcript, pp.

224–25, K239.0512–1363, IRIS No. 1070822, in USAF Collection, AFHRA.

5. Ibid., p. 225.

6. Ibid., p. 255.

7. Ibid., p. 258.

8. Ibid., p. 298.

80
Thomas N. Barnes

October 1, 1973–July 31, 1977

★

81
Thomas N. Barnes

October 1, 1973–July 31, 1977

★
T

homas N. Barnes became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on October 1,

1973. At that time, Richard Nixon had begun his second term as President of the United States, John L. McLucas was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. George S.

Brown was the Air Force chief of staff.1 During Barnes’s four years as chief master sergeant

of the Air Force, U.S. involvement in Vietnam ended. On May 15, 1975, TSgt. Wayne Fisk

became the last U.S. combatant to engage hostile forces in Southeast Asia. The drawdown

that had begun in the late 1960s continued and accelerated. In 1973, the number of Air Force

enlisted personnel stood at 571,790. By 1977, the number had fallen to 469,878.2

Thomas Barnes was born in 1930 and was raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, where his father served as the pastor of that small city’s largest black Baptist church. Chester claims that

it served as an important link in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves to escape from the

South before and during the Civil War. In the 1930s and 1940s, when Tom Barnes grew up

there, it was a city with integrated neighborhoods and schools. Chester also hosted a number

of war-related industries during World War II. Barnes, whose father died when he was fourteen, worked part-time for a shipbuilding company to support the war effort and to help support his family.3

In 1949, Air Force recruit Tom Barnes boarded a train headed to San Antonio, Texas.

During the long ride, he made friends with the other recruits. The young men, a few black,

the majority white, were together until they reached Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where

Barnes got what he called “the shock of my life.” The previous year, President Harry S Truman had issued Executive Order 9981, which called for equality of opportunity in the nation’s military. However, this action did not bring about an immediate transformation of the

services. The newly created U.S. Air Force and its sister services took several years to complete the integration process. The Air Force was still segregated when Barnes arrived for

basic training—his first real experience with racial segregation after growing up in an integrated community. While his new white friends began training immediately, he was held in

casual status until enough other black recruits arrived to form a flight.4

After basic training, Barnes began his career in aircraft maintenance with a stay at

Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois. At aircraft and engine school, Barnes chose to specialize in

83
hydraulics because of an inspirational vision presented by one of his instructors,

who told the young trainee that a hydraulic system could lift the world, if you

could find a place for it to stand. The

study of hydraulics proved fascinating to

Barnes, and he soon developed a passion

for the system.

After technical school, Barnes headed to his first assignment. In those days,

travel between assignments was a far

more complicated and time-consuming

process than it is today. Instead of heading directly to his new unit, Barnes headed to Camp Stoneman, California, a replacement depot. Also known as a “repo

depot,” this was a facility where enlisted

personnel had to report to await the processing of their orders. While waiting at

Camp Stoneman, Barnes worked in supply, helping to issue clothing and other

items to personnel headed overseas.

By late 1949, the Air Force had desegregated most but not all of its units. After finally

leaving Camp Stoneman, Private First Class Barnes went to his first duty assignment with the

4th Troop Carrier Squadron at McChord Air Force Base, Washington. There, unlike in basic

training, he found himself at the leading edge of Air Force integration efforts. This was a

squadron that had not been integrated, and Barnes was one of the first blacks to join it. As he

later noted, “It was an experience for them, and an experience for me, needless to say.”5

Being one of the first blacks in a newly integrated unit certainly presented challenges.

However, the unit also offered Barnes an opportunity for more specialization in C–54 maintenance as he continued his studies in hydraulics at Great Falls, Montana. He returned to

McChord, and, shortly thereafter, his unit shipped out to Ashiya, Japan, to fly missions supporting the war in Korea. The troops worked twelve-hour shifts on a thirty-day temporary

duty assignment that lasted a year.

While working on the C–54 transports, Barnes developed an interest in flying and a desire to become a flight engineer. Because he could not return to the United States for flight

engineer training, a crew chief pal taught him the art of flight engineering and let him fly resupply and medical evacuation missions in his free time. Barnes worked hard and mastered

84

Following basic training at Lackland Air Force

Base, eighteen-year-old Tom Barnes studied

aircraft maintenance, with a specialization 

in hydraulics.
the duties of each crew member. But training was not his only hurdle. He had to pass a check

flight with an officer grading his performance. There were no black flight engineers in the

unit, and the officers in charge were in no hurry to make Barnes the first. Repeatedly, he was

denied certification.

That finally changed on a day when crew rest and mission taskings kept the other flight

engineers busy. On a C–54 maintenance test flight, the test pilot had no choice but to take

Barnes with him. That day, the unwilling pilot and the man who would become the Air

Force’s top enlisted member reached an understanding in the air. Somewhere between engine

featherings, free falls, and stalls, there grew an interdependence that made the flight a success. As Barnes recalled, “We got on the ground. He looked me straight in the eye, and said,

‘I had no intention of certifying you, but, after today’s workout up there, I see no way to deny

that.’ ”

By the time Barnes finished his tour in Japan, he had been promoted to sergeant. He had

accumulated 750 flight hours over enemy territory and had earned the Air Medal. Barnes

then went to Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, to join the 1253d Air Transport

Squadron, where he worked as a flight engineer on the C–54. The unit soon gained a new

designation, the 30th Air Transport Squadron, and Barnes gained the opportunity to work on

the new C–118. He then volunteered for duty with the 1308th Ferry Group at Kelly Air Force

Base, Texas, delivering airplanes to overhaul depots and returning them to their home units.

The tour at Kelly gave Barnes a chance to use his fluency in Spanish and to witness the new

and improved basic training at nearby Lackland Air Force Base. He viewed the training as

new because it seemed less “Army.” The basic training he went through focused greatly on

physical conditioning. The basic training he witnessed while at Kelly still had its share of exercise drills, but it also had a greater focus on academics. It was also improved because integration had reached Lackland.6

In 1952, Barnes moved to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, where he continued to

work as a flight engineer and crew chief on a number of aircraft, including the B–25, T–11,

C–45, and C–47. Shortly after arriving at Andrews, Sergeant Barnes became Staff Sergeant

Barnes. Though he had been a noncommissioned officer since promotion to corporal,

Barnes achieved staff sergeant rank the same year the Air Force revised its rank structure.

Among other changes was the limitation of NCO status to staff sergeant and above, at that

time technical sergeant and master sergeant. The change came with some controversy, but

Barnes believed it helped to define clearly the special position of the noncommissioned officer.7 By the time he left Andrews six years later, he had been promoted to technical sergeant.

Barnes’s next stop was Loring Air Force Base, Maine, where he earned promotion to

master sergeant and entered the senior NCO ranks and the world of Strategic Air Command.

Barnes now experienced a different type of flying mission. Following the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, SAC went on a twenty-four-hour airborne alert. The bombers flew armed with

85
nuclear weapons. The alert missions had code names like “Hard Head” and “Chrome

Dome.” These became a permanent part of Barnes’s lexicon. As he recalled, flights “were

twenty hours and thirty minutes in length on the one hand, and twenty-four hours on the

other,” Barnes said. “The airplanes took off, went to an orbit point, orbited, and then were refueled while orbiting. They used extra crew members to accomplish these missions. The expansiveness of our air capability was really developed during that period.”

Barnes later spent a year at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, where he served as a

senior controller for all assigned aircraft, and then followed that assignment with a tour in

Southeast Asia. He was the first of those who served as the chief master sergeant of the Air

Force to have firsthand experience with the Vietnam War. At Ubon Air Base, Thailand, he

worked on F–4 fighters. As a member of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing “Wolfpack,” he

worked with Col. Robin Olds and Col. Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. Barnes recalled a

tremendous sense of purpose and esprit de corps alive in all members of that unit.

After duty in Thailand, Senior Master Sergeant Barnes and his family relocated to

Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. He worked there first as a T–38 line chief and later became

the noncommissioned officer in charge of maintenance control. When the wing sergeant

major retired, Barnes, who had been promoted to chief master sergeant in December 1969,

got a significant career break. Without even applying for the job, he was selected as the wing

commander’s new senior enlisted adviser in 1970, the year that the Air Force first officially

authorized SEAs. His first challenge in that new role was to help to settle a growing dispute

between the San Felipe school district and the air force base. The district was losing federal

impact funds because base personnel sent their children to the schools in the Del Rio district.

Barnes had a personal stake in the situation because he had six children in different grades.

The solution he helped to reach was to merge the two districts into one. At Laughlin, he also

worked to foster better relations between the base community and Mexican authorities, and

he negotiated to get airmen released from jail in Mexico. 

In 1971, Barnes caught the attention of the commander of Air Training Command, Lt.

Gen. George Simler. Taking a close look at the undergraduate pilot training bases in the command, Simler liked what he saw at Laughlin. He sent word to Laughlin’s wing commander

that he wanted his senior enlisted adviser to move to headquarters to do for the command

what he was doing for Laughlin. Simler wanted Barnes to report immediately to Randolph

Air Force Base. Then he wasted no time introducing Barnes to all of the ATC wing commanders in a clear show of support for his new adviser.

This assignment proved to be a pivotal point in Barnes’s career. Simler and Barnes traveled together frequently. For Barnes, the most exciting part was the method of travel. Simler

traveled in the airplanes his pilots used for training. He and his aide, an instructor pilot,

would fly in one airplane; the chief and an executive officer flew in another. “It was a real

86
thrill to fly across the country in a formation with your boss, in the back seat of a high-performance airplane,” Barnes recalled.

Barnes credited Simler with giving him opportunities to move his career toward greater

heights: “He extended me great responsibility. He propelled me into some things I never

dreamed I would be involved in.” The men were a great team, and Simler’s sudden death was

a terrible blow to Barnes. The general was killed on September 9, 1972, when his T–38

crashed on takeoff from Randolph Air Force Base. Earlier that day, Simler had been notified

of his promotion to four-star rank and told that he would be moving to the Military Airlift

Command (MAC). He spoke with Barnes about his promotion and his plan for Barnes to join

him at MAC headquarters at Scott Air Force Base. “He was supposed to fly in a T–39,”

Barnes remembered. “He then decided he was going to go in a T–38....I witnessed his death

in that airplane—one of the most tragic days of my life. I saw the whole thing.”

The chief experienced many highs and lows in his days as Air Training Command senior

enlisted adviser. He also saw, firsthand, both good and bad examples of how the Air Force

could deal with the growing racial strife on its bases and within it ranks. The 1960s and early

1970s were times of great change and challenge in terms of race relations in the United

States. In many ways, the military reflected the turmoil in the larger society. At Laughlin Air

87

As the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Barnes traveled a quarter-million miles annually, 

visiting enlisted airmen around the world. He is shown above (left) being welcomed at 

Yokusuka Air Base, Japan.
Force Base, the leadership went to the young black airmen and asked them what could be

done to improve their situations. Also, the surrounding community proved more open to the

airmen than were many other communities.8

At Laredo Air Force Base, in contrast, Barnes observed that the leadership failed to try

to deal with issues and the community proved quite hostile to the black airmen. Late in

1971, racial unrest escalated into a potentially dangerous incident at Laredo. Several angry

black airmen locked themselves in the base dining hall. “They’d been in there most of the

night,” Barnes recalled, “almost to the early morning hours; hadn’t torn up a thing; had eaten

only what was out and hadn’t broken into anything to get food out. In general, they stayed

within the confines of the mess hall....[security police] surrounded the place; had a D–8

Caterpillar bulldozer ready to smash the door. There were armed police in flak jackets all

around it, waiting for an order. Nobody was going to come out in that environment.” The only

answer was to get inside the hall, get some answers from the airmen, and get the word back to

the commander. The only man for that job was Tom Barnes.

Barnes flew in from San Antonio to see if he could help to end the standoff. “It’s not the

easiest thing in the world,” Barnes said later, “to face a group of angry young men who have

run out of hope; who feel they must use desperate means to express their frustrations, disappointments, and dissatisfactions.” But he succeeded and was praised for defusing the situation.

Two years after the Laredo incident, Barnes, already well known and well respected, received the highest recognition. During a basic training inspection, he got a phone call from

his boss, Gen. William McBride, telling him he had been chosen as the chief master sergeant

of the Air Force. Following a hurried trip to Washington, D.C., Barnes was sworn in to his

new position, with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. George Brown on one side and his wife,

Marie, on the other.

Thomas Barnes was the first black to serve in the highest enlisted post in any of the services. The Army did not have a black sergeant major of the Army until 1996. The Marine

Corps selected its first black sergeant major of the Marine Corps in 2001. Neither the Navy

nor the Coast Guard had, as of March 2003, selected a black for their top enlisted job. When

asked if he saw himself as a trailblazer, Barnes answered yes and no. Being the first of his

race to hold such a position was important. However, Barnes believed that he had been selected primarily for his overall abilities, not his race. Certainly, as the Air Force faced a future of growing diversity within the ranks as a result of the move to the all-volunteer force,

his race was not inconsequential. It did help to send some kind of message. Yet, he knew—

and his accomplishments in the job substantiate this—that his record, not his race, proved the

deciding factor in his selection.9

Barnes held the office for four years, including two one-year extensions of his initial

two-year commitment. During his four-year tenure, Barnes regularly received applause for

88
his ability to communicate with anyone. In his view, listening is the best thing a chief can do

for the troops. “Listen. Discern levels of a problem, and go to the appropriate authority,” he

said. Barnes did not just hear about a problem and then run to the chief of staff. He would

visit other bases in the same command and see if they all had the same problems. “If I could

isolate a problem at one base, I didn’t bring it back to the Pentagon. I’d take it to the base or

wing commander,” he said. “You can’t ever afford to overlook the four-star-level management of a command....They are the major supporters to the chief of staff. The chief of staff

and the four-stars run the Air Force. If you cross one of these guys, you’re a dead duck.” As a

result of his leadership style, the word spread throughout the Air Force about how proactive

the chief was and how he let the bases and commands solve their own problems with whatever assistance was needed.

As the highest ranking enlisted member of the Air Force, Barnes was the spokesman for

all enlisted airmen, and he often testified on Capitol Hill about quality of life issues. His

greatest contribution came in the area that inspired his greatest passion and ranked among his

largest challenges and most significant accomplishments: working to ensure equality among

ranks and races. Barnes tackled many difficult issues during his tenure as chief master

sergeant of the Air Force, but none was as personally frustrating as the issue of racial inequality. Society’s problems had permeated the Air Force. The black power movement was in

full swing in the United States by the time Barnes took office, and black airmen faced harsh

scrutiny for everything from hairstyles to slang terms.

“Groups of blacks would get together off duty,” Barnes said, “and they wouldn’t go to the

club, the bowling alley, or the pizza parlor. They’d get on the corner right under a street light,

just like [back on] the block. The security police had the bad habit, every time they saw a

bunch of blacks, of thinking something bad was happening, and they had to go break it up.”

Most of those police actions led to violence, and Barnes spent a lot of time breaking up

disturbances before they became fights. As chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Barnes

was there to advise commanders, and, as a black man, he had insight into the frustrations of

black airmen. He urged commanders to get racial sensitivity training, and he was able to help

black airmen. Barnes was also active in promoting racial equality. He took great pride, for

example, in his role in coordinating some of the events that brought about the Air Force Social Actions program in 1969 and in improving the program after he became chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. He stated that

There was a need to address those societal problems that had entered the Air Force and,

during my tenure, the Social Actions program became a means of addressing the inequities in the system. It was a look at what was beginning to happen. I played a part in

getting all that together, and that carries...forward today.

89
Barnes continued to work to eliminate the systemwide denial of opportunity that placed

minorities primarily in nontechnical jobs, such as cook and clerk. He assisted in organizing a

team of people from different areas of the Air Force who traveled throughout the service to

assess barriers to communication and to recognizing the value of every person as revealed in

practice. His accomplishments in these areas are still felt today.

Barnes did not limit his efforts at promoting equality to the area of race. He also ranked

among his challenges and achievements his efforts to convince the Air Force to use women in

nontraditional roles. He saw no reason to bar women from jobs that through training and

testing they had proven capable of handling. This was a significant problem not only in the

Air Force but in the other services as well. According to Barnes, the Marine Corps seemed

the most opposed to the idea and even worked hard to prove that allowing women in nontraditional roles would not work. Barnes labored to break down barriers for women in the military.10

Finally, Barnes ranked his efforts to promote enlisted professional military education as

among his most important contributions. Barnes had witnessed the lack of deep commitment to enlisted professional military education: the Air Force all but halted it in a cost cutting exercise during the Vietnam War. As a result, Barnes charged, the Air Force had noncommissioned officers who were good technicians but who did not know how to lead and

how to manage people. In the early 1970s, he believed, the Air Force was still “playing catchup.” He did not believe that anyone should advance in rank without professional military education. Barnes worked to establish more firmly the service’s commitment to enlisted PME

and labored on this issue in cooperation with his counterparts in the other services who were

also concerned with strengthening enlisted PME.11

During his tenure, Barnes traveled an average of 264,000 miles annually, visiting bases

and interceding for airmen worldwide. After his military retirement, Barnes kept his hand in

Air Force business with speaking engagements at military functions. The Fort Worth, Texas,

community took advantage of his experience by making him a member of the Carswell Air

Force Base Reuse Committee. He helped to conduct a study of the environmental impact of

the base on the Fort Worth community and aided the committee with other issues until the

base closed. He became a news databank of current Air Force issues and kept up with everything from personnel concerns to the newest weapon systems.

Barnes retired after twelve years as vice president and director of employee relations for

the Associates Corporation of North America and lived in Bonham, Texas, on a sprawling

ranch that he shared with his grandchildren, forty cows, a donkey, and three horses. And he

continued to seek new levels of achievement. Until slowed by an injury, Barnes competed in

the rodeo sport of team penning. In this event, a team of riders works to cull a designated animal out of a small herd and drive it to an enclosure. The best teams can complete this task in

90
seconds. Barnes’s home is full of the trophies won by his team at several levels of competition.12 Barnes died on March 17, 2003.

At the beginning of his tenure, the question most frequently asked of Barnes was, “What

programs will you implement for blacks?” “The answer was none,” Barnes recalls. “I told

them I work for all blue suiters.”

Barnes pointed to his managerial skills, developed through professional military education; his communication skills; and his ability to do many tasks at once as the qualities that

helped him to forge a successful career. He will also be remembered for paving the way for

anyone who thinks he or she cannot make it to the top. Recalling his life’s work, he said the

following:

I’d like to be remembered as a role model for people who believe they can’t get there. I

don’t mean to brag, but I hope it inspires somebody....I was qualified and just happened

to be black. I was not naive. I knew there were people who felt my selection was tokenism or [was intended] to lend visibility to the Air Force Equal Opportunity Program....It was an honor to have been chosen on the basis of my qualifications, as opposed to my race or my gender.

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched

and compiled by TSgt. Trish Freeland.

2. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 19; Bednarek, The Enlisted

Experience, p. 28.

4. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 19.

5. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, p. 64.

6. CMSAF Barnes chose to respond to his questionnaire (hereinafter Barnes Questionnaire) by means of a telephone interview, notes from which are available in the files of the

Office of Air Force History at Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

7. Barnes Questionnaire.

8. Bednarek, The Enlisted Experience, pp. 104–105.

9. Barnes Questionnaire.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

91
92
Robert D. Gaylor

August 1, 1977– July 31, 1979

★

93
Robert D. Gaylor

August 1, 1977– July 31, 1979

★
R

obert D. Gaylor became the fifth chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 1,

1977. Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, John C. Stetson was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. David C. Jones was the Air Force chief of staff. The

Air Force was nearing the end of the post-Vietnam drawdown. The number of USAF enlisted

personnel had dropped from a high in 1968 of more than 761,000 to a total slightly less than

470,000.1

Robert Gaylor was born in 1930 in Mulberry, Indiana. His teen years were strongly influenced by the events of World War II and by people returning to Mulberry from military

service. The second of eight children, he wanted to get out on his own, travel, and learn a skill

following graduation from high school. In September 1948, he enlisted in the Air Force.

About the same time Gaylor arrived at basic training, President Harry S Truman issued

Executive Order 9981, which called for equality of opportunity in the U.S. military. Change

did not come overnight, however, and Gaylor arrived at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, at a

basic training facility that was still very much segregated. For Gaylor, who had grown up in

Indiana and had never met an African American, the situation was quite shocking. Although

he had no experience with integration, he also had no experience with segregation. He

thought that African Americans had clearly demonstrated their ability to serve in the military

during World War II. He did not understand the continued segregation that resulted in them

being billeted separately, eating separately, and even being punished separately, as the military prisoners on the base were also segregated by race. He also came to realize that African

Americans were allowed to enter only certain career fields and that they were barred entirely

from entering technical fields. He saw the African American recruits only when they were

out marching. He never had an opportunity to talk with any of them. He found that quite disappointing and the whole situation a terrible social injustice.2

In December 1948, as a veteran of fourteen weeks of military experience, Gaylor was

handed three career choices upon arrival at Waco Air Base, Texas—cook, fireman, or military policeman (MP). Options offered at that time were based on local needs, rather than on

personal aptitude.

95
“I was initially disappointed,” Gaylor recalled. “I expected a career field requiring technical expertise and with a bright future. But I learned a most valuable lesson that day that I

never forgot in my thirty-one-year career: the needs of the Air Force always come first, and

the sooner an Air Force member accepts that, the easier [his or her] career will be. The Air

Force is now doing a much better job of blending Air Force needs with the individual’s aptitude and personal desires in arriving at career selections.” But that day, given his options,

Gaylor became a military policeman.

The years 1948 and 1949 were transition years for the U.S. Air Force, which had just

been designated an independent service. Gaylor has vivid memories of the ongoing adjustments being made. It took two to three years for the blue uniform to replace the olive drab;

for the one-piece fatigues to be phased out; for black shoes to replace brown; for the new

chevrons to replace the Army stripes; and for the new airman ranks to supplant private first

class, corporal, and so forth. “It was in the early part of 1950 when we discarded the MP armband and proudly wore the blue and orange air police brassard,” Gaylor said. “I attended the

military police school at Camp Gordon, Georgia, in 1949 because there was no air police

[AP] school as yet. It was late 1949 that my 677 MOS [military occupational specialty] was

replaced by my 96130 AFSC [Air Force specialty code], the air police designation.”

Gaylor had witnessed some of the last of the segregated military during his basic training. In 1949, he also witnessed the beginning of the integrated military, in which he would

serve the majority of his career. During that summer, word came to his base that the Air

Force would soon integrate. Gaylor recalled receiving the news with some measure of confusion. He did not understand why it had not happened earlier. He recalled that a rumor began

to spread. It suggested that if you could not accept integration, all you had to do was let your

commander know, and you would be discharged. Gaylor and his fellow airmen soon heard

the truth. The commander addressed them, essentially telling them that they would accept integration or suffer the consequences of undue interference.

Soon, as Gaylor recalled, trucks began to back up to the barracks door. He and his barracks mates had to rearrange the facility to make room for the African American airmen. He

remembered that about eight to ten African American military policemen moved into his barracks. He did not remember the change causing much trouble. There were arguments, he

noted, but they were no different than the kind of barracks disagreements that existed before

integration. Integration did bring change, though, especially in music, as Gaylor recalled.

They went from listening to Glenn Miller to listening to Duke Ellington, for example. And

Gaylor developed a number of friendships.

The fact of integration, however, did not end the injustices. Gaylor noted that achieving

full equal opportunity for all airmen regardless of race took a long time, nearly a generation.

He believed that one of the keys was education, and in that, he holds, the Air Force has come

96
a long way. And, he noted, the experiences and lessons learned from integration helped the

service during the 1970s when it had to begin to accept and utilize far more women.3

When his three-year enlistment ended in September 1951, Gaylor again had only two

choices. The Korean conflict had begun in June 1950 and leaving the service was curtailed. He

could reenlist or accept a “Truman Year,” an automatic one-year extension. He had been promoted to staff sergeant and was earning a decent wage, so he reenlisted for another three years.

“I used my $150 bonus to buy my first car, a 1939 Chevrolet. I was happy,” he remembered.

Gaylor’s promotions always came as soon as he was eligible. He made corporal with

eight months of service and buck sergeant (E–4) three months later. “I [knew] the secret of

getting promoted,” he said. “Keep a positive attitude, stay out of trouble, do your job to the

best of your ability, learn all you can, help others, and have fun!”

Gaylor recounted the advantages and difficulties of his early years in the service:

We had our share of problems and irritations, as we do now. There were few technical

schools, no off-duty education, or PME programs. We lived in open-bay barracks, ate in

mess halls, reported for pay, received our uniforms from squadron supply, shined our collar

97

AP Gaylor (far left) spent

four years at Laredo Air

Force Base, Texas, in

the early 1950s.
brass, and had GI parties. Some airmen received an Article 104, the forerunner to today’s

Article 15. But my Air Force was growing, and with the autonomy came pride.

In many ways, the good old days were the good old days. Parking spaces were always available—only a few airmen had cars. The base movie cost a quarter. Payday was

the big day of the month. There was no complaint on separate rations as no single airman

was [permitted] to draw that allowance. For married airmen, the spouse received part of

his pay plus the quarters allowance in a monthly allotment check, which only she could

cash. We ate on six-compartment metal trays in the mess hall and then got to wash them

on KP [kitchen patrol]. Gosh, I’d do it all over again!

And always the changes, mostly for the better. Dormitories replaced barracks,

rooms replaced open bays. Dining halls and plates bumped mess halls and trays. Paychecks direct to the bank put pay lines in history. Pay increases enabled airmen to buy

cars, stereos, homes, fine clothes. One could almost...afford to get married. And certain

enlisted grades had to have the squadron commander’s permission to do that.

We had some great leaders, back then, who practiced integrity and conviction.

Some of today’s leaders could use the stiff spine displayed by effective leaders I’ve

worked for.

As the Korean War continued into 1952, the Air Force opened or reopened additional

bases, primarily for flight training. Gaylor and six other air policemen from his unit were

transferred to Laredo Air Force Base, Texas. He stayed at Laredo four and one-half years and

matured as a professional policeman. He was promoted to technical sergeant in 1953 and to

master sergeant in 1956, earning that grade with only seven years, seven months of service. 

In April 1952, he met Selma, and they married in 1953. “She added class to my life, a sophistication of sorts,” he said. And they welcomed children to the family in 1954, 1955, 1956,

and 1959. “I think Selma was relieved when I got orders for Korea in September 1956,” Gaylor added.

Gaylor wanted an assignment at Lackland Air Force Base when he left Korea, and the

personnel clerk he spoke with told him he could guarantee that by putting a “T” on Gaylor’s

forecast sheet. But the clerk did not tell him what the T meant. Without knowing it, Gaylor

had volunteered to be a basic training instructor (TI). He decided to make the best of it and

found it to be extremely worthwhile. “My entire future was enhanced by that experience,” he

said. “If it was up to me, every NCO would have a tour as a TI.”

In Gaylor’s view, a number of assignments—including training instructor, recruiter,

NCO Academy or Leadership School faculty member or first sergeant—will prepare noncommissioned officers for higher levels of leadership. All of these assignments allow noncommissioned officers to experience the Air Force outside of their primary career field and

broaden their background. Serving as a training instructor gave Gaylor a new perspective on

98
the young airmen and a greater appreciation of

what is done to turn young men and women into

airmen at Lackland Air Force Base.4

After two years as a training instructor in a

male basic training squadron, Gaylor became the

senior training NCO in the Women in the Air Force

basic training squadron. “How many male airmen

worked for a woman in 1960?” Gaylor asked.

“What a special experience.” His two-year assignment convinced him that women could perform in

any job, and he remains convinced that, where the

talent exists, opportunities should be afforded.

In 1962, Gaylor returned to an air police assignment at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan. He was

promoted to senior master sergeant in 1963 and

served as the provost sergeant. In 1964, Gaylor and

his family moved to Columbus Air Force Base in

Mississippi for his tour with Strategic Air Command. While with SAC, he attended the NCO

Academy at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana,

where he was selected as the honor graduate and was offered a faculty position. Impressed

with the caliber of the faculty, Gaylor readily accepted the offer. Though he ended up not

staying as long as he had hoped, he believes that his time at the NCO Academy in the mid1960s relaunched his career. To some extent, he believed that he had peaked. The experience, first as a student and then as a faculty member, was like a “rocket lit under me.” He

wanted to do more, learn more, and grow in his career. He believes that all noncommissioned officers should have the opportunity to attend an NCO Academy, and he does not understand those who do not want to go.5

The conflict in Vietnam, however, shortened his teaching career, and he received orders

to return to the police field at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. Air police were becoming security police. While at Korat in 1967, Gaylor was promoted to chief master

sergeant. “April first is my lucky date,” he recalled. “I made technical sergeant, master

sergeant, senior master sergeant, and chief master sergeant all [on] April first. There were no

line numbers in those days; we all sewed it on the same day.” The chief left Thailand with orders for Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, but those orders were quickly changed.

He, Selma, and their four children would remain at Barksdale Air Force Base, and he would

help to reopen the Strategic Air Command NCO Academy. “My timing was perfect,” Gaylor

said. “It was January 1968, and we started our first class in July 1968. We had six months to

99

In 1951, Gaylor was outfitted in full 

working equipment as a member 

of the air police.
hire a faculty, prepare the building and dormitory, and develop lesson plans. It was exciting

to be on the leading edge. Teaching PME [professional military education] has got to be the

most rewarding, challenging task any NCO can have. I loved it!”

Gaylor developed a servicewide reputation as a teacher and advocate of NCO leadership.

In February 1970, Second Air Force commander Lt. Gen. David C. Jones chose Gaylor as his

first sergeant major. “He challenged me to spread leadership throughout the command,” Gaylor said. “It was slow at first, getting a foot in the door, but within months I was getting [invitations] to visit our command bases. There was a dire need for leadership training.”

Gaylor reflected on the turbulence of the early 1970s:

Hair was a major factor, drugs were prominent, the racial scene was stirring, the “dap” [a

handshake greeting practiced primarily by black airmen] was gaining popularity, airmen

were speaking out—at times demanding. The crisis in Southeast Asia was becoming increasingly unpopular, and a segment of our military society was restless. I [had] no problem with that, but I still believe we must work our problems through existing channels or

build new channels.

And that’s where General Jones excelled. By 1971, he had received his fourth star

and moved to USAFE, and I was fortunate to go with him. We didn’t just talk about the

100

When CMSAF Robert

Gaylor retired, he and his

wife, Selma, greeted wellwishers at the retirement

ceremony. Air Force Chief

of Staff Lew Allen, Jr.,

presented the Legion 

of Merit to Gaylor.
problems; we acted on them. The general led the way, and many of us contributed. Leadership training, race relations training, drug and alcohol abuse clinics, improved facilities and recreation outlets were new command ventures. I remember a visiting congressman who said to us,...“I’m going back to Washington and spread the word that if you

want to see things done right, visit USAFE!” That’s a great feeling—to be on a winning

team. And all you need are realistic standards, avenues of communication, effective

training, and concern. What an exciting three years!

When Jones was selected as the Air Force chief of staff in 1974, he moved Gaylor to the

Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center, with a charter to travel throughout the Air Force

and spread the word about effective leadership. With CMSAF Thomas Barnes working on

many issues at the Pentagon, good things were beginning to happen for that branch of the service. “It was a slow process,” Gaylor said, “but there were lights at the end of the tunnel. The

unpopularity of the Vietnam war had resulted in an image reduction in the military, and we

all needed to work together to restore the hard-earned positive respect. For three years, I

stayed on the road. I [gave] 275 leadership talks in 1976, as an example. I had blanket orders

that authorized travel to any Air Force location. Can you imagine a more exciting opportunity?”

By Gaylor’s assessment, the years from 1970 to 1977 were times of innovation in leadership. He cited the following examples:

In 1969, General Jones, then commanding Second Air Force, became aware of an exconvict, ex-drug addict named Cal Espinosa, who was gaining local fame at Castle Air

Force Base, California, by talking to and counseling...the base airmen on the evils and

hazards of drug use. [Jones] flew to Castle, met Cal, and was so impressed with his style

and message that he hired him to spread the word on drug/alcohol abuse throughout his

command. That is a courageous leader[ship] decision, [and] it worked. Cal also accompanied Jones to USAFE and later teamed with me at the military personnel center for

three years of travel. We were the dynamic duo—Cal’s forceful message on the drug

scene and my sessions on leadership.

The second example is my prime purpose for transferring to USAFE in the summer

of 1971. The command did not have any formal PME for enlisted members at the time,

and General Jones recognized the immediate need for that type of training, especially

NCO leadership. Of course, I would have preferred to activate a full-scale NCO academy in USAFE, but we had neither the funds nor [the] facility. As an interim [measure],

we established the Command Management Center at Lindsey Air Force Station [Germany]. We renovated an old building to house students and presented a sixty-hour course

101
of instruction on leadership/management skills, communicative skills, and contemporary issues to hundreds of USAFE NCOs from throughout the command.

There were four of us on the faculty and one support sergeant, and we smothered

the command with training. At times, we became mobile by presenting our course at our

bases in Spain, England, Greece, Turkey, [and] Italy. Our adrenaline was on constant

flow because our reputation was so high that NCOs were begging for a slot. Our center

was the forerunner to the eventual opening of the USAFE NCO academy in 1975.

The highlight of Gaylor’s came on August 1, 1977, when he was selected as the fifth

chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

Those two years as chief master sergeant of the Air Force flew by. So much to do, so little time. Every time I wore the uniform with the unique chief master sergeant of the Air

Force chevron, I knew how Clark Kent must have felt...[when] he ducked into a phone

booth and emerged as Superman. My immediate staff and the entire Air Force staff

helped me do my job. I always felt we were a team. When General Jones became chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Lew Allen became my new boss, and he was a superb

leader, with the concerns of the enlisted men and women foremost on his agenda. I traveled, I spoke, I visited, I sat on boards, I toured work centers. I tried to feel the pulse of

our great force and serve as a conduit of information.

Gaylor identified four major issues as the greatest challenges he faced as the chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. First, the image of the Air Force was quite poor. The Vietnam War

had sullied the image of the military in general. He saw a need to help restore pride and confidence within the Air Force. He traveled extensively, talking to airmen about standing tall

and taking pride in their military careers. Second, the racial turbulence that had rocked the Air

Force in the late 1960s and early 1970s had not fully abated. Racial tension was still quite evident. Gaylor believed that much of it was due to the fact that the service had talked about

equal opportunity but had not yet really delivered on it—it was not practicing what it was

preaching. In the late 1970s, the Air Force received another “wake-up call.” Gaylor then

worked to address issues, including even such mundane things as having African American

cosmetics and music sold in base exchanges. A third major challenge involved the role of

women. Gaylor recalled a great resistance to allowing women to enter certain career fields.

Once again, he worked to try to educate the force in order to eliminate the stereotypes and

prejudices that were working against equal opportunities for enlisted women. Fourth, drugs

and alcohol remained problematic. As he had done earlier in his career, Gaylor addressed this

issue head-on. He believed that much of the problem was due to the low morale of the late

1970s. He worked to talk to airmen and educate them to the hazards of drug and alcohol use.6

102
When asked about his major accomplishments, Gaylor was quick to point out that nothing is accomplished without help. The Air Force leadership and Gaylor’s staff all contributed

greatly to any victories during his time in office. When asked directly, though, Gaylor noted

that the Air Force introduced a uniform change during his tenure that signaled an important

shift in attitude. Until the late 1970s, when enlisted women reached a certain point in their

pregnancy, they had to wear civilian clothes. Gaylor worked to introduce and get approved a

new maternity uniform. He also helped push through a policy change that allowed E–4s undergoing a permanent change of station to transport their families at government expense.

This change recognized that many more enlisted force members were married and had children and that they were marrying at a much earlier stage in their careers. He also considered

it something of an achievement that he was permitted to have his wife, Selma, accompany

him on much of his official business. She was very supportive of him, and she was also very

active in measuring the pulse of the Air Force. She worked on these trips, meeting with enlisted wives and discovering what some of the family issues were. Finally, Gaylor believed

that he left a legacy of promoting leadership.7

When his two years in office ended on July 31, 1979, Gaylor said, “I leave with my head

held high because I can honestly say to you that the Air Force received the best effort I could

give.” And to his friend and successor, James McCoy, he said, “You had better continue to

improve and try new things and make the Air Force better. My buddies and I made the Air

Force what is it today. We made it a better place to live, work, play, and to do your thing.

And I warn you...you had better not mess up my Air Force!”

Immediately after retirement, the Gaylors relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where Gaylor

was hired as a management development specialist at a large insurance company—in many

ways, continuing his efforts from the Air Force: teaching, counseling, motivating, and listening.

Robert Gaylor, a master of common sense with a positive attitude and a strong concern

for others, continues to meet with Air Force members in more than forty USAF base visits

each year. He believes that one of the most important roles that a former chief master

sergeant of the Air Force can play is that of providing a link between the Air Force of the past

and the one of today. He sees himself as having an important institutional memory. A gifted

storyteller and a walking encyclopedia of USAF enlisted history, he loves talking to young

airmen today, telling them of what life was like in the Air Force during its formative years.8

The chief does not force advice on airmen today, but he is glad to tell them about taking

advantage of opportunities and about how he made it to the enlisted pinnacle:

Opportunity doesn’t always come with flashing neon lights. Frequently, there is risk or

sacrifice involved in grabbing what might appear to be your opportunity, but you’ve got

to do it. And it rarely pays off immediately, but someday you’ll look back and realize you

103
made the right move at the right time. Too many airmen want success without risk; success without investment of effort. It rarely happens that way.

I was never a complainer; I took whatever happened and made a plus out of it. I was

never bored. I learned the enemy of boredom is activity, mental or physical. I never felt I

was better than anyone else, but just as good. And most of all, I never took myself too seriously. Those habits worked for me.

[Finally,] when the personnel colonel at Waco Air Base tells you you’re going to be

an MP, you thank him and then go be the best MP you can possibly be. To make a plus

out of a potential minus—the choice is yours.

NOTES

1. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65. Unless otherwise noted,

this biographical interview is based on materials researched and compiled by the Office of

the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.

2. CMSAF Gaylor chose to respond to his questionnaire (hereinafter Gaylor Questionnaire) by producing a tape. A copy of the tape is available in the files of the Office of Air

Force History at Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

3. Gaylor Questionnaire.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

104
James M. McCoy

August 1, 1979–July 31, 1981

★

105
James M. McCoy

August 1, 1979–July 31, 1981

★
J

ames M. McCoy became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 1, 1979.1

Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, Hans Mark was the secretary of the

Air Force, and Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., was the Air Force chief of staff. In September 1979,

CMSgt. Dorothy Holmes became the first enlisted woman to retire from the Air Force with

thirty years’ total active federal military service. The number of USAF enlisted personnel

stood at 458,953 in 1979. That number dropped to 455,909 in 1980 before rising to 466,520

by 1981 as the country completed the drawdown following the Vietnam War and began a

buildup of forces that would continue until 1987.2

James McCoy was born July 30, 1930, in Creston, Iowa. In 1948, he graduated from

high school in Atchison, Kansas, and then attended St. Benedict’s College in Atchison and St.

Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. Shortly before enlisting, he decided against a vocation

in the priesthood. A lengthy period of soul-searching and the guidance of a priest helped him

to decide against the ministry. Instead, he joined the Air Force in January 1951, at the height

of the Korean War.

In February, he entered the radar operator’s course at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. His schooling was followed by an assignment to the 662d Aircraft Control and Warning

Squadron at Apco, Ohio. In March 1952, McCoy moved to Detachment 6, 4071st Ground

Observer Squadron, again as a radar operator—a “scope dope.” When the Air Force changed

its ranks in April 1952, Corporal McCoy became Airman Second Class McCoy.

By 1956, McCoy was a technical sergeant. But the Korean War was over, and there were

too many radar operators. The Air Force needed military training instructors, and McCoy retrained into that career field. It was not an assignment he wanted, but he and his family

moved to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

As a training instructor, McCoy considered himself firm but very fair. During his tour,

which lasted from July 1956 to October 1957, the Air Force had a number of trainee abuse

cases. “We were not exempt from them in our squadron,” McCoy recalled. He supervised fifteen to eighteen TIs, and counseling them for wrongdoing was difficult for him. “I could

have looked the other way—said no, it’s not happening in my area,” he said. “But it did happen. I felt it was an integrity issue...a responsibility I had. I had to report it, so I did.” In ret107
rospect, he found that assignment very rewarding because it was his first opportunity to supervise people.

As he recalled, his tour as a training

instructor presented a number of challenges. He had been in the Air Force only

six years and now was in charge of five

groups of training instructors. Many of

these were senior to him in years of service and had more time in as TIs. He

knew that to earn their respect he would

first have to prove himself. To do that, he

learned all he could about the role of a

training instructor. He went through the

same training, he worked with basic recruits, and he pulled every kind of shift.

In the end, he believed that his fellow TIs

appreciated his efforts and understood that

he was not there to just sit in an office and

tell them how to do their jobs. Further, he

believed that this tour had long-term benefits. Having a tour of duty outside one’s

career field, he asserted, helps to prepare

an individual for service as a senior noncommissioned officer.3

During his first six years in the Air Force, McCoy pursued a commission but did not succeed. “I decided then that if I couldn’t be an officer,...I was going to be the best noncommissioned officer the Air Force has ever had,” he said. That positive and committed attitude propelled him through a series of assignments that would take him to the top.

In October 1957, McCoy went to Clark Air Base in the Philippines as the base training

noncommissioned officer for the 405th Fighter Wing. That duty was followed by assignment

in August 1959 to the University of Notre Dame as assistant commandant of cadets for Air

Force Reserve Officers Training Corps Detachment 225. In July 1960, Technical Sergeant

McCoy was chosen as the commandant of the Strategic Air Command NCO Preparatory

School at Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana. He was promoted to master sergeant on December 1, 1961. From July 1962 to April 1966, he was an instructor and sergeant major for

the Second Air Force NCO Academy at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In the middle

of his tenure there, McCoy was promoted to senior master sergeant.

108

In 1951, McCoy was assigned to the 

662d Aircraft Control and Warning 

Squadron at Apco, Ohio.
While on the faculty at the Second Air Force NCO Academy, McCoy realized that that

professional military education was becoming a prerequisite for promotion to the highest enlisted ranks. Many of the students coming to the academy were master sergeants seeking or

just selected for promotion to the new super grades. As McCoy viewed it, there was a sense

that these master sergeants had to come to the academy because it was becoming important.

“If you were going to be a senior noncommissioned officer, you had to be an NCO Academy

graduate.”4

While on the faculty, McCoy also had an opportunity to work on the curriculum for the

NCO preparatory schools. He and his colleagues spent almost a year thinking and talking

about what changes should be made. They were just about to put a new program into place

when Vietnam wreaked havoc with enlisted professional military education.5

In April 1966, the Second Air Force NCO Academy and the NCO academies at Westover

and March Air Force Bases in Strategic Air Command were closed due to the Vietnam conflict. Upon this closure, McCoy returned to the training career field and became the chief of

the training branch for headquarters, Second Air Force. In July 1967, he went to Offutt Air

Force Base, Nebraska, as noncommissioned officer in charge of professional military education for SAC. During this assignment, he was responsible for the reestablishment of the

Strategic Air Command NCO Academy at Barksdale Air Force Base,

Louisiana, and was promoted to

chief master sergeant in August

1968.6

McCoy described the period between January 1968 and the middle

of 1969 as “full of exciting adventures.” He opened the new academy,

he helped to establish new leadership schools at Plattsburgh and

March Air Force Bases, and he had

the opportunity to brief the top leadership. As he remembered, “it really

gave me the experience that would

propel me on to bigger and better

things later in my career.”7

However, McCoy almost left

the Air Force in July 1970, when he

was assigned as the noncommissioned officer in charge of opera109

Kathy and Jim McCoy were married in 

Davenport, Iowa, in April 1952.
tions training with the 41st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Hickam Air Force

Base, Hawaii. “I had gone from a wing, to a numbered air force, to a major command. I was

going back to a wing,” he said. He would be eligible for retirement within a year, and he

thought about exercising his seven-day option. Instead, he made the major decision to stay in.

“I’ve said this many, many times,” he recalled. “You look at every opportunity that comes

along, and you don’t turn it down based just on what it looks like. I looked at it as another opportunity to further my professionalism.” While he was with the unit, he was given an additional duty as senior enlisted adviser—or senior airman adviser, as it was then known—in his

unit’s parent command, Military Airlift Command.

McCoy returned to the personnel training field in April 1973, when he became chief of

the military training branch for Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) headquarters at Hickam Air

Force Base. In 1974, he was selected as one of the USAF’s twelve Outstanding Airmen of

the Year.

He became SAC’s first senior enlisted adviser in March 1975, an assignment that prepared him for his eventual stint as the Air Force’s top enlisted member. It was a tough job during the Air Force’s “hollow force” days when retention plummeted and experienced personnel were hard to find. Strategic Air Command experienced its share of difficulties,

specifically problems involving race relations. “It was a challenge,” he said, “making sure

that our people were taken care of and that they were properly housed and properly fed. As I

[made] my visits around the different bases, I could see that sometimes that wasn’t happening.” But he held to something he had learned years before: give back what you receive, treat

people the way you want to be treated, and never forget where you came from. And with the

help of SAC’s other senior enlisted advisers, he met the challenges. 

While at Offutt, McCoy gained additional experience that helped to prepare him for the

top job. CMSAF Robert Gaylor asked McCoy to chair two worldwide senior enlisted advisers’ conferences sponsored by the Air Force Association. Previously, in 1975, Chief of Staff

Gen. David C. Jones established the Air Force Management Improvement Group (AFMIG).

Jones was concerned with the quality of Air Force personnel management. He asked Lt.

Gen. Kenneth L. Tallman, who would serve as the deputy chief of staff, personnel, HQ

USAF, to gather a group of people from all ranks from all over the Air Force to discuss management issues and propose solutions. McCoy worked on enlisted professional military education issues. In 1975, Air Force enlisted professional military education had three phases:

NCO preparatory schools, NCO academies, and the Senior NCO Academy. The problem

was that most of the students at the NCO preparatory schools were already staff sergeants.

McCoy and others believed that it was important that future noncommissioned officers begin

their professional military education earlier in their careers. As a result, the Air Force reorganized enlisted PME to into five phases, including an NCO orientation course for senior airmen. Although the service once again reorganized enlisted PME in the 1990s, returning to a

110
three-phase structure, McCoy believes that the reorganization in the late 1970s represented

an important change in Air Force thinking about enlisted PME. First, the current airmen

leadership schools still offer instruction to young enlisted before they enter the NCO ranks.

Second, he believed that the Air Force came to understand that enlisted education was just as

important as that provided for officers.8

McCoy’s interest in the Air Force’s top enlisted job began to evolve as early as 1968

when he met and was favorably impressed by the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force,

Paul Airey. Additionally, McCoy later recalled that

One of my mentors, the late CMSgt. John Bryant of Barksdale Air Force Base,

Louisiana, was vying to become the SAC nominee...for the second chief master

sergeant of the Air Force position, which eventually went to...Don Harlow. As I escorted

John and saw the things he was going through to become SAC’s nominee for the position, I became more and more interested....

111

CMSgt. James McCoy 

(left) and Gen. Russell P.

Daugherty prepare to board

a SAC aircraft in May 1975.

McCoy had taken on the

challenge of service as

SAC’s first senior enlisted

adviser in March of 

that year.
Two years later, in 1970, McCoy became eligible to compete for PACAF’s nomination

for the top spot. Gen. Lucius D. Clay, Jr., wanted a nominee with more than twenty-two years

of service and so did not select him. McCoy believed, however, that he had qualifications—

especially his positive attitude and his practice of approaching mundane taskings, volunteering, and work requirements as challenges worthy of his best efforts—that eventually could be

useful as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

When CMSAF Robert Gaylor announced his retirement, McCoy was nominated as his

successor. But a call from a friend at the Pentagon squelched his hopes. He considered the

friend a solid source, and the message was that someone else had been chosen. “I thought I

was never going to get it,” McCoy said.

Shortly after the first call, Gen. Richard Ellis, commander in chief of Strategic Air Command, called McCoy up to his office. “I knew the selection had already been made..., so I

thought this was my consolation call,” McCoy said. He walked up the stairs to the command

section—a trip he described as the longest twenty-one steps of his life—and entered Ellis’s

office. When the usually taciturn general gave him a big grin, McCoy knew that the earlier

message had been wrong. He obviously had been selected. McCoy soon had a call from

Gaylor:

He told me, “I’m not sure why you want to come up here. The Air Force is probably in

the worst shape that it has ever been in. We’ve had our worst recruiting year ever, retention is

down, morale isn’t great, we’ve got an administration that doesn’t really care for the military,

and they’re now going to charge you $10 per month to park in the Pentagon parking lot. Welcome to Washington, D.C.”

In August 1979, when McCoy took office as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force,

retention rates for first-term airmen were down to nearly 25 percent, career reenlistments

hovered at the 80 percent mark, and Air Force personnel were generally treated with disdain

by a U.S. public still skeptical of and questioning the nation’s involvement in the Vietnam

War. Gen. Lew Allen, the Air Force chief of staff, met with McCoy and told him plainly that

he did not know a lot about enlisted matters and was looking to McCoy for serious help.

The two men traveled to Air Force bases together, answering questions there in what

McCoy has described as a “Chet Huntley–David Brinkley” manner: if General Allen got a

question that he could not answer confidently, he would look at McCoy, and McCoy would

pick it up immediately. Allen said he and McCoy made “an excellent team.” McCoy recalled

that he and General Allen “had an excellent relationship.” Before he became chief master

sergeant of the Air Force, McCoy did not know Allen, but he noted that they “were able to develop a close working environment that paid off, not for us but for the Air Force.”9

In late 1979, McCoy set to work to improve the Air Force enlisted retention rate. His

principal allies were General Allen and retired CMSAF Richard Kisling, who was then working as a civilian in the Pentagon. Armed with statistics from McCoy, Allen testified before a

112
congressional subcommittee that people were not staying in the Air Force because they could

not make ends meet on enlisted military pay.

At the time, Kisling was working at the Pentagon in human development and personnel.

McCoy explained how he and Kisling labored to plug the Air Force’s experience drain:

Dick and I worked close[ly] together to increase the retention rate. That meant bringing

more discipline back to our force. That meant working with recruiters to get the right

people in the Air Force. That meant working with the folks in the basic military training

program. That meant improving the NCO professional military education program. That

meant getting a Stripes to Exceptional Performers Program started to give folks some incentive on the job and an alternate way of getting promoted instead of just through

WAPS [Weighted Airman Promotion System].

I never knew Dick when he was chief master sergeant of the Air Force, but during

my four years as SAC senior enlisted adviser, we became very close. He gave me a lot of

insight into the position.

I’ve always said the military is nothing more than a mirror of American society. And

American society in the late 1970s was sick of Vietnam, sick of the money that went into

the defense establishment. We had come out of that war with a very bad taste in everybody’s mouth. It would’ve been very easy for me to be negative, but General Allen

would not hear of it.

The programs that the two men started helped to improve Air Force enlisted personnel

retention. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 added to the positive military push already

being made by McCoy and General Allen. Unlike his predecessor, President Reagan had a

strong promilitary orientation.

Working with two administrations meant working with two different secretaries of the

Air Force—Hans Mark during the Carter administration and Verne Orr under Reagan.

McCoy said his relationship with each of them was always professional but different.

There were some things the Mark secretariat wanted to do that I simply didn’t agree

with. For example, they wanted to discontinue the initial shaved haircuts given trainees

in basic training. I worked hard to save that...I thought it was key to bringing greater discipline back into our force and to ensur[ing] everyone in basic military training got started on the same foot.

I just don’t think the people in the Carter administration, with all due respect, had a

lot of feeling for the military.

113
McCoy recalled Orr as a likable man who loved to travel to Air Force bases. Because

they did not travel together, Orr made it a point to get in touch frequently and tell McCoy of

his experiences with the enlisted troops.

McCoy has noted how successive chief master sergeants of the Air Force work together

to see projects through. When McCoy had the honor of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the

Unknowns, he was the first enlisted USAF member to do so. He also presented to Arlington

National Cemetery a plaque representing the Air Force’s enlisted men and women, for placement in the cemetery’s Hall of Plaques. That plaque had been Robert Gaylor’s idea, but it

took nearly eight months for its approval, so McCoy made the presentation.

When McCoy became chief master sergeant of the Air Force, he could draw on the experiences of his predecessors. He also believed that, over the years, Richard Kisling, Tom

Barnes, and Robert Gaylor had helped to groom him for the position. Still, McCoy brought

his own priorities and ideas on how to do the job. For example, while he saw that it was important for the chief master sergeant of the Air Force to travel, to get out into the field, he also

wanted to get involved with staff work at the Pentagon. By the time he took office, and

thanks to the efforts of his predecessors, the chief master sergeant of the Air Force automatically had permanent voting membership on eleven different boards, including the Air Force

Welfare Board, the Air Force Commissary Board, the Air Force Uniform Board, and the Air

Force Aid Society. McCoy also identified additional boards and conferences in which he believed he should have a role as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force. For example, he

made sure he was involved with annual professional military education conferences, and he

pushed for involvement with the Air Force Enlisted Widows’ Foundation. Yet, while participating in all these boards and conferences, he also, again, recognized the need to travel and

be visible.10

I could have spent the entire 2 years sitting in the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and

worked the issues right out of my office, but I couldn’t have worked them because they

would have been Jim McCoy’s opinion versus the opinion of the enlisted men and

women of the United States Air Force. So I really had to set my priorities down and, like

I said earlier, it really wasn’t any more than what I was already doing [as a senior enlisted adviser] except on a much more expanded scale. It started fast and furious, and it

ended fast and furious. It was the fastest 2 years of my life. I still sometimes think, especially since coming back here to the Omaha area, that it really didn’t happen. But it

did happen because of some of the things I recall; hopefully, I had an influence on the

Air Force.11

114
McCoy believed that serving as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force was definitely

the highlight of his career; and the highlight of his tenure, he declared, came with his retirement ceremony:

I guess the high point of being the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force is 24 July

1981 when I became the first Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force to be officially retired with full honors at Bolling Air Force Base under the view of the Washington monuments and the Capitol Building and with the Air Force Honor Guard and the United

States Air Force Band and with the Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force officially retiring me.12

In the years since his retirement in 1981, McCoy has remained at the forefront of Air

Force issues, through his work as national president and then chairman of the board for the

Air Force Association and later as the first retired enlisted member to chair the Air Force Retiree Council. He believes that the country’s leaders do a better job now in communicating

the issues to Air Force personnel and in making better choices of where to cut and where to

draw the line.

Reflecting on his tenure as the Air Force’s top enlisted blue suiter, McCoy said, “We all

built on each other’s accomplishments.” And he offered two words of advice to people who

ascend to the position he occupied for two years: stay humble. “It’s important that you be

yourself and that you don’t become all wrapped up with the position,” he said. “If you become impressed with yourself, then you’re not doing what the position is designed to do.”

Overall, McCoy said, his fondest memories of his time in Washington could also be used

to describe the Air Force uniform—plain, yet distinctive. And in retirement, he said, he still

bleeds Air Force blue, because he and his beloved Air Force have been inseparable. With

Kathy, his wife of fifty years, and their eight children and twenty grandchildren, the Air

Force remains McCoy’s true love.

115
NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographic interview is based on material researched

and compiled by TSgt. Dave Malakoff and MSgt. Louis A. Arana-Baradas.

2. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. CMSAF McCoy chose to respond to his questionnaire (hereinafter McCoy Questionnaire) by e-mail. A printed copy of the e-mail response is available in the files of the Office of Air Force History, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

4. Oral History Interview of CMSAF James M. McCoy by Capt. Mark C. Cleary, February 25–26, 1982, typed transcript, p. 53, K239.0512–1303, IRIS No. 1052938, in USAF

Collection, AFHRA.

5. Ibid., pp. 56–57.

6. McCoy Questionnaire.

7. McCoy Oral History Interview, p. 67.

8. Bednarek, p. 118; McCoy Questionnaire.

9. McCoy Questionnaire.

10. McCoy Oral History Interview, pp. 126–28.

11. Ibid., p. 128.

12. Ibid., p. 208.

116
Arthur L. “Bud” Andrews

August 1, 1981– July 31, 1983

★

117
Arthur L. Andrews

August 1, 1981– July 31, 1983

★
A

rthur L. “Bud” Andrews became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August

1, 1981.1 Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, Verne Orr was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., was the Air Force chief of staff. In the

year before Andrews took the top job, the number of enlisted personnel had begun to grow

after more than a decade of decline, and that growth continued under his tenure. The number

of USAF enlisted personnel stood at 466,520 in 1981 and at 483,022 in 1983.2 Shortly before Andrews retired, CMSgt. Bobby G. Renfroe became the first enlisted commandant of

the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy.

Bud Andrews was born March 9, 1934, and grew up in Boston. He was a good-natured,

spirited child with little interest in the classroom. Nonetheless, he attended Cathedral of the

Holy Cross, Bancroft and Rice Public Schools, and the English High School. He claimed his

share of mischief but also learned the importance of hard work and determination. As a

youngster, he took many odd jobs and even shined shoes on Boston streets. In January 1953,

he enlisted in the Air Force. He did so because of patriotism and because, with an unhappy

home life, he wanted to break free from his father’s stern discipline.

With two dollars from his mother and some harsh advice from his father, Andrews went

to basic training at Sampson Air Force Base, New York, in the middle of winter. “I should

have picked a different season to [arrive]. It was the coldest place in the world,” Andrews recalled. “Mom gave me a heavy coat, but I didn’t want to take it. I expected to get a full complement of winter clothes at basic.” When the warm ensemble he had counted on did not materialize, Andrews silently praised his mother’s wisdom as he marched around in his long,

blue civilian overcoat. Others in his flight were not as fortunate, especially those from southern states—they nearly froze in the New York winter.

Andrews vividly remembered basic training, especially his training instructor, A2C John

Gavin. “I always wanted to be a cop—it was a very respected profession during my youth,”

he recalled. When Gavin came into his barracks and asked who wanted to be an “AP,” Andrews thought his training instructor wanted volunteers for the air police career field. He

raised his hand with such force that he nearly dislocated his shoulder. “Turns out he wanted

119
an area policeman,” Andrews said, “and I spent the next three months picking up cigarette

butts outside the barracks area.”

He soon got the opportunity to enter the military police force, however, and served most

of the next fourteen years as an Air Force policeman. He spent his initial months of active

duty at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and then moved to Sheppard Air Force Base in

Texas. He liked police work and recalled that no one really specialized when he began his career. Air policemen (APs) were responsible for a variety of tasks:

One day you’d be at the ammo dump, next day it was something else like base patrol or

riding shotgun with one of the other cops. It was not uncommon for us to drive into town

on payday to pick up payroll cash, deposit it at finance, then guard the facility until all

the money was doled out to the troops.

Andrews pulled housing patrol, stockade duty, security police duties, town patrol, pass

and identification duty, and prison escort to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The only task he

missed was canine duty, and he regrets that.

About halfway through his first enlistment, Andrews was told to prepare for an overseas

tour. He expected to be sent to France, but he was about to discover that the assignment system in the1950s was unpredictable at best:

I remember being in this room at our embarkation point. A briefer gave me a book explaining how we should behave in France—how to be a good American ambassador. Another person entered the room and said, “When you all march out of this room, I will tap

some of you on the shoulder. If you’re singled out, go to room 203.”

Andrews felt the tap of fate on his shoulder, and he was ordered to North Africa. After

landing at Rabat, Morocco, Andrews reported to a mountainside aircraft control and warning

site. Living conditions were more austere than those he would later encounter in Vietnam. He

lived in a tent with a dozen other men, a potbellied stove strategically placed in the center.

The higher a person’s rank, the closer his bunk was to the center. Andrews was nowhere near

the heat.

“Africa can get pretty hot during the day and very cold at night,” Andrews recalled. “The

monsoons were tough, too. Sometimes the rain would be so bad, we couldn’t go outside for

meals. You’d just go to your footlocker and open up a can of peaches or something.” Rarely

was there milk to drink, so the men substituted Kool-Aid. The shower facilities were rudimentary: “You pulled a cord and the water flowed,” he said. “This system was fine in the afternoon when the sun warmed the water. But it was terribly cold in the morning.”

120
Andrews wishes today’s airmen could see what living conditions were like in his day.

“I’m not saying we’d ever want to return to those same situations,” he explained. “I’d just like

them to see how far we’ve come since then.”

Andrews worked hard during his tour in Morocco, and he returned to the United States

after a year. His next duty station was the 3083d Security Squadron, Fairfield Air Force Station, a secret security police outfit adjacent to Travis Air Force Base, California. Initially, he

helped to guard weapons, but a senior noncommissioned officer who liked Andrews’s work

ethic and attitude pulled him from the storage area to work on pass and identification. Andrews considered that master sergeant as his first

mentor: “[Wagner] was the epitome of a noncom

and knew more than most about the military. His

uniform was impeccable—looking the same in the

afternoon as it did in the morning.” Andrews

watched Wagner and imitated him.

Andrews’s first enlistment ended in January

1957 with an honorable discharge. Wanting to

once more experience life as a civilian, Andrews

drove his 1941 Cadillac east until he ran out of gas

and money in Wichita Falls, Texas. He took a job

in a funeral home, saved some money, and, a year

later, he moved back to Boston. There he found

the same people he had known five years earlier

still doing the same things that had bored him

then. Three months later, a little over a year after

he had left the service, he reenlisted.3

He set a goal for himself on the day he returned to the Air Force: “I vowed to be a master

sergeant. Then it was the highest grade you could achieve. I also wanted to become a first

sergeant, because I felt it was the most prestigious and important position I could attain.”

He rejoined the air police, working first at Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. Three

months later, he transferred to Okinawa and spent the next eighteen months at Naha Air Base

in the Ryukyu Islands. Working six to eight hours each day with the Ryukyu guards, Andrews

learned the local language and blended in well with the community.

In October 1959, he transferred to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, where he

worked primarily as an investigator, performing surveillance, working undercover, and

putting together the pieces of various crime puzzles. He worked on arsons and robberies and

was credited with solving a murder committed by an airman second class.

121

In March 1959, Andrews was in the

last several months of an assigment at

Naha Air Base in the Ryukyu Islands,

serving with the air police.
Andrews’s break in service cost him a stripe when he returned to active duty, but at Shaw

he quickly made airman first class a second time under the Exceptionally Well Qualified Program. Subsequent promotions came quickly. In April 1965, he returned to Okinawa as noncommissioned officer in charge of the law enforcement administration section at Kadena Air

Base, and there he was promoted to staff sergeant. When he returned to the United States, he

checked into his new orderly room at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and learned he had

been promoted again, this time to the rank of technical sergeant.

Initially, Andrews worked at Tyndall in the police administration section, handling investigation reports. Later, he volunteered to become a first sergeant and got his wish. “I was

picked, but told I had to make master sergeant right away,” he recalled. “I did, first time up.”

Consequently, he wore diamonds on his sleeves for the next decade. Andrews described the

job of the first sergeant as “the closest thing to perpetual motion.” He also believed that it

provided a tremendous opportunity for “learning about people.” In his assignments as a first

sergeant, he followed a simple philosophy: “Take care of where people live, work and play

and they will take care of the mission.”4

At Tyndall, he crossed paths with someone who was to become an important influence in

his life—a second mentor, CMSgt. Paul Airey. “He was the base sergeant major and all the

shirts reported to him,” Andrews said. “He’s a good man. I watched him, read about him, and

stayed in touch with him. He became a very important part of my career.”

In 1967, Andrews received orders to the 497th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Royal Thai

Air Base, Thailand. Known as the “Night Owls,” pilots of this unit flew F–4s, taking off in

the early evening hours and not returning until morning. Andrews recalled that it was a great

outfit but said that combat losses were quite high.

A year later, he was assigned as a first sergeant at the Defense Language Institute in

Monterey, California. Two years later, he transferred to Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, Republic of

Vietnam, where he served for a year with the 483d Organizational Maintenance Squadron.

Following that assignment, he was promoted to E–8 and sent again to Keesler Air Force

Base. After the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy began operations, Andrews was

picked to join its third class.

After graduation, he went to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and spent two years at the

6594th Test Group. While there, he made chief master sergeant. His next assignment was at

what is now Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where he served initially as the air

base group first sergeant and, later, as the senior enlisted adviser for the Electronic Systems

Division.

Andrews found the senior enlisted adviser position challenging and rewarding. Advisers

worked with first sergeants and took a collective approach to dealing with issues and solving

problems: “You work in partnership with the commander and let him or her know what’s on

122
the minds of the enlisted force,” he explained. “In turn, you also keep first sergeants and

other enlisted members aware of the commander’s views.”

In 1978, Andrews was tapped to become the Air Force Systems Command senior enlisted adviser at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. He remained there until the Air Force chief

of staff, Gen. Lew Allen, chose him to succeed James McCoy as chief master sergeant of the

Air Force. Andrews was tremendously honored that he was considered for the position, and

he recalled getting the news of his appointment while he waited in a long line at the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles.

Andrews’s term began shortly after the end of a bleak period for the armed forces. Recruiters had been coming up short; first-term reenlistments had been at record lows; and,

most alarming, large numbers of noncommissioned officers in middle-management positions

were leaving the Air Force. Some believed that years of legislative and executive branch neglect had caused pay and benefits to erode to the point where service members felt they could

no longer afford to serve their country.

“We were hemorrhaging!” Andrews said. “Staffs, techs, and even masters fled the service. We were in the midst of a cold war and couldn’t afford to lose that cadre of people. Our

politicians realized this and gave us substantial pay raises in the early ’80s. This helped slow

down the exodus.”

As the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Andrews served some great leaders. Verne

Orr was the secretary of the Air Force, and he worked hard for the troops. Caspar Weinberger, the secretary of defense, had an innate sense of what it took to make enlisted men and

women work more effectively, and he fought for their well-being. Andrews had strong words

of praise for the Air Force leaders with whom he worked while at the Pentagon:

I think they are above reproach. I was welcomed by the Air Staff with open arms, and

they listened to what I had to say. They encouraged me to go before Congress and testify on such issues as commissaries, pay and entitlements. They provided me with all of

the information I needed to do my job. The bottom line is, I don’t have enough words to

express my sincere appreciation to the Air Staff. The job cannot be done without their

assistance.5

The chief traveled extensively, in excess of twenty-three days each month. One of his responsibilities was to let the Air Force chief of staff and others know about what concerned the

troops. “If you’ve got 400,000 enlisted people out in the system, that’s where you need to go,”

he said. “They don’t all work in the Pentagon.”

He was also charged with guarding the troops’ health, morale, and welfare—ultimately,

the Air Force mission. “The chief [master sergeant of the Air Force] needs to know what the

123
issues are. This sounds simple but, believe me, it’s not,” Andrews said. “If you take care of

your people, they’ll take care of the mission. I live by that!”

Andrews likened the role of chief master sergeant of the Air Force to that of a first

sergeant or a senior enlisted adviser but on a much broader scale. It included appearing before Congress, tackling funding and budgeting issues, planning for dormitories and child

care centers, and handling a range of other concerns. In his view,

Well, I think the Chief’s [CMSAF’s] first job is to find out quickly where the Air Force

needs to be going and how it’s going to get there, and then to advise the Chief of Staff accordingly. He must be visible, and, of course, to accomplish this he must spend countless hours away from his family and office. As much as it’s humanly possible, he needs

to be in the same trenches as the troops.6

124

CMSAF Arthur Andrews 

and his family
His top priority as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, though, could be described

by the phrase, “Get back to basics.” Andrews believed that by the time he took the top enlisted job, many of the most vexing problems in terms of pay, benefits, recruitment, and retention had been addressed. He believed that the time had come to focus on other issues, saying

it was time for Air Force people to “think we instead of me, me, me.” For example, pay issues

had been successfully addressed after Congress passed a law giving the military a substantial

pay raise in the early 1980s. “Now,” Andrews asserted, “let’s talk about how we’re supposed

to dress, how we’re supposed to act and react toward subordinates and superiors, and how

we’re supposed to do our jobs.” For Andrews, “the Air Force is a calling.”7

In focusing on “the basics,” Andrews sometimes found himself having to take some unpopular positions. He challenged noncommissioned officers to “take care of their people and

to accomplish the mission,” and he reminded them that the mission came first. “That is the

price of commitment,” concluded Andrews. He also told noncommissioned officers to look

to themselves if they were dissatisfied with their jobs. Was it a problem with the system or

with them? Reiterating his stance on the special nature of military careers, Andrews stated

that

Our military career is not just a job. It calls for self-discipline, not self-indulgence. In

more concrete terms, it calls for alerts, deployments, world-wide airlift missions, and

PCS [permanent change of station] moves. National defense is not a business that opens

its doors at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 5:00 p.m.8

Andrews did believe that the Air Force made progress in terms of the basics. In the mid1980s, he said that 

We have come a long way over the past four or five years. At one time during my career,

discipline and standards were just words without teeth to them. I used to think of them

as a great white shark, but that shark had no teeth. It was big and awesome, but it couldn’t or wouldn’t do any damage. Well, today, those standards have teeth, and they are

being met.9

Recalling Andrews’s tenure as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, the retired Air

Force chief of staff, Gen. Lew Allen, said, “Bud joined me in 1981—at the beginning of the

Reagan buildup. He knew where quality-of-life improvements were most needed and greatly

helped me make sure the needs of the enlisted force were met.”

Andrews said his Air Force duties as a policeman and as a “shirt” helped to prepare him

for the CMSAF position: “Both career fields carry a great deal of responsibility, and you can

cause a lot of damage if you’re not careful. Cops must be above reproach or an injustice takes

125
place—even if it’s as simple as giving someone a ticket.” First sergeants, he said, deal with

morale and with social and medical issues: “If I had to put a civilian title to the duty, I’d call it

a human resource manager. You sometimes wear the hat of a father, mother, pastor, negotiator, counselor, financial wizard, and more. It depends on what your troops need.”

Early in his career, Andrews learned how to watch, listen, and interact with others, and

over the years he formulated a four-part recipe for success. “First of all, you must have integrity. If you’ve got it, you have the world by the tail. People will follow you.” Second,

troops must learn how to be good followers—that is paramount to becoming a good leader.

“Third, you must never forget where you came from, no matter what grade you attain. And

last, but certainly not least, you’ve got to know your people and what they need.” Andrews insisted that these rules will work for anyone, inside or outside the military.

Andrews recalled that “leadership by stress” was the norm when he was a young airman.

Superiors focused only on discipline. “We’re doing things differently now,” he said. “We’re a

lot smarter.” He credits professional military education as the force behind the change to a

smarter, more effective leadership model. People attending PME classes, he said, become not

only better airmen and noncommissioned officers but also better people. They come out

knowing a great deal more about themselves and the military.

Today’s noncommissioned officers are much better equipped than before. They are

handed a great deal more of responsibility than in the early days of the Air Force; now noncommissioned officers are in charge of millions of dollars’ worth of property, and not just on

a supply sheet. Their burden of responsibility has changed drastically. And it is all for the better. He went on to declare, “It would be a cardinal sin to close, even temporarily, one door of

one leadership school.”10

“I left active duty in 1983 and I honestly believe I left it in good stead,” Andrews said. He

had no patience for those who got out and then criticized the Air Force. In that case, they had

only themselves to blame: “They didn’t groom anyone to take their place. If you can’t get out

and look at your career field with pride, it’s your fault. You didn’t grab someone and show

them the ropes—teach them the way and help them to pick up where you left off.”

Like most of his predecessors, Andrews never really left the Air Force. Before his death

in October 1996, he served as the Air Force Sergeants Association deputy executive director

for public relations, traveling all over the world to meet with airmen. He visited military installations for speaking engagements, spent holidays with airmen, and attended PME graduations. Of his frequent meetings with airmen, Andrews recalled that

We talk about the issues, history, you name it. I’ll go around and ask each and every individual for a question or a comment. I tell them, if they like what I’ve said, to put it into

their pocket for safekeeping. If not, that’s fine, too. They may not agree with me, but I’ll

always tell them the truth.

126
And he advised enlisted personnel to become active in their professional organizations.

He said, “I think these organizations add quite a punch to what our senior leadership does

when they testify before Congress and speak on behalf of the armed forces. It is very important to belong to at least one, if not all, of them.”11

Andrews embraced his profession with fervor and reverence and could look back in awe

on a career marked by dedication and service. It was not his job—it was his vocation, his

family, his culture, his life. “The Air Force is a door of opportunity,” he said. “You’re shown

the door, and told about the possibilities on the other side. It’s up to you to turn the handle and

claim what’s there.”

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographic interview is based on material researched

and compiled by MSgt. Mindy Poist.

2. Department of Defense, Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. Enlisted Council, Air Force Association, The Chiefs, p. 43.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid., p. 31.

6. Ibid., pp. 31–32.

7. Ibid., p. 43. 

8. Ibid., p. 44.

9. Ibid., p. 30.

10. Ibid., p. 29.

11. Ibid., p. 33.

127

Sam E. Parish

August 1, 1983–June 30, 1986

★

129
Sam E. Parish

August 1, 1983–June 30, 1986

★
S

am E. Parish became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 1, 1983.

Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, Russell A. Rourke was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. Charles A. Gabriel was the Air Force chief of staff.1

The growth in the number of USAF enlisted personnel that had begun in the early 1980s continued under Parish’s watch. The number of enlisted stood at 483,022 in 1983 and increased

to 494,666 by 1986.2

Born on October 2, 1937, in Marianna, Florida, Sam Parish grew up and went to school

in the nearby towns of Malone and Bascom. When he was a teenager, he left the family farm

and sought work in Fort Myers, Florida. At age seventeen, he joined the Air Force: “I just

wanted a change,” he said. “I worked as a florist and made good money—more in a week

than an airman made in a month. But, I didn’t see a future there.”

The twelve-week basic training stint at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, was pretty simple for the young airman. He was inherently disciplined and, thanks to his southern upbringing, already said “yes, sir” and “no, sir” quite easily and often.

Following basic training, Parish opted to become a ground weather equipment operator,

although he had no idea what that job entailed, and he spent twenty-six weeks in school at

Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. He was a bright student and was the class honor graduate

in August 1955. At the time, follow-on assignment choices were based on a student’s academic standing, and all of the assignments were overseas. They were written on a blackboard,

and airmen chose their assignments in order of their class rank. Parish had “first dibs” so he

picked France, as Paris intrigued him. The number-two student did the same. But, Parish recalled, the assignment took an unexpected turn:

There were only two France slots, so the next guy in line—a reenlistee—selected West

Germany. Two days later, he took me over to the snack bar. I never drank in my entire

life! He fed me three or four of those paper-cup beers from the exchange, and, the next

thing I knew, he conned me into switching assignments with him!

The hoodwinked airman was headed for Wiesbaden Air Base, West Germany, whereas

the reenlistee found his way to Chaumont Air Base, France. But things had a way of working

131
out for Parish, and his new duty location turned out to be a godsend in several ways. On the

way to Germany, Parish reported to Manhattan Air Force Station, New York, as part of an experimental program to transport troops overseas by aircraft instead of ships. He boarded a

C–54 bound for Europe, but the flight terminated in Paris. Day after day, Parish checked to

see if follow-on travel was available, but it was not. He was “stranded” in Paris for weeks

until he finally got a second flight to Frankfurt.

Parish finally reported to his first duty assignment, Headquarters 18th Weather

Squadron. Initially, he was supposed to work at the upper air station, but again he took part in

an experimental program. “Officials were combining Air Force specialty codes,” Parish said.

“I was selected to...also train as a weather observer.” He spent the next four months reading

manuals and taking specialty knowledge tests to upgrade his skills. “I was one of the first to

receive the dual [specialty code], but, unfortunately, I did it through the books,” Parish said.

“I never left the headquarters the whole time I was there.”

He spent three and one-half years in Germany, working for a supervisor who greatly impressed him and who significantly affected his career. “His name was Capt. Eugene T. Blanton, and he treated me as an adult,” Parish said. “He never oversupervised. He’d give me a

job, then let me do it. The captain would let me sink or swim, but was always there if I got in

too deep.”

Blanton, now a retired colonel living in California, was in charge of the unit’s plans and

communications division at the time, and he recalled Parish’s hard-charging work habits:

132

Parish distinguished

himself as an honor

graduate at the Air

Force NCO Academy.
“Sam was personable, aggressive, and incredibly smart. He was the only assistant I had, and I

let him work to his fullest potential.”

The captain heaped great responsibility on Parish’s shoulders, and the young airman met

the challenges time and again. Blanton’s trust unleashed Parish’s strong work ethic and desire

to excel, and this first duty experience set the stage for a career marked by a constant resolve

to reach for the top.

At Wiesbaden, Parish met another person who altered the course of his life. Ingeborg

Eva-Marie Zimmerman was a young German woman who worked as a nanny and spoke little

English. Fate smiled again on Parish, because he was already taking the mandatory German

language classes two hours each evening. The language training paid off in romance, and the

couple married in June 1957.

In 1959, Parish, a staff sergeant, was ready to rotate back to the United States. His career

field was one of two Air Force fields with a mandatory seven-level requirement, a prerequisite for promotion to technical sergeant. The course was twenty-eight weeks long, entailing a

permanent change of station. Parish scored only a B on the entrance examination and got

temporary duty orders to Greenville Air Force Base, Mississippi, because the school was so

backlogged that those with Bs would have to wait years for a slot.

Parish rolled up his sleeves and went to work in Mississippi, but he was more determined than ever to go to seven-level school. Several months after his arrival at Greenville, an

inspector general team came to the base for a look at operations following an earlier unfavorable unit inspection report. To prepare for the visit, Parish’s unit worked hard and earned an

excellent grade on the retest. With the inspector general on base, Parish spoke his mind:

“When it was time for the conference period, I told my commander I wanted to see the IG. I

thought the upgrade procedures were unfair, and I wanted to let him know how I felt.”

He met with the inspector general and explained how the vast majority of his training

was accomplished through books and manuals with no hands-on experience. “I told him I

wouldn’t sit around and wait for years and years to get my seven level so I could eventually

make tech sergeant,” Parish recalled. “[I] [t]old him when my enlistment was up, I’d probably

be forced to look for a new occupation.” The inspector general listened to the junior noncommissioned officer but offered no solutions. A few weeks later, however, a letter arrived to report that Sergeant Parish’s test scores were missing and to direct him to retake the seven-level

entrance test.

“I took the exam and this time got an A,” Parish said, laughing. “Let me tell you, in no

time at all I was heading to Chanute.” Again he graduated at the top of his class and became

the youngest seven-level airman in his career field.

In August 1960, while in seven-level school, Parish was recruited by his former 18th

Weather Squadron operations officer, Col. Donald F. Moore, to take a research and development job in Air Research and Development Command, which became Air Force Systems

133
Command the following year. Specifically, he became the noncommissioned officer in

charge of the operational procedures branch of the 433L System Program Office at Laurence

G. Hanscom Field,3 Massachusetts. The assignment lasted for nearly six years. Parish immersed himself in base activities, such as the NCO Academy Graduates Association and the

softball team, which he coached. During his time at Hanscom, he and Inge and their sons,

Sam and Steve, welcomed a third son, Scott. Parish also pinned on technical and master

sergeant stripes during this tour.

In March 1966, he received orders to the position of chief observer for the 7th Weather

Squadron in Heidelberg, West Germany. He was quickly promoted to senior master sergeant.

At age thirty-one, after two and one-half years in Germany, Parish made chief and transferred

to Headquarters Air Weather Service at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Initially, he served as

the command’s chief observer and, later, as the division chief.

“About that time we heard the Air Force was establishing the Senior NCO Academy,”

Parish said. “I called a chief at Military Airlift Command to see about the possibility of me

attending. I was one of the people who said we needed this academy, and I wanted to see

what they were going to accomplish there.”

When the Air Force opened the Senior NCO Academy, Parish sought and received a

place in the first class at Gunter Annex, Alabama, in January 1973. Thomas Barnes and

James McCoy, future chief master sergeants of the Air Force, were his classmates. After graduation, Parish became the weather service senior enlisted adviser. But he left after a couple

of years because of a difference of opinion with the new commander and went across the

street to “Mother MAC” to seek a new job. He found his niche in the personnel community

and took over as the headquarters weather assignments adviser.

In August 1976, Parish and his family returned to Germany, where he served as sergeant

major of the consolidated base personnel office at Bitburg Air Base. A year later, he was

named senior enlisted adviser for the United States Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein Air

Base, an assignment he found most enjoyable and productive. He established the initial First

Sergeant of the Year program for USAFE. “USAFE was a great command—small enough

[that] you could reach out and touch people and yet large enough to challenge any chief.”

In the fall of 1980, Parish was tapped to become the 40th Air Division senior enlisted adviser at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan. He believed he was nearing retirement, and

Michigan seemed an acceptable place to do that. He was in Washington, D.C., however, attending the retirement ceremony for CMSAF James McCoy, when he got a call to return directly to base. When he arrived at Wurtsmith, his boss, Maj. Gen. Robert E. Messerli, a tough

taskmaster but a super commander, told Parish he was nominating him for the thirty-threeyear program because it was the only way Parish could become the next Strategic Air Command senior enlisted adviser. Otherwise, Messerli could not sign the necessary paperwork.

“You’re assuming I want this position,” Parish said to the general.

134
“You want it,” the general

replied.

Parish was selected as a

thirty-three-year chief in early

1981. Later that year, Gen.

Bennie L. Davis asked him to

join the SAC team in Omaha,

Nebraska. “He was a super

boss,” Parish said. “When I

first got there, I asked for

three things: an airman recognition program with some

teeth in it (including a SAC

First Sergeant of the Year program), a new office location,

and an [administrative] assistant.” He got what he wanted,

and he forged a great working

relationship with Davis.

“His goals and mine coincided,” General Davis said.

“Sam liked to spend time talking to the troops, and he always brought their views back to us so we could work issues at our level.” Davis believed that

Parish’s greatest strength was his way of drawing out the troops and learning what was on

their minds. “He did this to perfection,” Davis said, adding, “I think this is the most important

role a senior enlisted adviser has.”

Parish served for almost two years in Strategic Air Command. In 1983, when CMSAF

Arthur Andrews approached retirement, the call went out for a new top chief. The selection

process was similar to that for the Airman of the Quarter program. Applicants were nominated, and their names were sent to SAC. Then a board, chaired by officers, picked two or three

finalists and forwarded their names to the SAC commander.

Parish did not volunteer, and his name was not on the list until Davis named him. The

final slate of candidates was narrowed to three primary and two alternate finalists. Parish and

Inge went to Washington, D.C., for another series of interviews, as did the other two primary

finalists and their wives. Interviews were conducted by Lt. Gen. Kenneth L. Peek, Jr., the Air

Force deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel; Gen. Jerome F. O’Malley, the Air

Force vice chief of staff; and Gen. Charles A. Gabriel, the Air Force chief of staff. Parish did

135

From 1960 to 1966, Parish served as the NCO 

in charge of the operational procedures branch of 

the 433L System Program Office at Hanscom 

Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
not believe the interview with O’Malley had gone well. As Parish recalled, “I never agreed

with a thing he said.” But that was not O’Malley’s impression, and, several weeks later, Parish

got the call inviting him and Inge to relocate to Washington, D.C.

Parish served as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force for three years and tackled a

range of enlisted personnel issues. One such issue was the fixed-phase point for promotion to

senior airman. “In 1985, the wait was forty-two months,” Parish said. “It floated and depended on vacancies and the amount of money available for promotions.” He convinced General

Gabriel that the Air Force needed to promote qualified airmen to E–4 at a set point in their

first enlistment, thereby allowing them a shot at the rank of staff sergeant before their first

four years ended. In addition, Parish advocated and Gabriel approved an initiative allowing

flightline personnel to wear a functional badge on their uniform. Eventually this initiative

was expanded, and now all Air Force personnel in all specialties have functional badges identifying their career fields.

Parish also oversaw realignment of the system of enlisted professional military education. A strong advocate of enlisted PME, Parish said of his experience at the Air Force Systems Command Academy, where he was the honor graduate, “The experience lit a fire in my

belly that has not been extinguished to this day—[it] probably will never go out.”4 He has

also said that the establishment of enlisted PME was “one of the greatest steps taken for enlisted people in the history of the Air Force.”5 At the time he became the chief master

sergeant of the Air Force, however, he believed that the program needed realignment. By the

mid-1980s, the Air Force had five levels or phases of enlisted PME: the NCO Orientation

Course, the USAF Supervisor’s Course, the command Noncommissioned Officer Leadership

School (NCOLS), the command Noncommissioned Officer Academy (NCOA), and the

USAF Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy (SNCOA).6 The first and third levels

were conducted at base level. Parish noted that “much of the information taught in these levels were duplicated in technical schools or in other courses the airmen were expected to attend.” The realignment in the mid-1980s eliminated the NCO Orientation Course and the

USAF Supervisor’s Course and created the NCO Preparatory Course (NCOPC). By moving

from a five-level to a four-level system, Parish believed “[t]he goal was to teach individuals

what we thought they needed to know before assuming the next grade/level of supervision.”

In the early 1990s, the Air Force once again realigned enlisted professional military education, eliminating the NCO Preparatory Course and the command Noncommissioned Officer Leadership School and creating the Airman Leadership School (ALS). Although the realignments achieved their initial goals, Parish later wondered if perhaps there is now too

great a time gap between attendance at the Airman Leadership School, the NCO Academy,

and the Senior NCO Academy.7

Parish also worked to establish the John Levitow Award. Each level of professional military education included the designation of honor graduates. Parish believed that this award

136
ought to have a name beyond “honor graduate.” A1C John Levitow had earned the Medal of

Honor in Vietnam. By naming the award after an enlisted Medal of Honor winner, Parish believed that “it would be a great way for the enlisted force to learn a little of our enlisted history—and to get his name known by all enlisted members.”

Additionally, a USAF-level First Sergeant of the Year program was developed during

Parish’s tenure. In doing this, Parish continued a tradition he had established at United States

Air Forces in Europe. There, while serving as the USAFE senior enlisted adviser, he had established a command-level First Sergeant of the Year program, despite a certain level of resistance. After moving to Strategic Air Command, again as the senior enlisted adviser, he established a similar program within that command. When he became the chief master sergeant of

the Air Force, he elevated the program to the USAF level. When asked of his goals in establishing these programs, Parish answered, “I was looking for ways to recognize this group of

enlisted leaders who, in most cases, would refuse to allow themselves to be nominated for an

award that other enlisted members in the unit were eligible for.”8

When Parish served as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, the service faced two

major challenges. First, in the tight budget environment of the mid-1980s, Congress first

began talking about making major revisions to the military retirement system. The system

had seen some revision in the early 1980s, but the proposals of the mid-1980s would bring

far greater changes to the system. Parish called it “the number-one area of concern” for enlisted people. Though Parish and other military leaders fought to preserve the existing retirement system, Congress enacted legislation in 1986 that created a new, reduced retirement

benefit for those entering the service after August 1, 1986, a month after Parish retired. The

Redux retirement program, which remained in place until 2000, became an issue for future

chief master sergeants of the Air Force.9

The second challenge involved married military couples and joint spouse assignments.

Parish noted that the number of married military couples in the Air Force had grown considerably. In 1975, married military couples made up only 3 percent of the force. By 1984, they

accounted for 9 percent of the force, a three-fold increase. Also, over the years, these military couples advanced in rank. Finding joint assignments for younger airmen may have been

relatively easy, but it became more difficult as these couple achieved more senior NCO

ranks. The Air Force managed to station almost 90 percent of military couples at the same

locations, but missions and requirements made this increasingly difficult. Parish foresaw

that as the number of military couples increased, the ability of the Air Force to find joint assignments would decrease.10

Like his predecessors, Parish spent much of his time on the road, visiting bases, fielding

questions, and staying in touch with the enlisted force. “If a chief is to take care of his troops,

he’s got to know how to listen,” Parish said. “And, he’s got to listen from both sides. You have

to hear the command or officers’ side, too.” Any time a change or proposal was considered, it

137
had to face this litmus test: is the change good for the Air Force, is it good for the individual,

and does it hurt anyone? If it did not pass that test, he backed off.

Parish said that the chief master sergeant of the Air Force position is vital in today’s military environment because the CMSAF provides the staff—the policymakers—with an enlisted viewpoint they have never had before. He believed it is the most important job in the

Air Force, from an enlisted program perspective.

Parish planned to retire in 1985, but General Gabriel asked him to extend for another

year, and so he remained stayed on until July 1986. He looked back on his career with a great

deal of satisfaction and pride:

There have been very few times in my life when I haven’t given my all, and I honestly

and truly believe I’ve been successful. Success is achieving your best, regardless of what

you’re doing. I served one day at a time without thinking a lot about the future—how far

I’d go with the system.

[The Air Force has] been my whole life—my family’s life. I came in at seventeen—

a green, uneducated airman, who was allowed to grow. I was allowed to do anything I

was capable of, with few roadblocks in my path.

Parish often has been characterized as a “straight shooter” who does not waste time figuring out what people want to hear; rather, he tells them what they need to know. He has a

reputation of getting things done and communicating easily with superiors and subordinates

alike. Parish would agree that he is outspoken and not smooth and polished. “There aren’t

too many political bones in my entire body,” he said. It is his long-standing style. He always

had the courage to go his own way.

Following his retirement from the Air Force, Parish served as vice president and director

of military services for GEICO Auto Insurance Company and continues to work as a consultant. He remains very involved in the Air Force, attends myriad service functions, and visits

NCO academies and airmen leadership schools. In his spare time, he has become a master

gardener for the state of Maryland. A master gardener is a volunteer who, after receiving

training from the state, helps to provide public educational programs dealing with environmental horticulture. He and Inge like to garden and spoil their grandchildren. “For an old

farm boy...it’s not a bad life!” Parish said, with a smile.

138
NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographic interview is based on material researched

and compiled by MSgt. Mindy Poist and some editorial changes made by CMSAF Parish.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. Laurence G. Hanscom Field became Hanscom AFB in January 1977.

4. CMSAF Parish responded to his questionnaire (hereinafter Parish Questionnaire)

by e-mail. A printed copy of the Parish Questionnaire is available in the files of the Office of

Air Force History, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

5. CMSAF Sam E. Parish, “Building Quality,” Air Force Magazine 67, no. 5 (May

1984): 87.

6. Wayne A. Valey, The Airman’s Guide, 1st ed. (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books,

1988), p.105.

7. Parish Questionnaire.

8. Ibid.

9. CMSAF Sam E. Parish, “Taking Care of the Troops,” Air Force Magazine 68, no. 5

(May 1985): 74–75.

10. Parish, “Building Quality,” p. 87; Parish, “Taking Care of the Troops,” p. 75.

139
140
James C. Binnicker

July 1, 1986–July 31, 1990

★

141
James C. Binnicker

July 1, 1986–July 31, 1990

★
J

ames C. Binnicker became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on July 1, 1986.

Ronald Reagan was President of the United States; Edward C. Aldridge, Jr., was the

secretary of the Air Force; and Gen. Larry D. Welch, a former Air Force enlisted member, was the Air Force chief of staff.1 Although the USAF enlisted force initially continued

to grow while Binnicker held the top spot, budget constraints and the crumbling of the Berlin

Wall in 1989, which signaled the end of the Cold War, began a sustained period of substantial

downsizing. The number of USAF enlisted personnel stood at 494,666 in 1986 and increased to 495,244 by 1987. By 1988, however, the number had dropped to 466,856 and

stood at 430,818 by 1990.2

Born on July 23, 1938, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, James Binnicker was raised in

Aiken, South Carolina, near the Georgia state line. Aspiring to become a pilot, he joined the

Aiken Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) during his freshman year in high school. The

CAP lured him with their recruiting tool—an orientation flight in a single-engine plane. That

thirty-minute flight was all it took to put Binnicker on a course toward an Air Force career.

The Aiken Squadron conducted most of its two-week summer camps at nearby Shaw Air

Force Base, where the cadets would live, eat, and march. “As I got into the Civil Air Patrol,”

Binnicker said, “I found that I was very comfortable and enjoyed putting on the uniform and

dressing up like an airman. The marching, the flying, the saluting, that was sort of my thing; I

liked it. And then when we went to summer camp, the exposure to...the real Air Force...solidified that this was what I wanted to do.”

Being named Cadet of the Year in 1956, his senior year, was one of the high points of

Binnicker’s time in the Civil Air Patrol because it earned him a scholarship to attend flight

school. It also earned him the right to represent his state as a foreign exchange cadet in Great

Britain. And it took him one step closer to his dream of being a pilot. But in 1957, after he

signed up for the Air Force’s aviation cadet program, doctors detected a high-frequency hearing loss in his right ear, a dysfunction that removed him from the program. “I was disappointed and didn’t want to go back home and face the people that I had sort of thumbed my nose

at—‘I’m gonna go off and be a jet pilot’—so I told the recruiter that I wanted to join the Air

Force.”

143
Thinking he would not be very successful as an officer who was not a pilot, Binnicker

enlisted in August 1957. He admits to entering the service with a chip on his shoulder because he was disappointed about not being able to fly. The hearing loss continued to disqualify him from several jobs, and he ended up in the personal equipment—later called life support—career field, installing parachutes and survival equipment in aircraft. Because it

brought him close to the airplanes, it was the best alternative to flying.

It also put him on the flight line with B–52s and KC–135s and a maintenance chief

named Roy Duhamel, who would become Binnicker’s mentor and role model. “At the time I

didn’t care much for Chief Duhamel. He was always on my back about something.” But,

looking back several years later, Binnicker gave Duhamel credit for knocking the chip off his

shoulder, “kicking his butt” when he needed it, and causing him to reenlist for the first time.

The current Mentorship Program had not yet been established, but Binnicker’s experience

proved to him that mentoring works. He believes that had it not been for Chief Duhamel, he

would not have reenlisted. For Binnicker, Duhamel was the perfect example of what a noncommissioned officer is all about.3

His Civil Air Patrol experience earned him one stripe after basic training, making him an

airman third class when he arrived at the 96th Air Refueling Squadron at Altus Air Force

Base, Oklahoma. But none of his experiences had prepared him for what he would find there:

“The barracks—we had two people per room and we shared a bath, which I thought was pretty bad at the time, but now, almost forty years later, we still have two people in a room sharing a bath.” That, he said, planted a seed in his mind that there had to be a better way for enlisted people to live. 

Despite what he calls the grimness of his first assignment, Binnicker was not scared

away. He joined the Aero Club and lived the life of the typical airman, going to movies or

hanging out in the dayroom of the barracks. He also took a job at the officers’ club, first as a

dishwasher and then as a waiter, to earn enough money to buy a 1949 Mercury for $250—his

“freedom ticket” to get off the base. He was also the typical airman at work, learning the duties associated with his job and applying his own ability to create a pleasant environment. His

military bearing, dress, morale, and activities on and off base were attracting positive attention, and the officer in charge of his duty section was the first to document Binnicker’s potential. On the very first performance report of a man who would become chief master

sergeant of the Air Force, the lieutenant wrote, “This airman...could become an excellent supervisor and leader.”

Binnicker stayed at Altus until 1964 when, as a married staff sergeant, he received orders

to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He had already cross-trained into the air operations career

field, where promotions came very quickly. He was promoted to staff sergeant because his

supervisor would not allow him to attend professional military education. “I kept wanting to

go to what we called the preparatory school back in those days, a precursor for leadership

144
school today,” he remembered. “I

would see [students] marching up

and down the street, and they had little red epaulet[s] on their khaki

shirt[s] that indicated that they were

student[s]. And I really wanted to do

that. That was a holdover from my

Civil Air Patrol days of marching and

drill team. Plus,...I knew that attendance at that school would speed up

the promotion process.” His boss, a

lieutenant colonel, said that he could

not afford to let Binnicker go and

that he thought the school was a

waste of time. When Binnicker tried

“the old promotion ploy—‘if you

don’t send me, I won’t get promoted,’” his boss said if that was all Binnicker was worried about, he would just promote him.

Obviously, promotions were received differently in the days before the Weighted Airman

Promotion System was established in 1970. When asked how promotions were earned before

WAPS, Binnicker said no one really knew. “[The promotion] was recommended by your supervisor and your squadron commander [based on] job performance and that sort of thing.

That was the driving force behind WAPS, because no one knew what it took to get promoted.”

In Hawaii, Binnicker was promoted to technical sergeant and worked in 1502d Air

Transport Wing operations, planning flights for all of the missions going into Vietnam. While

working on a degree at the University of Hawaii, he had studied Vietnamese to fulfill his foreign language requirement because he thought it might prove beneficial to know the language of a country with which the United States was at war. He volunteered for service in

Vietnam, but the personnel system rejected his volunteer statement and sent him instead to

Grand Forks, North Dakota.

That experience soured his opinion of the personnel system, and his opinion did not improve when he received orders to Vietnam eleven months later. “My experience was moving

from Hawaii to Grand Forks...only to turn around eleven months later and go back through

Hawaii on my way to Vietnam. So I was mad at the personnel system for doing that to me and

my family.”

145

When a high-frequency hearing loss denied him his

dream of flight school, Jim Binnicker enlisted in 

the Air Force in August 1957.
It was in Vietnam, while he was working in the 22d Tactical Air Support Squadron from

1968 to 1969, that Binnicker first heard of the position of chief master sergeant of the Air

Force. His original goal had been to make chief master sergeant by age thirty-five, but when

he heard that there was a higher-ranking position, the thirty-year-old master sergeant set his

sights even higher. Binnicker’s Airman Performance Reports (APRs) began suggesting him

for the CMSAF position within three years. In fact, fourteen of his next fifteen APRs would

make the same recommendation before he was first considered for the position in 1983.

After his tour in Vietnam, Binnicker completed assignments at Robins Air Force Base,

Georgia; Ching Chuan Kang Air Base, Taiwan; and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North

Carolina. At Seymour Johnson in 1972, Binnicker undertook duties first as the base sergeant

major in the 4th Combat Support Group and later as senior enlisted adviser for the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing. He left the base as a chief master sergeant and went to Bergstrom Air Force

Base, Texas, as the senior enlisted adviser for the Twelfth Air Force.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter established the President’s Commission on Military

Compensation and, on the recommendation of CMSAF Thomas Barnes, Binnicker became

the military’s sole enlisted member of the commission. However, on Binnicker’s recommendation, representatives from the other services were later added. 

Binnicker credits Barnes with a lot of his success because of the opportunities Barnes

provided him, although Binnicker does not know why he was singled out. “He involved me in

some things that gave me visibility that I might not have gotten otherwise,” Binnicker said.

“He’s sort of my hero of all the former chiefs. I like them all, but I kind of point to him as the

guy [who] had the most influence and impact on my career.”

After serving one year with the compensation commission, Binnicker returned to his position as senior enlisted adviser at the Twelfth Air Force, before taking the same position for

three years at Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base. But after more than

seven years of senior enlisted adviser duties, he was ready for a change: “I called the Chiefs’

Group at [the Military Personnel Center (MPC)] and told them that I was interested in finding a challenging job—I didn’t care where they sent me; I just wanted a challenging job.

They came back later and said that they had a position at MPC in the enlisted retention division.” Soon, however, the Military Personnel Center commander asked Binnicker to head up

the Chiefs’ Group at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Although Binnicker was interested in

that job, he was not certain he was qualified.

I felt it was important to remind the commander that, [although] I was working at MPC,

I was not a personnel chief, had never been in personnel, and had always thought that

being chief of the Chiefs’ Group was the premiere personnel chief’s position. [The commander said] he didn’t have any personnel experience when he got to MPC, and pointed

to his pilot wings and said, “Those are not personnel wings.” And he said, “I know what

146
your background is and I want you to do it.” It was an experiment to try and bring a person from the field, not a personnel person, to head up this Chiefs’ Group. I did that for

three-and-one-half years.

Binnicker credits both jobs at the Military Personnel Center with giving him the background and experience he would need as chief master sergeant of the Air Force:

I, like a lot of people in the Air Force, had some preconceived notions about personnel; I

think personnel gets a bad rap because of the business that they’re in. They’re either

moving you or promoting you or educating you, and those are things that are near and

dear to everyone’s heart. So if you can’t satisfy everyone, obviously you’re going to have

a bad reputation. The training, the exposure I got while working at the Chiefs’ Group, I

think, [enabled me to] go out and defend the personnel system. When you’re standing on

stage and someone is upset with the personnel system—either they didn’t get promoted

or they didn’t get the assignment they wanted—it certainly helps...to be able to...explain the system...from the standpoint of having worked there and understanding the

system.

In 1985, at about the same time that Binnicker’s assignment was ending at Randolph, the

new commander of Tactical Air Command, Gen. Robert D. Russ, was looking for a senior enlisted adviser. Binnicker had worked for Russ at Seymour Johnson and jumped at the opportunity to work for him again.

When the announcement was made that CMSAF Sam Parish was going to retire, a message soliciting nominations for the position was sent to major commands, field operating

agencies, and direct reporting units. The Chiefs’ Group compiled information packages on

each nominee, and a panel of officers reviewed the candidates and narrowed the selection to

three finalists. Each finalist was interviewed by Gen. Larry D. Welch, commander of Strategic Air Command, who was awaiting Senate confirmation of his own selection as Air Force

chief of staff.

Binnicker and his wife, Jan, went to SAC headquarters to meet Welch. “It was a thirtyfive-minute interview, very intense. The questions, I thought, were the kind of questions you

might expect: ‘Do you have an agenda?’ ‘No, I don’t have an agenda, but I have a list of

things that I would like to work on.’ ‘What’s on that list?’ The APR was number one, and he

said, ‘I agree, but I think we need to fix the [Officer Effectiveness Report (OER)] because it’s

more broke than the APR.’Then we [worked] on that list of things that, if I were selected,...I

would focus on.” Thirty-five minutes later, the interview was over, and Binnicker’s future was

set.

147
Binnicker thought that the senior enlisted adviser from Strategic Air Command, who had

already been working with Welch, was the likely choice. But Welch, now retired from the Air

Force, remembers why he selected Binnicker: “At the time, my judgment was that he had a

broader outlook on the Air Force and, maybe most important, he had a very clear view of the

proper role of the most senior of the senior NCOs—that is, the chief master sergeants.” And

at a time when the senior leadership was not totally satisfied with the role that chief master

sergeants were playing, Welch wanted to make sure the man he selected would lead the enlisted force in the right direction. In Welch’s words,

We thought the role of chief master sergeants was to be absolutely in the lead of the

NCO corps, and absolutely in the lead of the enlisted force, in terms of looking after interests and understanding what drives the enlisted force and being spokesmen for the

needs of the enlisted force, and not...for the needs of chief master sergeants. That’s not a

criticism of chief master sergeants as a whole because they’re very bright, dedicated

people. Their role had just...evolved in a different way than we intended. So, in addition

to having a very broad view of the Air Force as a whole, and having a very solid grasp of

what drives interest the enlisted force—what we need to do to take care of and motivate

the enlisted force [—Binnicker] also had, by far, the clearest view of the proper role of

chief master sergeants. The chiefs had begun to evolve into this sort of separate class of

people in the Air Force, and what we needed the chief master sergeants to do was to be

very, very much in the lead in enlisted matters. And he was very interested in that.

One of the first orders of business for the new chief master sergeant of the Air Force was

to familiarize himself with the Air Staff and let them get to know him. “If you’re working on

an issue in the barracks, you don’t want to bog the Chief of Staff down with the inner workings of that process. You want to work with the staff over in the engineering world,” Binnicker pointed out. “Or if you’re working on a personnel issue, likewise you don’t want to bother

the Chief of Staff or Vice Chief until you have come up with a final position, and then you go

in and you say, ‘This is what we’ve done, and this is what we need to get done.’”

When he knew “who was who” and “what was where,” Binnicker was ready to tackle the

Airman Performance Report, a system of ratings from one to nine:

It had become, in my opinion, a meaningless document because 98 percent of the Air

Force had the same...[rating]. I was never convinced—nor am I today—that 98 percent

[of the force] is perfect; and essentially that’s what we were telling them, that 98 percent

of the Air Force is perfect. And when you give everybody the same report card, then you

hurt the people who are truly the exception....[T]he old APR...was not a bad system. We

had just abused it to the point [where] it was ineffective. If we had followed the regula148
tion and treated it the way it was designed years ago, then it would have served us forever because it was well designed. It had just [come to the point where] if you [didn’t] get a

nine, you were dead.

Welch agreed that something was wrong with the system. “We have a problem in the Air

Force,” he said, “and that problem is that we have so few mediocre people that it’s hard to differentiate [levels of] excellence.” Binnicker realized that commanders were giving everyone

a nine because performance was rarely average.

Welch told Binnicker that what he wanted to measure was performance, both on the Officer Effectiveness Report and the Airman Performance Report. Other things were still important—the whole-person concept, for example, but performance ought to be the focus of

the rating.

From that direction came the new Enlisted Performance Report (EPR). It was expected

that most people would fall in the “consider for promotion” block, or a three on a scale ranging from one to five. “Even in that rare environment of excellent people, you have to have a

system to evaluate them,” Binnicker explained. So, based on the new system, Binnicker said,

there would be a handful of fives (“immediate” promotion) and fours (“ready” for promotion), and a lot of threes. According to Binnicker, such an outcome “tells the board to promote these fives first, these fours [next], and then a big chunk of the threes would get promoted, as well. But certainly a clear message would be sent to the promotion board that this is

the person you [have to] promote first, and it would be done.”

As easy as that all sounded, there was a lot of resistance to the change because, Binnicker said, “we didn’t educate the Air Force.” No one understood that the majority of airmen and

noncommissioned officers deserved a three, and ratings on the EPR, like its predecessor,

have become inflated. “Somehow we had come to think that if you didn’t get a report card all

the way to the right [top marks], there was something wrong,” he said. “And I was just hoping

that, over time, we would accept a report card that might not be all the way to the right.”

A system of performance feedback was also instituted with the new Enlisted Performance Report. Raters were directed to meet with their subordinates during the first thirty

days of supervision, midway through the reporting period, and again after completing an

EPR. “Feedback was something I thought was absolutely essential—still do,” Binnicker said.

“It wasn’t done very well in the beginning, but I saw it as a tool to help supervisors in many

ways. You’ve told them up front what your standards are; at midpoint you said, ‘this is how

well you’re doing—or not doing—and then the report card.”

In 1995, when Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman and CMSAF David J. Campanale

formed a panel to review both the report and the feedback portions of the evaluation system,

“[the panel] essentially verified what we had done,” Binnicker said. “They made some

changes that I thought were appropriate. It needs to be looked at on a regular basis, tweaked

149
and modified based on the needs of the Air Force at the particular time. I don’t think we

should go for another twenty years without looking at [the EPR]. I think it should be as dynamic as our Air Force is—ever-changing, always looking at it from the standpoint of, does it

fit what we’re doing today?”

With the evaluation system taken care of, Binnicker set his sights on admitting master

sergeants to the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, which only senior and chief

master sergeants had attended.

When I was a chief-selectee, I felt cheated because I had a strong need for [the information gained at the academy] a lot earlier. And I felt that the payback would be greater [if]

we would expose master sergeants to this information. That’s the beginning of the senior

NCO corps. We call master sergeants senior NCOs; we include them in the Top 3; we

call it the Senior NCO Academy, yet we don’t send them to the senior school. The primary purpose would be to send the master sergeants earlier to take advantage of this newfound knowledge, and they would be better prepared, I think, to move into the senior and

chief ranks, and take those positions of greater responsibility.

Binnicker favored giving people all the responsibility they could handle, and he noticed

a lot of changes since the time he was an airman. Now, he said, “we give them more responsibility, we treat them more as...adult[s with] a lot more freedom to voice their opinion and to

be involved in the decision process.” As a result, he thinks the Air Force can attract and retain

higher quality personnel.

Female and minority service members have also received greater responsibilities. Binnicker thinks their roles have changed “only about a thousand percent. We have, in fact, changed the

way we treat both minorities and women. Not so much with affirmative action, but I think with

the recognition that it’s the right thing to do; the recognition that what we were doing in years

gone by was, in fact, not the right thing to do, or at least not the right way to do it.”

The most profound change may be noticed among women. Thomas Barnes was the first

minority chief master sergeant of the Air Force, from 1973 to 1977, but there has never been

a woman in that job. Binnicker thinks that things may be about to change. He said that, in the

past, the Air Force had built what amounted to institutionalized sexual discrimination when it

came to women chief master sergeants. “Female members,” he said, “would get promoted up

to a particular grade—usually a master sergeant or senior master sergeant—and then get

frustrated with the system because they could see that they were not going to get the choice

positions that other chiefs might get.” But once that institutional discrimination was eliminated—at least in part—commanders started to select female chiefs for more prestigious jobs.

When that happened, Binnicker said, “young women at the staff or tech sergeant level could

see that, ‘Hey, there is a reason for me to stay in the Air Force.’ And they obviously are stay150
ing longer, and doing quite well, I think, in being competitive for those jobs....[I]t’s just a

matter of time before we have a very serious candidate for Chief Master Sergeant of the Air

Force [who] happens to be a woman.”

When it comes to serving the enlisted force, Binnicker thinks the chief master sergeant

of the Air Force should be sincere, credible, and honest, and should follow up on what he or

she says. The chief should give the chief of staff input on a variety of subjects—input that the

chief of staff can combine with pertinent input from other sources to form a basis for wise

decision making.

Looking back at his four years as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Binnicker believed that his two greatest accomplishments were the evaluation system improvements and

the admission of master sergeants to the Senior NCO Academy. When asked how he would

like to be remembered, he answered, “That I did my best. I would hope most people would

say the same thing...and that’s all you can do. That’s all that the country can ask of you...that

you do your best. That’s how I’d like to be remembered.”

But General Welch, his former boss, remembered much more:

What I remember Chief Binnicker for is that I knew if there was a significant issue involving the enlisted force, a significant issue of the enlisted force that I needed to pay attention to,...Chief Binnicker would be in my office to tell me about it. And he would be

the staunch advocate of the needs of the enlisted force, within the context of the greater

needs of the Air Force. He was a marvelous spokesman for the needs of the enlisted

151

CMSAF Binnicker, along with other service senior enlisted representatives, testifies before Congress about quality of life issues.
force, and a marvelous spokesman for the NCO corps. So I was never surprised. When I

went to bases, talked to groups—NCOs, enlisted, et cetera—I almost never ran into any

surprises. He also accepted the role of helping to lead the major air command senior enlisted advisers down that same very productive path. So, clearly, within the Air Force, he

was the leader of the senior enlisted advisers.

Binnicker remains involved with today’s enlisted force. Once a year, he joins the former

chief master sergeants of the Air Force at the Pentagon for updates on current issues. He also

visits professional military education classes and talks with students worldwide. Binnicker is

currently the president and chief executive officer of the Air Force Enlisted Foundation, Inc.,

formerly the Air Force Enlisted Men’s Widows and Dependents Home Foundation, Inc. The

first thing Binnicker did when assuming his new position was change the organization’s

name. The foundation provides housing and services for widows of Air Force enlisted retirees. He also serves as a member of the Air University Board of Visitors and is a member of

the Airmen Memorial Museum. He and his wife, Jan, live in Navarre, Florida. One son,

Mike, is a junior at the University of Georgia. His other son, Carmen, is married and lives in

Calhoun, Georgia, with his wife and daughter, Julia.4

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched

and compiled by SMSgt. Cathy Segal.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, pp. 65–66.

3. CMSAF Binnicker chose to submit a typewritten (or, more accurately, wordprocessed) response to his questionnaire (hereinafter Binnicker Questionnaire) as well as

some editorial changes to the interview. A copy of the Binnicker Questionnaire and his editorial changes are available in the files of the Office of Air Force History, Bolling AFB,

Washington, D.C.

4. Binnicker Questionnaire.

152
Gary R. Pfingston

August 1,1990–October 25, 1994

★

153
Gary R. Pfingston

August 1, 1990–October 25, 1994

★
G

ary R. Pfingston became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 1,

1990. George H. W. Bush was President of the United States, Donald B. Rice was the

secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. Michael J. Dugan was the Air Force chief of

staff.1 As Pfingston described the time preceding his selection, “We woke up one morning to

find the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War over. The Berlin Wall had crumbled. The

changing international scene prompted us to do business differently. The armed forces got

smaller and missions changed. During our downsizing, the United States Air Force experienced some dramatic changes.” In 1990, the number of USAF enlisted personnel stood at

430,818. By 1994, the number had dropped to 341,317, the lowest level since 1947, when

the number of enlisted members stood at 263,082.2

Gary Pfingston was born in Evansville, Indiana, on January 2, 1940, and lived there

until the mid-1950s, when his family moved to California in search of employment opportunities. He graduated from Torrance High School in 1958, where, as an avid athlete, he participated in football, baseball, and wrestling. After high school, Pfingston attended El

Camino College. He enrolled at Long Beach State University but never attended because he

was drafted. During that time, he met his future wife, Marsha A. Hunt, of Torrance. He

worked for the Redondo Beach Recreation Department and delivered newspapers for the Los

Angeles Times.

On Christmas Eve 1961, a month after his marriage, he received a notice to report for a

draft physical. “My appointment to take the physical was January 2, 1962—my birthday,” he

recalled. “So I got a Christmas present and a birthday present from the Selective Service

Board.”

Visits to recruiters followed his physical. Draft-age men could not receive college deferments unless they were full-time students carrying twelve to fifteen credit hours. Because Pfingston was married and working, he could not carry such a heavy academic load. And the

rules for marriage deferments had changed when John F. Kennedy succeeded Dwight D.

Eisenhower as President in 1960: a married candidate for deferment now had to have a child

depending on him. The Pfingstons had no children, so he enlisted in the Air Force. He was

155
inducted in Los Angeles on February 23, 1962, and went to Lackland Air Force Base in San

Antonio, Texas.

Pfingston described basic training then as similar to basic training today, with one significant difference:

I guess the biggest thing is that there were two phases to basic. Everyone did the five

weeks of phase one at Lackland. However, if you were selected to attend a tech [technical] school, you did phase two at the tech school. They had TIs [training instructors] at

the tech school, just like they did at Lackland. But you’d go half a day to school and then

[have] half a day of basic training—general military training is what they called it. Those

who didn’t attend a tech school completed phase two at Lackland and then went on to a

permanent base as a direct duty assignment.

Recruiters did not guarantee jobs in those days. New enlistees took what was called the

Airman Qualifying Examination (AQE), now the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). These tests were designed to measure administrative, electrical, general, and

mechanical skills. Following those tests, inductees were matched with existing Air Force

needs. Pfingston was chosen to attend the aircraft mechanics’ technical school at Amarillo

Air Force Base, Texas. “I went to B–47 school...[but] I never worked on one at any time during my career,” he said.

In the middle of the summer of 1962, his wife, Marsha, moved from their home in Redondo Beach to Amarillo. She and the wife of one of Pfingston’s airman buddies went together and found an apartment. “You’ve got to understand,” Pfingston explained, “I only

made $79 a month as an E–1.”

At Amarillo, Pfingston immediately engaged in baseball, one of his favorite pastimes.

He was a skilled player, and he had played in some rookie leagues in Los Angeles before his

enlistment. He played intramural softball at Amarillo, but he declined when he was asked to

move up to the base fast-pitch team. He was entering the final few weeks of technical

school, and he had orders to Schilling Air Force Base in Kansas. He and Marsha would at last

be able to live as a family rather than make do with weekend visits.

“I got a message to report to the squadron commander,” Pfingston said. “I was a dorm

chief—a student leader—so I didn’t know if I had screwed up or what....I marched into his office, saluted, reported, and he sat behind his desk with his big cigar, chomping on it. He said,

‘Son, I understand you don’t want to play for my softball team.’” Pfingston explained his situation—wife downtown, only three more weeks of school, orders to Kansas where they could live

together, and so on. The commander asked Pfingston where he would like to be posted, and Pfingston told him California. “You play for my softball team,” the commander promised, “and

I’ll guarantee you’ll go to California.” Pfingston’s response: “Where do I sign up?”

156
When the softball season was over, the Pfingstons headed for Castle Air Force Base,

California, where he served as a B–52 crew chief with the 93d Organizational Maintenance

Squadron. While he was at Castle, the United States and the Soviet Union squared off in the

Cuban missile crisis of 1962. As Pfingston recalled,

I went to work one day with a pack of cigarettes and two dollars and didn’t get to go

home for thirty days. We were locked on base. We upgraded all the airplanes and put

them on alert. We had to stay with our airplane. We lived there.

But, we were prepared for such occurrences. The training program in those days

was much different than it is today. You had schools that you went to for every skill level,

and they were mandatory. Another difference is the SKT [Specialty Knowledge Test]

you take today as part of your WAPS [Weighted Airman Promotion System]. You had to

take the SKT and pass it with a certain percentile score to get your three level, five level,

and seven level. And you had to complete a formalized training program prior to testing.

It was much more structured than what we have today, but a little bit of that structure returned with the Year of Training initiatives of 1993.

At that time, E–4s were required to attend the Noncommissioned Officer Preparatory

School. Each base had its own preparatory school, and Pfingston attended it while at Castle.

The course lasted four weeks and was much more regimented than Airman Leadership

School is today. “It was like basic training,” he said. “You had to fold your underwear and put

them in a drawer a special way, and your dorm room...[was] inspected every day. This was a

mandatory school, and we’re back to that today, primarily due to the Year of Training initiatives taken under Gen. [Merrill] McPeak and...[me]. Obviously, the dumb stuff we did—

folding the socks, daily dorm inspections—we don’t do anymore.”

During his tour at Castle, Pfingston continued to play fast-pitch softball, and his team

won the Strategic Air Command championship one year. At the same time, the situation in

Vietnam was heating up. The United States had advisers there, and rumors flew around the

barracks about what was going on.

Pfingston noted that many people regarded those as the Air Force’s “good old days.”

“Well,” he said, “I lived through the ‘good old days,’ and they weren’t worth a damn. There

weren’t very many people who stayed and made careers out of the Air Force because of pay

and entitlements, or benefits. There weren’t any.” He said most first-termers in the early

1960s got out after four years with two stripes. That was high as they could be promoted—

airman second class.

Back then, unless you were an E–4 with four years of service, your spouse received no

benefits or entitlements—you couldn’t ship household goods, spouses didn’t get travel

157
pay. You couldn’t even live in base housing—you had to be an E–4 [with] over four

[years in] to...get on the list. Every airman in the Air Force lived off base....Most of the

first-term airmen in the Air Force, that I was aware of, were there to [avoid being] drafted in[to] the Army.

In February 1966, about a month before Pfingston was due to reenlist or start the extension, the Air Force began the variable reenlistment bonus program.

The first four years of my career were tremendous. I loved every minute of it because I

worked on B–52s for half a year and played softball for half a year. I thought, hey, this is

a pretty damn good deal. Why get out? Because there was a limited amount of money in

the bonus program, people had to reenlist quickly or the money might be gone. I think I

got...$1,800, and that was a lot of money at that time. After reenlisting, I stayed two

more years at Castle. During this time, our first son, Mark, was born...at the Castle hospital.

In February 1968, then Staff Sergeant Pfingston was reassigned to Plattsburgh Air Force

Base, New York. At Plattsburgh, he served as a B–52 and KC–135 crew chief and later became noncommissioned officer in charge of the aircraft records, documentation, and debriefing sections. During his stay at Plattsburgh, he was promoted to technical sergeant. “There

was no WAPS system,” he said. “It was still the promotion board system—behind-the-greendoor, attaboy, good-old-boy, who-liked-you promotion system—where there was no visibility, no testing, or anything. They took all the staff sergeants’ records into the deputy commander for maintenance [DCM] conference room and could promote whatever their

authorization was.” He sewed on his technical sergeant stripes in 1969. Two years later, the

Pfingstons’ second son, Brad, was born at the Plattsburgh Air Force Base hospital.

The next assignment took Technical Sergeant Pfingston to U-Tapao Royal Thai Air

Force Base, Thailand, for a year beginning in March 1972.

I started in aircraft maintenance again, B–52s and tankers, and then I moved into the DCM

maintenance control area. We had a lot of planes on the base. There was a lot of reconfiguring of airplanes—what was called the “iron belly” modifications so B–52s could carry

conventional bombs. Up until that time, B–52s were designed to exclusively carry nuclear

weapons. That’s when we first started using B–52s in a conventional war. We modified

them to carry 500-pound bombs and put external bomb racks on them, also.

A big difference between a war deployment then and now is the communication

process. The only ways we could communicate with our families...[were] by mail or the

MARS [Military Affiliate Radio System]. MARS was run by volunteer radio operators.

158
Once a month, I would sit in a MARS station for probably eight to ten hours waiting for

my turn. The radio operators would relay conversations sentence-by-sentence. I know in

Desert Storm we had AT&T commercial telephones, and I understand in Bosnia they

communicated on the Internet, on computers.

He returned to the United States in March 1973 to begin serving as a military training instructor at Lackland. This duty was something Pfingston had never done, and he feared it

would not be his type of work. He got through the schooling and began working with the

159

CMSAF Pfingston in 1973, while serving as a Military Training Instructor at Lackland AFB, Texas.
3711th Basic Military Training Squadron, and he found that he “just absolutely loved it. Ultimately, I ended up spending eight-and-a-half years there and had just about every job there is

for an enlisted person at Lackland.” In December 1975, he was selected as chief of the Military Training Division, Headquarters Basic Military Training. Training instructor duty was a

three-year controlled tour. At the end of the second year, an instructor asked for a one-year

extension. Pfingston received five extensions.

During his years at Lackland, the Air Force experienced a number of cultural changes, as

Pfingston later recalled:

The biggest thing we went through, I guess, was the change from the draft to an all-volunteer force. Even today, I think it was a great thing to do. The quality of the airmen didn’t change. As a matter of fact, it might have gotten better because we had more people

[entering] the Air Force for the right reasons. They were volunteering to come in—not

coming in to avoid the draft.

We started to do a lot of integration of males and females—male instructors with female flights and female instructors with male flights. We were bringing in more women,

and more of them were attaining NCO status, and a lot of our young men were leaving

basic training and going to work for female supervisors. Not long after that, we integrated squadrons to include male and female flights.

Overall, these years were not good years, as I recall, for the Air Force. Those were

what were referred to as the hollow forces of the ’70s. Being a young senior NCO at the

time, I can say it was not very good. We went for a long time without a pay raise. Our

reenlistment rates were low, and we were drawing down from the Vietnam years. We got

so small, so fast. All of a sudden a base would become 50 to 60 percent manned, with no

money, and you couldn’t do your job. We were killing people, working them to death. We

couldn’t fix airplanes because we didn’t have money to buy parts. We didn’t have money

to fly them if they were fixed. So flight crews were not getting proper training. We

learned from that experience and did things differently when we had to do the drawdowns of the ’90s.

Despite the challenges facing the military, Pfingston described the years at Lackland as

professionally rewarding:

Personally, two things of great professional importance happened to me while at Lackland. First, I started getting involved in supervision of people and leadership roles. I

truly believe that my experience as a TI is the reason I ultimately succeeded as a chief.

Being a TI is probably the best training ground in the Air Force for people programs.

Second, I met CMSgt. Bob Beilke. He became my role model. He saw that, as a techni160
cal sergeant, I wasn’t doing everything I could do to improve myself or the Air Force.

Don’t get me wrong, I was good—I was selected instructor of the year. Chief Beilke sat

me down and told me to either “Get all the way in or get out of my Air Force.” His guidance inspired me to attain the grade of senior master sergeant before leaving Lackland in

1981.

The Pfingstons moved to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in August 1981. Pfingston

served with the 605th Military Airlift Support Squadron as the en route maintenance branch

superintendent and, later, as the organization’s first sergeant.

Shortly after his arrival at Andersen, Pfingston broke his back working on a C–141 Starlifter. He was flown to Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center at Lackland for treatment of a

fractured vertebrae, herniated disks, and sciatic nerve damage. After 147 days in the hospital,

he returned to the 605th and became the first sergeant for the 600-member squadron. “I loved

it. That’s when I really first got involved with families and people programs.” Pfingston believed that his time as a first sergeant was also important preparation for his later service as

the chief master sergeant of the Air Force. As a first sergeant, Pfingston “had his eyes

opened” to the importance of families. He came to the conclusion that a supportive family,

especially a supportive spouse, was crucial to career success.3 While serving as first

sergeant, he was selected for promotion to chief master sergeant.

The next assignment took the Pfingstons to George Air Force Base, California, where he

served as noncommissioned officer in charge of the 561st Aircraft Maintenance Unit. “We

had the first evaluated ATSO [ability to survive and operate] exercise in a chemical environment,” Pfingston said. “So we had the first command inspector general evaluation...of working in chem [chemical] suits and gas masks in the desert, in 100-degree temperatures. It’s

ironic....Eight years later we would be in the desert in 100-degree temperatures, liberating

Kuwait.” The inspector general with whom Pfingston worked with was the future Air Force

chief of staff, Gen. Michael J. Dugan. This evaluation experience marked the beginning of

Pfingston’s long relationship with General Dugan.

Six months later, Pfingston was selected as the senior enlisted adviser for the 831st Air

Division at George Air Force Base. He served in that role until July 1987, when he received a

call from the Twelfth Air Force commander’s secretary instructing him to come to Bergstrom

and speak with the new commander, Lt. Gen. Merrill A. McPeak. He met with McPeak to interview for the Twelfth Air Force senior enlisted adviser position and was subsequently selected. Shortly after McPeak became commander in chief of the Pacific Air Forces, the

PACAF senior enlisted adviser suffered a fatal heart attack, and McPeak tapped Pfingston to

replace him. Pfingston has since described that adviser position as one of the best jobs in the

Air Force, although the travel distances probably make it the most physically demanding role.

161
In the summer of 1990, Gen. Michael J. Dugan replaced Gen. Larry D. Welch as the Air

Force chief of staff. One month later, nominations opened to replace CMSAF James Binnicker, and McPeak submitted Pfingston’s name. The Pfingstons met with Dugan and, three

days later, Pfingston received a call from Dugan, who said simply, “You’re the guy.” Pfingston described the challenges he would face as chief master sergeant of the Air Force:

When I came into the job, I honestly had no agenda. I was smart enough to realize that

the next three or four years were not going to be very easy for the Air Force. We knew

there was going to be a drawdown, [but] we didn’t know how much. We knew there were

going to be budget reductions, [but] we didn’t know how much. So I knew there were

going to be some tough things we were going to have to do.

Basically, my initial focus...was to...keep everything on track. To go on with what

Jim [Binnicker] had done with the EPR [Enlisted Performance Report], and then tackle

other stuff—the drawdown, the budget, and so forth.

162

CMSAF Pfingston (left) and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill A. McPeak worked closely 

together from 1987 until October 1994.
In September 1990, Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney relieved General Dugan

because of comments he made to reporters during a flight from Saudi Arabia about the

Kuwait situation and the conduct of a possible air war. McPeak replaced Dugan. Throughout

the remainder of 1990 and into 1991, the United States built up forces in the Persian Gulf region. As Pfingston recalled the efforts of the enlisted Air Force personnel in the conflict that

ensued,

When the first bombs were dropped, I was on my way to Offutt Air Force Base. I listened

to CNN report the first attacks on Baghdad. I think it was incredible how the enlisted

corps performed throughout the war. The enlisted people in the Air Force—the airmen

and the NCOs—demonstrated their ability to be the professionals that they are. They

showed the world how good they were, how dedicated they were, how smart they were.

I think a lot of enlisted people grew up, matured during that war. The first time I deployed to the desert with General Dugan, there were basically two issues. Everybody

was upset [about losing] their BAS [basic allowance for subsistence] because they were

in field conditions, and they wanted to know when they were coming home. We worked

the BAS issue. We increased the SGLI [Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance policy benefit]. We got hazardous duty pay increased. And Secretary Cheney came out and said

there is no rotation—the people in the desert are there for the duration.

When we went back in January with General McPeak, it was a completely different

mindset. We had taken care of the problems, and they all knew they were there for the

duration. Their focus then got in the right area. The enlisted people really demonstrated

how good they were. They were highly dedicated, professional airmen.

Pfingston said that the toughest thing he and McPeak had to deal with during his tenure

was the Air Force downsizing.

[McPeak] and I talked and decided that we were going to do everything voluntarily, as

best we could. We were not going to do involuntary separations until it was absolutely

the last resort. And that’s why we worked so hard to get the VSI [voluntary separation incentive] and SSB [special separation bonus] programs. Probably well over half of my efforts during ’91 and ’92 and into ’93 were spent working the drawdown. The personnel

enlisted leaders played a major role in these programs. Chiefs like Dale Reed, Jimmy

Tanner, and Josh Krebbs helped plan and organize our efforts, under the direction of

General [Billy J.] Boles. We got out in front and took a big gamble in ’92—we decided

to do two years’ worth of drawdowns in one year.

163
Pfingston said that McPeak, Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall, and he were

the only ones in the armed forces who backed the voluntary separation incentive and the special separation bonus.

I lobbied real hard for these programs because I thought it was better to pay somebody to

separate than to RIF [reduction in force] or SERB [Selective Early Retirement Board]

them. We worked the two years of downsizing—it was very, very tough. But, knock on

wood and thanks to God, it worked. We never involuntarily separated anybody.

Quality of life issues—housing, pay, and medical benefits—took precedence throughout

Pfingston’s tenure. He believed that the Air Force always took good care of enlisted personnel on the job, but he did not think that was true when they were not at work. And he knew

that quality of life issues were pivotal in retaining members, because, as he learned as a first

sergeant, “we retain families, [not just] people.” Housing emerged as a particularly important

issue during his tenure. While attention focused on all areas, housing was of special concern

for single airmen. As Pfingston explained,

Airmen ought to have their own dorm room. Jim [Binnicker] started that. He used to say

his eight-year-old son is authorized his own room in base housing, but when he is eighteen and enlists in the Air Force and becomes a stealth fighter crew chief, he has to have

a roommate. That’s dumb as hell. A result of that is Vision 2020, and it looks like each

airman will have his or her own living area. [Vision 2020 would later be changed to the

DoD one-plus-one dormitory standard.]

Regarding the Year of Training that he helped to inaugurate, Pfingston feared that the Air

Force was taking for granted the knowledge base of its enlisted personnel, expecting them to

know more than the service provided them. He saw no consistency in training and education

programs beyond basic training. He believed the enlisted force needed some career paths,

some milestones in line with the officer career model. They needed to know how to build a

career—what they would have to do and when they would have to do it. Pfingston’s ideas resulted in Career Field Education and Training Plans. Other highlights of the Year of Training

included three-level and seven-level technical schools for all career fields and mandatory inresidence professional military education schools for everyone.

A major program tackled during the Year of Training initiative was the Federal Aviation

Administration certification program for Air Force aircraft maintenance specialties. Personnel received recognition for their training and certification that they could use if they pursued

civilian careers in aviation. Pfingston supported expanding such programs to other career

fields.

164
There seemed to be no shortage of issues during Pfingston’s long tenure. In addition to

Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the drawdown, quality of life and training issues, the early 1990s

also saw such challenging issues as gays in the military and women in combat. Pfingston recalled that he and other Air Force leaders spent “an entire year” attempting to come to grips

with gays in the military. On a more successful note, the service opened all but a handful of

Air Force specialty codes to women, both officers and enlisted personnel.4

And one of the most visible issues involved changes to the Air Force uniform. The original blue suit had changed little since its adaptation from the Army uniform in the 1940s, and

a redesign of the service dress uniform was intended to create a uniform that would reaffirm

the Air Force heritage and give members a more modern, professional appearance.

The dress uniform, for example, now features a single-breasted jacket with a three-button front and a single breast pocket to help align the ribbons. For enlisted members, chevrons

all now have stars; the shirt stripes are larger and bolder; and standard four-inch chevrons are

worn on all outer garments, with three-and-one-half-inch chevrons on shirts. Changing the

stripes for senior noncommissioned officers to distinguish their rank had been proposed several times before Pfingston and McPeak began the uniform redesign. The timing was right to

do it all at once.

“Some people don’t like [the senior NCO stripes],” Pfingston said. “I do....I liked the

old ones, too. That’s what I first put on. However, I still think the new ones visibly distinguish

our top three senior NCOs, and I think that’s a good thing.” And, he pointed out, everything

that was done to alter the uniform was done to save airmen money.

Reflecting on his long and eventful tenure, Pfingston considers being able to negotiate

the means to reduce the force voluntarily his most significant accomplishment as chief master sergeant of the Air Force. But he also believes the training and quality of life improvements were quite important:

Training makes individual airmen better, which makes the Air Force better. It’s very important that future administration[s] not allow training money cuts. The Air Force will

suffer in the long run. The quality of life things also make it better for our airmen and

their families.

In Pfingston’s view, his primary responsibility was to do “everything possible to make it

better for the troops.” His philosophy was simple:

You must make decisions that are in the best interests of the Air Force, not individuals. I

used this guideline whenever I was thrown into a major issue of concern to our people—

homosexuals in the military, assignment policies (EQUAL and EQUAL Plus), CONUS

165
COLAs [continental United States, cost of living adjustments], VHAs [variable housing

allowances], early retirements, the Year of Training.

Looking back on his tenure as CMSAF and his more than thirty years of service, Pfingston said that his most memorable experience was receiving, from President George H. W.

Bush, the official battle streamers for the Air Force for the liberation of Kuwait and the defense of Saudi Arabia. Today, Pfingston lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he works as the

director of golf services at the Dominion Country Club. While he may jokingly respond that

his primary role as a former chief master sergeant of the Air Force is “giving golf lessons,” he

takes seriously what he sees as his continuing responsibility to the Air Force. He views himself and the other former chiefs as part of a “communication chain.” They can talk to people,

answer questions, explain issues, and relay what is going on. He concluded that “the USAF

is probably in good shape because the former Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force have

been active.”5

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched

and compiled by CMSgt. Ed A. Braese. 

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, pp. 64–66.

3. CMSAF Pfingston responded to his questionnaire (hereinafter Pfingston Questionnaire) in a telephone interview, notes from which are available in the files of the Office of Air

Force History, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

4. Pfingston Questionnaire.

5. Ibid.

166
David J. Campanale

October 26, 1994–November 4, 1996

★

167
David J. Campanale

October 26, 1994–November 4, 1996

★
D

avid J. Campanale became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on October 26,

1994. William Jefferson Clinton was President of the United States, Sheila E. Widnall

was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman was the Air Force

chief of staff.1 The post–Cold War drawdown continued during Campanale’s watch with the

number of enlisted members falling from 341,317 in 1994 to 308,608 in 1996.2 At the same

time, though, the operational tempo increased, placing great strain on the Air Force and its

personnel.

The youngest of three children, David Campanale was born in 1952 and raised in the

inner city of Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester’s North High School in

1970. As Campanale recalled, neither goals nor expectations took him to the Air Force:

I came in simply because, as I graduated from high school, I was one of those kids who

thought they had the world by the throat. I was a good athlete, reasonably smart in

school, had a girlfriend. Life was grand. But everything fell apart, and I quickly realized

I hadn’t properly planned for the rest of my life. I liked playing sports and thought about

pro baseball, but it didn’t work out. I went to a [baseball] training camp and worked out,

but nothing happened. I had to find another profession.

I liked to work with my hands on machinery....There weren’t opportunities for athletic scholarships in trade schools, and there were no funds for college. My mom encouraged me to join the United States Air Force after seeing what the other services offered.

She thought it would be a good way for me to get some direction in my life. So I joined

in September 1970.

In December 1970, following basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, Campanale went to technical training as an aircraft maintenance specialist at Sheppard Air Force

Base, Texas. He was class leader, but he broke his collarbone playing football and ended up

in a painful and confining figure-eight harness. After the injury, he could not take class notes,

and he was not focused on studying, so he did poorly on the next test. His staff sergeant in169
structor belittled him before his classmates and replaced him as class leader. The humiliation

was stinging, and he learned from that experience never to criticize people publicly.

As Christmas approached, Campanale was close to giving up, but hearing he could go

home for the holidays lifted his spirits. He planned to surprise his mother and his girlfriend,

so he told no one that he was coming home. As it turned out, all the surprises were on him:

“My girlfriend had found romance with someone else, and my mom had gone to Chicago to

visit friends.”

He followed his mother to Chicago and shared with her all the difficulties he was experiencing personally and in the Air Force. Tina Campanale’s instincts about her son’s needs were

perfect. She told him that God would provide for him somehow and that she was going to

help by introducing him to another young woman. She introduced him to Barbara, and a lifelong match was made.

Airman Campanale’s next stop was Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, in February

1971. There he was assigned as a B–52 crew chief. Two excellent supervisors—Tony Saenz

and Art Zelesnikar—taught him all about the technical aspects of aircraft maintenance.

Saenz was an inner-city guy who became close friends with Campanale. Zelesnikar, who

later would be known as Chief Z, taught Campanale how to be a more professional military

person. “He would pull me aside and tell me we were doing all the technical things right, but

there’s more to it than that,” Campanale remembered. “You’ve got to look the part, act the

part, you’ve got to be a good citizen off duty, and you’ve got to learn more about the aircraft

every day. You can’t just meet the minimum acceptable standard.”

Campanale did not accept those lessons at first. He struggled with his career development course, flunking the test twice. He got a break when Zelesnikar and others convinced

the first sergeant to grant a waiver so he could get his five-level without taking the test.

“At that point, I started volunteering, helping people out, keeping my dorm room clean. I

was getting better,” Campanale said. “And I started taking studying seriously.”

Barksdale was a tough assignment because of very frequent temporary duty trips. During Campanale’s assignment, the 2d Organizational Maintenance Squadron was involved in

several tours to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in support of B–52 Arc Light missions in

Southeast Asia. Campanale later recalled that

We were in constant deployments to Guam. We were gone for six months and back home

for thirty days. We’d get back and check in our toolboxes, then take a few weeks off. It

didn’t count as leave time; you just had to let people know where you’d be. We’d come

back and go again for another six months. It was tough. Families fell apart for several

reasons. Dear John letters were common, family members would get sick, but no one

was let go to come back. You couldn’t leave unless it was a life-or-death situation.

170
Campanale began to look for challenges.

He raised his hand when the call went out for a

volunteer to leave the crew chief business and

go to aerial repair to work as a heavy maintenance, flight controls, and landing gear specialist. He worked hard and always tried to help out,

all the while learning everything he could about

his aircraft, B–52Gs and B–52Ds. He enjoyed

the assignment, although he missed working as

a crew chief.

When the Vietnam War ended, the B–52s

returned, and Sergeant Campanale went back to

Barksdale. He soon heard about an assignment

at Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana, and the

time had come to decide if he would make the

Air Force his career. “I asked myself, ‘What am

I going to do if I get out?’” he said. “I can go

back to my summer job in Massachusetts, but it

wouldn’t pay as much as what I make in the Air

Force. That’s when I figured out my philosophy on whether to stay in or get out. That is, there

are only two reasons to get out of the Air Force. One, you hate the whole Air Force. Two,

you’ve got something better to do.”

Neither reason fit them completely, so the Campanales, now with one child, decided to

stay four more years. They wanted to be closer to Barbara’s family in Chicago, so Campanale

applied for a base-of-preference assignment to Grissom and got it.

He was assigned to the 305th Maintenance Squadron in April 1974. The squadron’s technical administration section had failed a quality-assurance inspection because of a subpar

tech order area. They wanted a crew chief to straighten out the problem. Because Campanale

was the next one to show up, he got the job and kept it for four years. “I found a lot of things

wrong in tech orders, and, as I fixed them, a lot of people who were higher ranking than me

were upset,” Campanale said. “I worked for a senior master sergeant who believed in me, and

he would tell them, ‘I believe David.’ I never wanted to disappoint him. I got my seven-level

by scoring 85 on my end-of-course test. I was very proud of that since I’d failed my five-level

test.” He left Grissom as a staff sergeant in August 1978.

Campanale then volunteered for an assignment at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii,

working on C–130s. The family found a friendly welcome there, and they enjoyed the stay.

While in Hawaii, Campanale went to the Pacific Air Forces NCO Leadership School at

Wheeler Air Force Base, an experience that prompted a profound change in him:

171

TSgt. David Campanale found that his

career became more rewarding after he

attended NCO Leadership School at

Wheeler Air Force Base.
I went up there with no desire but to just pass, but something triggered off in my life. I

came home on a break the night Sugar Ray Leonard lost to Roberto Duran in their first

fight. Barb was there like she’s always been. I said to myself, “You know, my wife really

loves me and she’ll always be here for me.” It was then that I realized how lucky I was,

and, within the course of that four-and-a-half weeks, I matured from a technician who

was just living life into someone who became very, very serious about the Air Force and

the professional aspects of it. I finished as the distinguished graduate, speech award winner, and won the athletic achievement award for the school. My confidence was pretty

high.

At graduation from the leadership course, Campanale was cited as a technical sergeant

selectee. “All at once, things started happening right for me,” Campanale said. “As I’d transformed from high school into the military, the things I’d wanted to do never seemed to work

out right, and I never found the motivation to get things charged up again. I’d struggled until

then, but now things were going well.”

The Campanales relished their tour in Hawaii. Their daughters, Jennifer and Jessica,

were growing up, and Campanale, who was recovering from an Achilles tendon injury suffered playing varsity basketball, was coaching youth soccer. The family helped to transform a

fledgling soccer league with fewer than ten teams into an eight-league organization. Dave

and Barbara shared a part-time job stocking shelves at the base commissary, and he was promoted to master sergeant under the Stripes to Exceptional Performers (STEP) program. 

Campanale’s rise from staff sergeant, to technical sergeant, to the 6594th Test Group

Noncommissioned Officer of theYear, to being a master sergeant was rewarding, he has explained, because just prior to that he had realized why he was not being promoted:

I had reached a point in my life when things would go wrong, and I blamed other people.

Not in a bitter fashion. I was just content with the idea that I was doing the right things

and everything was the fault of others or of “the system.” Then I started looking around

me and saw other people getting promoted and winning awards; doing well. What I started doing was taking account [of] myself, and...if something didn’t happen right in my

life, I blamed myself.

It had been easy before because I could just legitimize any situation and say, well, it

was a little bit of Joe’s fault, a little bit of Sue’s fault, and a little bit of mine. Then

I’d...move on. But then I started blaming myself 100 percent, knowing full well that I

wasn’t going to be totally wrong all of the time.

I just did it because it motivated me to be right, to try to do the right thing. It

worked. I started getting better scores on WAPS [Weighted Airman Promotion System]

tests and I was getting good grades in my college courses. It also helped that my mom

172
lived with us from 1979 to 1982 in Hawaii. Her guidance and loving hand always kind of

helped out and made life easy for me to understand.

In August 1983, Master Sergeant Campanale went to Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, where he worked as a flight chief and line chief for the FB–111A and the KC–135.

Pease was both a good and a bad experience. On the positive side, Campanale went to the

Military Airlift Command NCO Academy at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, shortly

after arriving. He won the commandant’s award, was distinguished graduate, and was a finalist in the speech competition. During that time, however, the family suffered losses. Barbara

became seriously ill, and her father and grandmother died. Campanale’s mother, Tina, also

died.

After the cancellation of an assignment to RAF Alconbury, England, Senior Master

Sergeant Campanale received a by-name request to go to Strategic Air Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, in August 1986. In his role as FB–111A and B–1B

systems program manager, he advised others on some B–52 issues and did a number of briefings as a “fifteen-minute expert.” The organization had a heavy temporary duty schedule, so

people often had to brief someone else’s issue to commanders. Campanale filled in for a variety of issues, including training, maintenance standardization, quality, and the B–1 Lead the

Fleet program. When his Airman Performance Report was filed, Gen. Jack Chain, commander in chief of SAC, signed as the senior rater. Campanale made chief master sergeant the

first time.

When Campanale became president of the Offutt Chiefs’ Group, he set up informational

briefings and morale-building events for military members and families. He helped to start a

chiefs’ induction ceremony. His hard work paid off when he was offered a senior enlisted adviser job at Castle Air Force Base, California. The offer, however, did not receive a strongly

favorable response at home, so Campanale decided not to pursue it. He knew such offers

were rare, but he did not feel he could devote his best efforts unless the situation was a happy

one for his wife and daughters, too. No action was taken until Barbara, aware of how losing

this opportunity would sadden her husband, visited the senior enlisted adviser at Strategic Air

Command, CMSgt. Jan Boyd, and accepted the offer of an interview on Campanale’s behalf.

“We’ll go wherever my husband wants,” she said. “If he’s happy, we’re happy.”

Col. Dick Martin hired Campanale as the 93d Bomb Wing senior enlisted adviser shortly after an interview in May 1989. The work was richly rewarding. As Campanale explained,

Now a lot of people tell me being chief master sergeant of the Air Force must be the pinnacle of my life. But I’ve got to tell you something. If I could go back and capture a moment in time that nobody could change, I would capture that moment at Castle as a wing

adviser, and I would stay there the rest of my life.

173
It was during Desert Shield/Desert Storm and, God, our folks did just tremendous

stuff. The community embraced us, and everybody worked long, hard hours together.

Sometimes you thought it would never end, but everybody worked together, and we

served a great purpose.

After Campanale had been at Castle for almost three years, the Military Airlift Command (MAC) at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, was looking for a senior enlisted adviser. Gen.

H. T. Johnson was the commander, and he was interviewing potential candidates. He had

called the senior enlisted adviser at Strategic Air Command, CMSgt. Dan Cook, and asked

for recommendations outside the command because he wanted a fresh face and fresh experience. Cook recommended Campanale. Johnson and the vice commander, Lt. Gen. Robert

Rutherford, interviewed him and three other senior enlisted advisers. Two days later, Campanale received a congratulatory call from Johnson, and, within the month, most of his family had moved to Illinois. His daughter Jessica stayed behind in California to finish high

school.

Military Airlift Command became Air Mobility Command (AMC) in June 1992. Gen.

Ronald Fogleman replaced General Johnson, and Campanale offered his position to

whomever the new commander might prefer. He said to Fogleman, “Sir, I’m here to serve

and I’ll do whatever [you require], but if you have somebody that you want to do this job and

I’m not part of those plans, hey, that’s okay. I’ll do anything in AMC, and if I have to move

my family again, I will.” He added, “I want to know that you share a positive relationship

with your senior enlisted adviser because it’s important to the people of this command, especially due to the command reorganization.”

Fogleman had no plans to make a change. “[Campanale] was selected before I arrived at

AMC and I didn’t know him, so we talked about whether he would stay on or whether I

would bring in somebody of my own,” Fogleman said. “I explained to him that I had no

predilection to bring in anybody else. I decided we would walk a mile together, and see how

we worked.”

Fogleman and Campanale worked together for almost two years, and then a call went out

for nominations to replace retiring CMSAF Gary Pfingston. Fogleman nominated Campanale. With two other finalists—CMSgt. Tommy Roberts and CMSgt. Rich Griffis—Campanale and his wife went to Washington, D.C., for face-to-face interviews with Air Force senior leaders. Fogleman was now one of those senior leaders, having been named the Air

Force chief of staff, and he recalled the interviews:

I interviewed all three of the candidates and their wives because I had a vision about how

I wanted to use the chief master sergeant of the Air Force; how I saw his role...[vis-àvis] my role. I was very interested in making sure that the wives understood that this was

174
going to be a high-energy job with a lot of time on the road. I wanted them to understand

that the focus was not going to be in Washington; it was going to be on the troops in the

field.

They were all excellent candidates with very supportive spouses. I also had an additional dimension to my selection process. I knew most of the former chief master

sergeants of the Air Force, so I went out of my way to contact them. I wanted to talk to

them about how they saw the job, and what kind of qualities and characteristics they

would recommend....So I had lots of inputs to help make a rather deliberate decision.

...I ended up selecting Dave Campanale because, first of all, I knew him to be a

self-starter. He had great energy and genuine care for our Air Force people. I knew that

he had absolute integrity, that he understood and demonstrated excellence in all that he

did. And I never saw him do anything for his benefit. He was what I think about when I

think about a selfless individual who’s there to serve the men and women of the United

States Air Force. That’s the way I saw him at AMC, and that’s the way I’ve seen him [in

Washington, D.C.].

As it’s turned out, Chief Campanale is better than I even thought he was. He’s outstanding. Here was somebody who could tell me the morale of the troops, and let me

know what was on their mind and what we could fix. At the same time, I needed somebody who had the courage to stand up and tell people that you can’t fix everything.

...He’s not chief master sergeant of the enlisted force, he’s chief master sergeant of

the United States Air Force—the total force [active, Guard, Reserve, and civilians]. Dave

Campanale has demonstrated that he understands that. I think the proof of the pudding is

175

Air Force Chief of Staff 

Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman

(left) already had worked with

David Campanale for two

years before the day he swore

Campanale in as the eleventh

chief master sergeant of the

Air Force.
that all those people find him approachable, and bring issues to him because they know

that he’ll work [on] their problem.

Campanale says it was a great honor to be chosen for the top position, but he had never

aspired to it. He was proud to have achieved something because of what his mother had

taught him: just be the best person you can be. He came to the job without specific goals,

wanting instead to work on whatever issue was most critical at any moment.

Campanale believed that if you set goals, a specific course of action, it was easy to get

too involved in those goals and to ignore other matters that arise collaterally. He intentionally

set no conscious work agenda so that the people of the Air Force would feel confident that

their individual problems, regardless of how small they really might be in the big picture,

were just as important to him as were the larger issues. As he explained,

I was listening for big people issues: money, pay, compensation, housing, dormitory issues, uniform, evaluation systems, assignments, year of training. Those were all out

there, based on the feedback I had as the AMC adviser, but I only knew about AMC. I

was generally confident that most of those things were issues Air Force people wanted

me to work [on], so I just tackled them one at time.

And, indeed, a number of people issues provided Campanale with challenges during his

time as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force. First, the same year he began his tour at

the Pentagon, the military officially launched a new managed health care program, the TriService Medical Care Program, or TRICARE, which replaced the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services, or CHAMPUS, created by Congress in 1966. The

adoption of TRICARE came in response to rapidly rising health care costs in the 1980s and

1990s. As with any major change in benefits, TRICARE came with a great deal of questions

and anxiety. As the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Campanale had to take the new

TRICARE message to the troops.

Second, in late 1995, Congress threatened to change the retirement system. Congress

had acted to change the military retirement system in 1980 and again in 1986. Both times,

however, the changes applied only to people entering the service after the effective dates. In

1995, however, Congress considered a retroactive change. The proposed legislation would

have based retired pay on the average of a person’s final year of service rather than on his or

her pay during the final month of active duty. This measure threatened a reduction in retirement pay of as much as 8.4 percent. Known as “High One,” this program met strong resistance from the military leadership, including the chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

Campanale predicted that it would hurt the morale not only of those directly affected but also

of many others who would see this as Congress breaking faith with military members. As

176
Campanale put it, “people with four to eight years of service will look at this and say ‘Gee,

do I stay twelve more years? What have I got to look forward to?’ ”3 In this case, the leadership successfully fought this proposed change.

Another victory of sorts came in the area of housing. For a number of years, the Air

Force had been moving toward better housing for its young airmen. As many of the chief

master sergeants of the Air Force would attest, housing for airmen had improved dramatically since the days of the open-bay barracks. The Air Force had already adopted a so-called

two-plus-two dormitory standard, which meant that in each dorm unit, four airmen would

share two rooms and one bath. In 1996, in response to the Quality of Life survey conducted

in 1995, the service adopted the one-plus-one standard. Under one-plus-one, airmen would

have rooms of their own but would still share a bath with one other. By the mid-1990s, the

Air Force had moved about 80 percent of its dormitory residents to quarters that met the twoplus-two standard. It hoped to move 80 to 90 percent to the one-plus-one standard by 2010.

Campanale viewed the one-plus-one standard as “very important” in terms of both recruiting

and retention.iv

When asked how he would like to be viewed by those in the Air Force, Campanale said,

“I want to be seen as someone who is genuine and ready to go listen, to talk to the troops, and

work any issue—regardless of what it may be, where it may be. Whether it’s day shift, swing

shift, midshift, big issue, small issue, issue for one hundred, issue for just one.”

Campanale was not a proponent of long speeches. When he visited people at the bases,

he encouraged their questions, because in those questions were the same areas of concern he

would have covered in a speech. In the question-and-answer format, however, he and the others engaged in a dialogue. He found this to be a meaningful way to reveal his humanity and

his sincere interest in his people.

Campanale is quick to point out that anyone can rise to be chief master sergeant of the

Air Force. “I am the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force who was not on active duty

when Paul Airey was named the first [chief],” Campanale said. “My math tells me that means

there are ten future chief master sergeant[s] of the Air Force on active duty right now; some

of them might be reading this. I’d also like to point out that they make the stripes in women’s

sizes.”

In offering advice to those who would like to follow in his footsteps, Campanale returned to his core beliefs:

Be a good person; a person who understands discipline; a person who understands

courage; a person who understands compassion for people; a person who has a balance

in life and who doesn’t become one-dimensional. Do the job simply for the merits of trying to do the best you can do at the highest level possible. Have fun, be humble, and

never, ever forget what it was like to be an airman, and how you felt about things. Then

177
you’ll always remember what you felt in your heart and thought in your mind as a young

airman, and you’ll be better prepared to take care of our young people today, who will

take care of our Air Force forever. Be honest and keep your promise.

All those things, the Air Force didn’t teach me. My mom taught me [those]. The Air

Force gave them different names and some situational approaches, but they’re nothing

more than the tools my mom gave me as she raised me.

Campanale retired on November 1, 1996, after twenty-six years on active duty. He currently resides in Tuscon, Arizona, where he works for an insurance company.

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, the material in this biographical sketch was researched and

compiled by CMSgt. Michael A. Brown, Sr.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 65.

3. John T. Correll, editor-in-chief, “High One is a Low Blow,” Air Force Magazine 78,

no. 10 (October 1995): 2.

4. Suzann Chapman, “The Top Chief,” Air Force Magazine 77, no. 4 (April 1995): 39;

Suzann Chapman, “The Housing Problem,” Air Force Magazine 79, no. 6 (June 1996): 41.

178
Eric W. Benken

November 5, 1996–July 30, 1999

★

179
Eric W. Benken

November 5, 1996–July 30, 1999

★
E

ric W. Benken became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on November 5, 1996.

Bill Clinton was President of the United States, Sheila E. Widnall was the secretary of

the Air Force, and Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman was the Air Force chief of staff.1 In 1996,

the number of USAF enlisted personnel stood at 308,608. By 1999, the number had dropped

to 286,169.2

Eric Benken was born on August 20, 1951, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He thought

his future was securely rooted in the Midwest until his parents moved to Houston, Texas, in

1967, during his junior year in high school. After spending three months in Houston, Benken

told his parents that he did not like the school there and that he wanted to return to Cincinnati. He went back and lived with his grandmother and finished his senior year of high school

there.

Following graduation in 1969, he rejoined his parents in Houston, but he could not find

a job. The war in Vietnam made employers reluctant to hire young men who were likely to be

drafted just about the time they finished job training. “So I wound up working in a car dealership,” Benken said, “where I was just washing cars and doing odd jobs...taking out the trash,

and things like that. With overtime, I was making about $60 a week.”

After much frustration trying to find a secure niche in society, Benken found an opening. “It was a hot summer day,” he recalled, “and my mother came to pick me up in my ’62

Chevy, [which] had no air conditioning. As we were driving home, we got stuck in a traffic

jam in downtown Houston. We were stuck in front of the Federal Building, and there was a

poster or sign that read, ‘Join the Air Force.’ I told my mother, ‘You know, I think I’m going

to get out of Houston, Texas. I’ll take the bus home. See you later.’” He enlisted on the spot.

After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, Benken was placed in casual status awaiting assignment to a technical training school. He was designated for training as an

administrative specialist, Air Force specialty code 702, and ordered to Ellington Air Force

Base, only twenty-five miles from his home in Houston. “I joined the Air Force to get out of

Houston, and the Air Force was sending me right back,” he quipped.

At Ellington, Benken’s first supervisor was MSgt. Elizabeth Quatowski. She had a major

influence on his life and subsequent career:

181
At that time, we had very few females on active duty. So it was unusual to have a female

supervisor. But I say, to this day, that she was probably the best supervisor that I ever

had. She did everything right. She gave me feedback, she told me when to get a haircut,

told me when I was out of uniform and to get it right. She made sure that I was properly

trained, had my quarters in good shape, and all the things we expect a supervisor to do. It

put me on the right path.

She also convinced him that “women could succeed in the vast majority of career paths

offered by the Air Force.”3

Nine months into his tour of duty at Ellington, Benken received orders to the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, Ching Chuan Kang Air Base, Taiwan, where his perspective on the Air

Force would change.

When I was stationed...in Taiwan, we lived in some very lousy...conditions. We lived in

some open-bay dormitories. I never saw my first sergeant. I didn’t know who my first

sergeant was. I didn’t know who my commander was. We lived in some horrid conditions,

and nobody ever came and looked at it. We lived in open bay hooches with no air conditioning or heating. We slept in our fatigues in winter because we were issued only one

blanket and because the doors were broken, the wind whistled through the barracks. There

were lots of fights and drug use was rampant. Nobody ever came and made it better.

182

In September 1971, A1C Eric Benken

was deployed to Detachment 1 of the

834th Air Division at Tan Son Nhut 

Air Base, Republic of Vietnam—a 

brief but intense experience.
I always said that if I became a chief master sergeant or if I became a senior enlisted

adviser, my boss had to be somebody that I could freely talk to, and someone...[to

whom] I could show the bad as well as the good.

While assigned to the 314th, Benken was deployed for a few months to Detachment 1 of

the 834th Air Division at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Republic of Vietnam. There he provided administrative support for the base maintenance unit. The experience was brief but intense,

with a rocket attack, attempted sapper infiltration of the base, and a shooting just outside the

main gate. He also celebrated his twentieth birthday there, with a C-ration pineapple upsidedown cake and a can of Schlitz beer. Recalling his time in Vietnam, Benken said,

Many of the folks who served during that era were part of our nonvolunteer force. We

had tremendous problems with drugs and alcohol. I also learned that anyone, regardless

of [specialty code], can be called upon to carry a weapon. Even as an admin specialist, I

was placed on a detail to guard weapons and ammunition on a flatbed truck while we

moved them from one location to another. I wasn’t trained and had no idea what I was

doing. It could have turned out to be a bad day. The lesson for today’s Air Force is that we

must all be trained in force protection.

From Taiwan, Benken was assigned to the 67th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron at

Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas, where he spent six years. He next served as the executive

noncommissioned officer to the commander of the 314th Air Division at Osan Air Base,

South Korea. “That tour,” he remembered, “and a visit to the 38th parallel, where you stare

communism in the face, deepened my appreciation for the Air Force mission and our way of

life in America.”

In November 1979, Benken was reassigned to Bergstrom Air Force Base as the noncommissioned officer in charge for the deputy commander for resources administration, and as

the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Twelfth Air Force Command Section. In 1983,

he was assigned to the Tactical Air Warfare Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, as the

noncommissioned officer in charge and deputy chief of staff, aircrew training devices administration.

“It was a great assignment,” said Benken, who by then was a master sergeant. But he had

seen Asia and several places in the United States, so he volunteered to go to Europe. He received a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) assignment at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium. He worked in the directorate of operations

as the administrative officer, with seventy-three administrators working under him. There

were members of sixteen nations working together at SHAPE—Greeks, Turks, Italians, Ger183
mans, Dutch, Norwegians, Britons, and others—plus the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army. The opportunity to work with people from such a range of cultures taught Benken a great deal.

While at SHAPE, Benken met and worked for Maj. Gen. James L. Jamerson, the assistant chief of staff for operations. Jamerson would soon earn his third star, move on to United

States Air Forces in Europe headquarters as the vice commander, and would then become the

Twelfth Air Force commander at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona. While

in that last assignment, Jamerson asked Benken to be his senior enlisted adviser. As Benken

recalled that assignment,

I had hoped that I would start at the wing level and be a wing senior enlisted adviser.

That was a goal that I had in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to be a wing senior enlisted adviser. I went straight to a numbered Air Force. And

the numbered Air Force had changed dramatically....We were doing all kinds of missions, [including] counterdrug operations and things in South America. Visiting these remote counterdrug sites in South America gives you an appreciation for...[our] war on

drugs. Our troops were living in remote jungle locations with sand bags and concertina

wire. They could have been attacked by members of a drug cartel at any moment. I was

very proud of what our troops were doing in the fight against drugs—as Americans we

should all be proud of what our troops are doing.

Benken noted that at that time the Twelfth Air Force had ten wings. The initial challenge,

he said, was pulling the wings together into a cohesive entity through the wing senior enlisted

advisers. Benken made sure those advisers understood that he was available to them when

they needed three-star intervention. He believes that higher headquarters people exist to support the wings, because those are the warfighting entities.

Benken had been at the Twelfth Air Force for about a year when Jamerson was promoted

to general and given the command of U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Again he wanted Benken to

accompany him to the new post. Benken and his wife, Johnne, had not fully unpacked their

household goods from the last transfer, and they found themselves having to sell a house they

had just bought. It was challenging, but the senior enlisted adviser assignment at Ramstein,

Germany, was worth it. Benken remembered that tour this way:

Ramstein was probably my favorite tour....we were extremely busy. We were at the tip of

the spear—operations like Joint Endeavor, Provide Promise, Provide Comfort, and Deliberate Force kept us hopping. The tremendous people of U.S. Air Forces Europe—augmented by tremendous people from the Air National Guard and Reserve forces and folks

from bases around the world—made it all happen. There were very proud moments for

the command and the Air Force. It was a great command. We had gotten down to about

184
six main operating bases from the height of the Cold War and had downsized tremendously. At the same time we were doing all kinds of peacekeeping missions over there.

So we had people who were very heavily tasked and working extremely hard.

While at USAFE, Benken crafted the NCO Professional Development Seminar, which

was an effort to fill the career education void for staff sergeants between Airman Leadership

School and the Senior NCO Academy. At his urging, especially after he became the chief

master sergeant of the Air Force, the concept has caught on, and seminars now exist at nearly

every base in the Air Force. Benken is a proponent of professional military education, which

he lauds for its structure and for the sound leadership tools it provides. But he believes that

the Air Force has a responsibility to develop its younger noncommissioned officers professionally. In fact, he believed that his fellow chief master sergeants of the Air Force “would

agree that professional military education is the key to our success as professional noncommissioned officers.” Not only did Benken recognize the value of professional military education for the USAF enlisted force as a whole, he also saw its value clearly in his own career

development.

For me, NCO Leadership School, the NCO Academy and Senior NCO Academy were

superb experiences. They offered the opportunity to “get away” from the day-to-day

grind. They were a re-bluing experience—a chance to re-dedicate yourself to your service and to your nation. I learned a lot—and took what I learned back to my workcenter

and became a better leader because of the experience.4

185

CMSAF Eric Benken and his wife,

Johnne, met President Bill Clinton 

at the Pentagon.
During Benken’s time in Europe, the Air Staff developed a quality of life strategy by asking first sergeants and commanders what things were important to them. Among the responses received were such issues as pay and compensation, health care, and operations tempo.

Also during that period, Benken was fortunate to witness many changes in geopolitical

and sociological status across Europe. He recalls the experience of being in Europe when the

Berlin Wall was pulled down and considers the 1989 end of the Cold War to be the most significant event of the twentieth century, beyond the two world wars. “It caused all of the nations to begin to reassess their commitments to NATO—from a military and monetary standpoint,” he said. Benken described how situations changed dramatically:

I will tell you that being at SHAPE headquarters, which was the military arm of

NATO,...we were knee-deep in war plans. We were ready to fight the Russians in the

Fulda Gap. We were ready to launch [intercontinental ballistic missiles] at each other;

prepared for, potentially, the third world war; all that kind of thing. All of a sudden, when

the Wall came down, things came to a...halt. We were looking around saying, “Geez,

what do we do now? The big crisis of the world is over.”

That was the beginning of downsizing, obviously. We probably would have ended

up about right in terms of size and everything except that we started additional rotations.

We started the peacekeeping operations and the disaster relief, while the force was getting smaller.

During his time at USAFE, Benken worked for three formidable commanders—Gens.

Jim Jamerson, Richard E. Hawley, and Michael E. Ryan. Benken remembers all three men as

great listeners. He said that hours were spent discussing enlisted issues—the bad news as

well as the good—and that every time one of those men was going to make any decision, he

asked first, “How is it going to affect the troops? What’s going to be the impact on our enlisted corps?”

Shortly after General Ryan took the reins of United States Air Forces in Europe,

CMSAF David Campanale announced his plans to retire, and Benken found himself in line

for the most prestigious job open to an enlisted member of the U.S. Air Force. He had never

aspired to the position and was apprehensive. He had always avoided jobs at the Pentagon

and never really wanted to work there. But Ryan insisted on submitting the recommendation.

Benken and his wife, Johnne, traveled to Washington, D.C., for an interview with Gen.

Ronald Fogleman, and Benken often jokes that the only reason he got the job was that Johnne

did so well answering Fogleman’s questions. “She’s a trooper,” he said. “She had to take care

of outprocessing in Germany because I had to come [to] Washington directly upon selection.

She’s the one...[who] shipped all the household goods. She did all of that herself—with a lot

of help from a lot of people in USAFE. She’s been the anchor at home.”

186
It took Benken several months to

grow accustomed to the workings of

the Pentagon and to looking at the Air

Force from a macro level. And he no

longer was acting on policy handed

down from above: as the enlisted

corps’ representative to the secretary of

the Air Force and the chief of staff, he

was developing policy that would be

implemented servicewide.

One such policy, and one he ranks

among the most significant accomplishments during his tenure, was

changing the title of senior enlisted adviser to command chief master

sergeant, or CCM. With that change

came a new, distinctive insignia that

identifies the command chief master sergeant to the troops. As Benken explained, the change

grew out of misuse and confusion:

It was a concept that had been discussed on numerous occasions over the years. The term

senior enlisted adviser was merely a description and had little military significance. It

became overused, and we had a lot of people who had the title but weren’t assigned to

the 9E000 position. Today, there is nothing ambiguous about command chief master

sergeant. The troops know who the CCMs are and what they represent[—that is,] the

commanders’ policies at the wing, numbered Air Force, and major command levels.

Benken readily admits that developing policy is not done alone behind a desk in a corner

of the Pentagon. Rather, it is a team effort that has to involve the major command (MAJCOM) CCMs. They represent the force, and, to be able to work collectively, they have to have

a say in the process. He also believed that he had great support from the two chiefs of staff

under whom he served. He described General Fogleman as a man of great integrity and said

that the enlisted force admired him “for taking a tough stance on issues.” Benken had

worked with General Ryan at USAFE as his senior enlisted adviser. Benken credited Ryan

with taking a number of important initiatives, including working to improve attitudes toward

and access to mental health facilities. Ryan also told Benken that he was deeply committed

to enlisted professional military education, telling him that he “would sacrifice F–22s to retain 100% in residence training for enlisted PME at the ALS and NCOA levels—and that

187

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Benken

and his daughter Erika
technical training would continue to be in residence.” Benken concluded, “Both of these men

cared deeply for our enlisted force—and did everything within their power to improve quality of life and support technical training and professional military education.”5

During Benken’s tenure as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, the service faced a

number of significant challenges, including the evolving Air Force missions, health care, and

modernizing the force in a limited-budget context. The chief has described the challenges

this way:

The fact that we have five-level shortages and are seeing some retention problems doesn’t surprise me. We have an economy that’s very robust. The desert rotations have kind

of become a millstone around our necks in that we’re doing those all the time. We’re still

kind of fighting Cold War scenarios and we are transitioning to an expeditionary Air

Force. We no longer have that forward presence anymore.

Health care had to change because of the downsizing. TRICARE had to come on

board, which really kind of began in 1995. We’ve tremendously reduced our infrastructure. Military treatment facilities can no longer take care of the nearly nine million or so

people...[who] are eligible for health care. TRICARE was the answer.

We worked to bring on the F–22. It’s time to do that, because our weapon systems

are aging. We have spare parts issues. Our crew chiefs are forced to deal with that. We’re

cannibalizing more aircraft than normal.

Further, Benken believed that the last half of the last half of the 1990s was a “very

volatile time for our Air Force and the Armed Forces as a whole.” In addition to the issues of

retention, medical care, and lack of spare parts mentioned above, according to Benken, the

Air Force faced a number of other issues. For example, due to Congressional action in 1986,

the retirement system had changed: now depending on when you came on active duty, you

received either 50 percent of base pay at twenty years under the old system or 40 percent

under the new system. Benken believed that the Air Force lost personnel at the ten-year mark

because of that. It was no longer worth staying to twenty years for the retirement. And the

service was unable to act quickly to provide incentives to keep people in critical career

fields.6

The way the Air Force trained its new recruits also became an issue during Benken’s

tenure. Some in Congress began to advocate separating men and women during basic training, a notion Benken found “ridiculous.” The Air Force had been training men and women

together since 1973. Despite a record of success, two separate and hostile commissions investigated gender-integrated training. Benken and his counterparts in the other services testified before the commissions. They all argued that the services had to make their own decisions about training. Further, Benken believed that separate training would be unequal

188
training and that it would be “wrong.” As a result of the strong arguments provided, the commissions were unable to force this change on the services. Though Benken believed that the

service’s success in fighting off separate training represented another of the significant accomplishments of his time in office, he also realized that the issue might arise again. He stated,

I honestly believe that there are some in Congress that would have us return to the days

when men went to the firing range and women would go to a cosmetics class. The reality is, women serve in 99.4% of Air Force career fields and make up roughly 25% of our

new recruits. To this day, I believe that those opposed to gender-integrated training have

hidden agendas—especially when they turned down the offer to visit our training locations and speak to trainers and trainees. I hope this issue is forever put to rest, but to believe it won’t return as an issue would be naïve.7

The most difficult challenge facing Benken was the fact that the USAF culture had to

change in the late 1990s. Since gaining its independence as a service in 1947, the U.S. Air

Force had been a cold war, garrison force. The service now had to become an expeditionary

force. This was, as Benken put it, “a radical departure from the way we were doing business.” As chief master sergeant of the Air Force, he said, “I knew my role would be to help

change the culture of the enlisted force to meet his [General Ryan’s] vision.” Benken realized that the late 1990s proved a difficult time to try to bring about a significant culture

change. He noted that many of the issues listed above—including a lack of spare parts,

changes in the retirement system, and the strong economy—were making a military career

less appealing. Also, the media seemed filled with negative images. As he recalled, “During

visits to bases our troops would express lots of dissatisfaction with what was going on in

Washington with politicians. They couldn’t understand a declining defense budget while our

missions and deployment taskings were on the rise.” However, he believed that a number of

important steps were taken. First, the Air Force implemented Warrior Week8 at basic training. Further, the curriculum at the First Sergeants Academy was changed to focus on deployments and the issues created by deployments. He believed that “we now view ourselves as

mobile warriors—much more so than we have in the past.”9

Despite the challenges, Benken does not predict “gloom and doom” for the Air Force.

“Today, we have the best Air Force we’ve ever had,” he said. “The troops today, when they

come out of basic training, are just phenomenal. I’m very, very proud of them. I’m very

proud of those training processes—both basic military training and technical school.” He

warns, however, that people need to keep an eye on the future: “We need to make sure that

our professional military education is geared properly for going into the next century and the

changes that we’re going to have to make. We need to take our force to a higher level. The

189
concept of airmanship and professionalism, and treating each other with dignity and respect,

should be foremost.”

Benken tries to impress this on others who are influencing the next generation of Air

Force leaders: “That’s what I tell brand-new chiefs, and in particular, brand-new senior

NCOs. When you do something, it has an impact. People are watching you all the time.

They’re watching your deeds, and they’re listening to what you say, and it’s very important

that you do the right thing.”

He sees the efforts of the succession of chief master sergeants of the Air Force in terms

of football. “You pick up the ball and you run with it for awhile, and then it’s no longer your

turn. Then somebody else runs it. We keep taking it a little bit further down the field. Eventually, maybe we’ll get it over the goal line. But I think that’s what this position is all about. It’s

building on the past and trying to take it into the future.”

Benken is currently the Air Force programs manager for USAA, a financial services organization that serves military members and their families. He continues to travel for the Air

Force, typically as a guest speaker for a variety of functions. He also served as the cochairman of the Air Force Retiree Council for three years after his retirement and continues to

serve on the board of directors for the Airmen Memorial Foundation. He resides in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife Johnne, daughter Erica, and Dusty the Wonderdog.

NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on material researched

and compiled by SMSgt. Dave Diehl, SMSgt. Dale Warman, and MSgt. Jack Harrison, plus

some editorial revisions suggested by CMSAF Benken.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 66.

3. CMSAF Benken chose to submit typewritten answers to his questionnaire (hereinafter the Benken Questionnaire). A copy of his questionnaire is available at the offices of

the Office of Air Force History Support Office, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

4. Benken Questionnaire.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. See CMSAF Finch’s biography below.

9. Benken Questionnaire.

190
Frederick J. Finch

August 2, 1999–June 28, 2002

★

191
Frederick J. Finch

August 2, 1999–June 28, 2002

★
F

rederick “Jim” Finch became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on August 2,

1999. Bill Clinton was President of the United States, F. Whitten Peters was confirmed

that same day as the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. Michael E. Ryan was the Air

Force chief of staff.1 During Finch’s tenure, the United States faced one of the most traumatic days in its history—September 11, 2001, when terrorists flew hijacked commercial aircraft

into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania,

killing more than three thousand people. In 1999, the number of USAF enlisted personnel

stood at 286,169.2 By the end of 2001, that number had fallen to 280,410; but, during Finch’s

last months in office, the number began to rise for the first time since 1987.

Born on July 29, 1956, Jim Finch was raised primarily in East Hampton, New York. During his high school years, he attended a two-year vocational school, studying auto mechanics.

He followed a tough work ethic during his teenage years, handling studies and two part-time

jobs. As remained true, his work hours started early and ended late. Halfway through vocational school, Finch decided that there were better career opportunities in the U.S. Air Force.

Finch enlisted in the Air Force under the delayed enlistment program during his senior

year in high school, coming on active duty after his graduation. When he entered the service

in July 1974, he expected to do a four-year hitch and then move on. “I was from a small town

and knew I had limited career options if I stayed there,” he said. “The Air Force seemed like a

great opportunity to move out on my own, learn a trade, and see the world. But I didn’t have

any long-term plans to make it a career.”

After he completed basic training and missile maintenance technical school at Lowry

Air Force Base, Colorado, Finch was assigned to Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, and,

subsequently, to RAF Welford, United Kingdom. His return from overseas put him back at

Homestead, where he served as a missile maintenance crew chief and shift supervisor. After a

couple of years working back in the “bomb dump,” Finch was offered a job as a noncommissioned officer professional military education instructor. He had no idea how significantly

his decision to become part of the NCO professional military education team would alter his

career and his future.

193
“I am proud my roots are in ‘ammo,’ and I really enjoyed my missile maintenance time,”

he explained. “However, when I attended NCO Leadership School (NCOLS) at Homestead, I

was very impressed with the faculty and found that many of their values and beliefs mirrored

my own.”

One of the NCOLS instructors would make such a huge impression that Finch would

later list him as one of three people from his Air Force career who were instrumental in building his confidence, setting high expectations, and giving him the tools and opportunities he

needed to succeed. In describing that instructor, Finch said,

Rich Roller retired as a master sergeant. He should have made chief master sergeant and

probably could have had he not been so concerned with providing opportunities for others. He was one of the most selfless people I’ve known. I worked very well with him, not

only at the NCOLS but also later at Air University. He went from being my instructor to

my boss to my peer to my neighbor, and now I count him as one of my lifelong friends.

After teaching at Homestead for four years, Finch was reassigned to the Leadership and

Management Development Center (LMDC) at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. His first

major task there was to develop a correspondence version of the newly created NCO Preparatory Course. “When the NCOPC first came out, there was no correspondence version for

those who could not attend in residence,” he explained. “I was hired with the intent of overseeing the development of that correspondence course, and that’s how I spent my first year at

Air University.”

While at the Leadership and Management Development Center, Finch worked for

CMSgt. Jimmy Lavender, man he described as “a chief’s chief.” “He personified the word

‘chief,’ ” Finch said. “He was a great leader who cared for people, inspired both excellence

and involvement, and set very high expectations. He was also a colorful speaker and is the

source of some of the sayings I use today.”

After a year at LMDC and promotion to master sergeant, Finch transferred to other positions and served both as the director of the NCOPC instructor course and later as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the professional military education Evaluation and Analysis Branch. With eight years of PME experience and background, he was selected to be the

Air Force NCO professional military education functional manager at the Air Force Military

Personnel Center (AFMPC), commonly referred to as “MPC.” That was an assignment with

an ironic beginning and ending.

“My first major task at MPC was to find a way to put master sergeants into the Senior

NCO Academy,” Finch explained. “We developed and implemented new rules to do this, but

the school wasn’t even large enough to accommodate all of the senior master sergeants at the

time.” As Finch explained it:

194
...there were only 1250 seats available annually at the SNCOA (with 1175 for active

duty Air Force senior master sergeants and the remaining for Air National Guard, Air

Force Reserve, and sister service attendees). And, the Air Force was promoting far more

senior master sergeants each year than the SNCOA could accommodate. Therefore, not

all senior master sergeants had an opportunity to attend and selection was a “one-time”

shot made in conjunction with selection for promotion to senior master sergeant. Those

not selected for the SNCOA could later compete for one of a very limited number of

seats at our sister service schools.3

The good news was that the Air Force approved a major expansion to the Senior NCO

Academy, and, when construction was completed a few years later, the Air Force also approved a policy change requiring attendance before promotion to chief master sergeant. The

bad news was that that change required temporarily suspending master sergeant attendance

until the backlog of senior master sergeants could go to school. “My last task before I left

MPC,” Finch said “was to rewrite the rules to discontinue allowing master sergeants to attend

the Senior NCO Academy.” He added that both decisions were right, given the information

and policies at the time. He also stated that

For the record, I believed then (and now) that the SNCOA should be available to all senior master sergeants and selected master sergeants (ideally those most likely to later become senior master sergeants). The policies of the time reflected our attempt to fairly

distribute limited seats at the SNCOA.4

During that assignment, Finch was also involved with restructuring the PME program

from four levels to three and with implementing procedures to create the Airman Leadership

School. The restructuring aimed at matching professional military education with the three

tiers of the enlisted grades—airmen, noncommissioned officers, senior noncommissioned

officers. Finch helped to structure the new ALS curriculum so that it was written and managed by Air University but could be taught at the base level. With some hindsight Finch has

concluded that

While some people believe “more” is always better, I think we have the formal PME

structure about right. We have three formal schools taught at the airmen, noncommissioned officer, and senior noncommissioned officer levels at roughly the 6, 12, and 18

year point in someone’s career. And, Air University manages much of the operation of

these schools. In recent years, however, other forms of enlisted professional development have evolved at both the MAJCOM and at base level. These programs enhance the

three formal schools and leverage the capabilities and responsibilities of senior NCOs to

195
help become part of the development process for those who will follow them. Therefore,

I endorse the current structure that mixes both formal and informal professional development for the enlisted corps.5

At the Air Force Military Personnel Center, Finch worked for CMSgt. Chuck Hasty, who

would also become a lifelong friend and mentor. “Chuck was a respected leader and personnel expert who spent many hours explaining to me how the Air Force personnel system

worked and why many of the rules existed,” Finch said. “He taught me many valuable lessons

that continue to help me operate today as CMSAF.”

In September 1992, Finch was selected to be the commandant of the Pacific Air Forces

NCO Academy at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. The academy had a superb faculty and

a sound educational program, but it lacked an adequate facility within which to work. “This

was a facility that housed both an ALS and the NCO Academy, but didn’t even have an auditorium,” Finch explained. “The staff had to march the students to the NCO Club to conduct

certain classes.”

Soon after his arrival, working numerous weekends and late nights, he and the staff constructed a state-of-the-art auditorium, including a rear-screen projection system. “You couldn’t have contracted this project out and gotten better results than what we did,” he said. “We

had so much civil engineering talent on staff, coupled with a group of perfectionists, that they

just made it happen!”

After less than a year of service as the commandant, Finch received a telephone call that

would take him along another career path. He was called in to see Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the commander of Eleventh Air Force.

The general said he was looking for a replacement for his departing senior enlisted adviser (SEA) and was curious as to the kind of chief master sergeant I thought he should

hire. So I outlined the attributes of what I thought an SEA should be and gave him a list

of those local chiefs who I thought would do a great job. Then he asked whether I might

be interested in assuming the position, and I explained how I was the junior chief on

base and already held a great job I enjoyed. I also added that I thought some of the other

chiefs might have a problem with him making a young chief his SEA. He chuckled and

said it wouldn’t be a problem for me or for him. That ended the conversation, and I went

back to work.

A couple of months later, Finch had another call from the general, who replayed their

previous conversation and said he had made his selection. “He simply stated I was his new

SEA, unless I really didn’t want the job,” Finch explained. “I replied I would work wherever

he wanted me...[I was] told I would start as the SEA the following week.”

196
This would be the first of two assignments Finch would share with General Ralston. The

second assignment came in July 1995, when Ralston took command of Air Combat Command and again requested that Finch be his senior enlisted adviser or, as it would later be

called, the command chief master sergeant.

During Finch’s four years at ACC, the Air Force went through a trying period. Operational tempo, increased deployments, continued downsizing of the force, TRICARE implementation, retention, and frustration over a lack of money and spare parts topped the list of

concerns on the minds of the enlisted corps. “There was never a lack of issues to address, although most...[focused on our] asking our folks to do more work without giving them the

people, tools, and support to make it happen. Fortunately, many senior leaders took notice of

the direction we were headed and began a campaign to turn the tables,” Finch said.

Though, as noted below, nothing could completely prepare someone for the top enlisted

job in the Air Force, Finch believed that his experience as a senior enlisted adviser provided

him with some very valuable experiences.

Working as a senior enlisted advisor [now known as command chief master sergeant

(CCM)] at both a NAF (numbered air force) and MAJCOM (major command) for six

years was extremely beneficial. It provided an opportunity to become educated on the

top issues affecting Air Force people. It also gave me insight into how HQ staffs operate

and allowed me to understand concerns affecting various functional groups. It would be

difficult to step into the role of CMSAF without having had some CCM experience.

Since the CMSAF spends considerable time working issues with the MAJCOM CCMs

(as a team), serving on the CCM team before coming CMSAF provided invaluable insights and perspective.6

From his position at Air Combat Command, Finch was nominated to be the thirteenth

chief master sergeant of the Air Force.

I basically knew how the CMSAF selection process worked, and wasn’t too surprised

when I was nominated from ACC, since I had been the command chief master sergeant

for a very large MAJCOM. However, I was pretty convinced I wouldn’t make the cut

since there were other chief master sergeants who were just as qualified and had proven

relationships with the Air Force chief of staff.

Finch’s prediction proved wrong when he was among the three finalists selected to undergo a personal interview. “The list...comprised...several impressive people, and I was

quite honored to have been selected from among that group,” he said. The three finalists went

to the Pentagon for their interviews and then to dinner, and they were told to be near a tele197
phone for news of the decision. On June 4, 1999, Finch got the congratulatory call from Gen.

Michael Ryan. “My first reaction was, great, I’m still employed,” Finch said, knowing that

his replacement would arrive at Air Combat Command within a week, when he would literally be out of a job.

The chief had some idea of what to expect in his new position, but, he said, “nothing can

ever prepare you completely for this job. You can’t really begin to understand the expectations until you sit in the chair. Then it’s like drinking from a fire hose, spending most of the

time in ‘react mode.’ It takes a while just to figure out what responsibilities are in your lane to

handle.”

Fortunately, Finch had his own experience to draw on, as well as some help from the previous chief master sergeant of the Air Force and from a great staff:

I’ve had a very close professional relationship with CMSAF [Eric] Benken for quite

some time—before either of us were major command SEAs. It gave me great solace to

know Eric wanted me to do well in this position, and I am grateful [that] he and his staff

went out of their way to set the office up for success. It made the transition much easier

than I have experienced in some of my previous assignments.

I have also been blessed to have a fantastic team in the CMSAF office, led by

CMSgt. Dawn Rich. Everyone on the staff, including Tony Patterson, Mark Smith, Mike

Gilbert, Rhonda Pelkey, Jack Harrison, and Beth Alber, brought a positive attitude and

great expertise. They were the folks who actually worked all the issues from behind the

scenes. I am especially indebted to Dawn Rich, who worked with me both at ACC and

here in Washington.

During his first year in office, Finch traveled on more than two hundred days, visiting

people in the field to learn about their issues and concerns. Finch recommends such an intense travel schedule for successive chief master sergeants of the Air Force. “I had to realize

there is a delicate balance between spending enough time with the troops and staying in

Washington, D.C., long enough to work [on] their issues.” Finch said. “It probably works out

best to spend more time in the field during the first year so that you learn the issues you’re

supposed to work on.”

Throughout much of his Air Force career, Finch has shared the experiences with his

wife, Pat, a retired master sergeant and the first wife of a chief master sergeant of the Air

Force to be a military retiree. “She...[fills] many important roles—wife, mother, friend, confidant,” Finch said, noting that Pat’s military experience was a significant asset during base

visits. “Pat has a broad perspective and a solid understanding of what can and can’t be done,

and why. Her military experience gave her greater credibility because people knew she had

walked the walk.”

198
Finch’s career path has taken several turns, from missile maintenance to PME instructor,

to career field functional manager, to NCO academy commandant, to senior enlisted adviser,

and then to chief master sergeant of the Air Force. He believes these varied experiences have

made him a more valuable asset to the Air Force:

The more you experience, the better able you are to deal with others around you and in

other career fields. You gain an appreciation of how everyone fits in the big scheme of

things; you better understand the frustrations associated with their jobs and the difficulties they face on a daily basis. As you broaden your experience base, I believe you become a better educated airman and a more valuable asset to the military.

During his twenty-eight years of service, Finch has seen the Air Force make several

changes in how it operates and how it accomplishes the mission:

The Air Force is constantly changing, which makes this a great career for someone who

easily becomes bored with routine. However, restructuring our Air Force, as well as

moving to an expeditionary mindset,...[have] been the most significant change[s] during my...career. This change is huge because it will shape how we will conduct missions

well into the twenty-first century.

Other highlights of Finch’s time as the chief master sergeant of the Air Force include implementing Warrior Week, streamlining the selection process for command chief master

sergeants, and creating a program designed to develop enlisted leaders for the future.

“I’m very proud of Warrior Week7 for the expeditionary mindset it instills in our basic

trainees,” Finch explained, “but all the credit for the program goes to the men and women at

Lackland [Air Force Base] for seeing the idea through to fruition.”

By streamlining the command chief master sergeant selection process, the changes “created a manageable pool of candidates,...[thereby] removing the need for a formal application

each time a vacancy was announced,” Finch said. “It eliminated the short-notice suspense

that chiefs often faced in the past, and it...better prepared the candidates for their new duties

by having them attend an orientation on CCM roles and responsibilities. It was a win situation for the commanders as well,...[because] they had greater flexibility in selecting a

CCM.”

In describing the Developing Aerospace Leaders (DAL) program for enlisted personnel,

Finch explained that

DAL is a framework with which to take a conceptual look at the future and decide how

we need to structure ourselves so that we’re a viable force in the year 2020 or beyond. I

199
subscribe to the theory that if you want to improve the Air Force, then you must ensure

the people who replace you have the ability to be successful. That’s why I’m so pleased

with the DAL concept and [with] how many of our key enlisted leaders have embraced

it. It indicates we’re becoming more proactive in how we work the future development of

the Air Force enlisted corps.

Along with the highlights, Finch also noted a number of challenges he faced as the Air

Force’s top enlisted person. First was “moving the mindset within the force from a ‘cold war’

mentality to becoming ‘expeditionary.’ ” One of the chief obstacles in changing the mentality was the sheer volume of change the Air Force and its people experienced in the last decade

of the twentieth century, including new uniforms, new organizations, and new management

styles. Finch had to convince them that the new Expeditionary Aerospace Force was not a

“temporary concept.” He believed that creating Warrior Week—which focuses on the deployment process and the EAF and takes place during basic training—was a good step in the

right direction.8

A second challenge, also noted above, was more personal—balancing the time spent out

in the field with working issues in the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. “It was a delicate balance...too much time in Washington risked losing credibility with the force...but too little

time in Washington translated to limited input on pending decisions or limited advocacy of

important initiatives.”9 Not surprisingly, all of the chief master sergeants of the Air Force

have faced this challenge and have struggled with it.

Finally, Finch found that “focusing enough attention on important projects and longterm initiatives was a significant challenge.” As he explained it,

It was relatively easy to become consumed with the day-to-day problems and concerns

affecting Air Force people. And, responding to e-mail inquiries routinely took more than

3 hours a day, every day. I found the best approach to this dilemma was to surround myself with dedicated professionals and give them the trust and support to handle the daily

issues. I am thankful to have had a CMSAF office team who shared the same vision and

worked together to set some significant changes into motion.10

In addition to his close ties with his staff, Finch also developed strong working relationships with the two chiefs of staff under whom he served. He described his relationship with

General Ryan as “outstanding.” He remembers him as “a great boss who immediately embraced me as part of the Air Force senior leadership team.” He recalled that he and Ryan

“had very similar views on issues so it was easy to stay in step with him.” Finch had planned

to retire shortly after Ryan did, but the new chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper, asked Finch to

stay on for an additional year. Finch was honored by the request, and he described his rela200
tionship with his new boss as “professional and mutually supportive.” Jumper took office

less than a week after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; circumstances, thus, demanded that he focus on the issues surrounding Operation Enduring Freedom. As Finch

noted, “Although I didn’t spend as much time with him as I had with General Ryan, our sessions together were always positive and he continued to support the initiatives I had been

working.”11

CMSAF Jim Finch spent his three years in the top enlisted office focusing on the current

concerns of the enlisted members of the Air Force and putting programs into place that will

improve their future preparedness. As threats to our national security and to world peace

change, and as the military responses demanded of our armed forces change with those

threats, leaders who develop a future-focused perspective will be some of our most valuable

resources. Finch made a significant contribution to ensuring that such leadership develops in

the Air Force.

Finch currently resides in San Antonio, Texas, “simply enjoying time with my family and

catching up on projects and activities I’ve put off for years.” He is not completely retired,

however, as he is currently the co-chairman of the Air Force Retiree Council. He also remains involved on the boards of a few organizations associated with Air Force life. As a retired Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, he travels periodically to speak with Air Force

men and women. He views “the primary role of a former CMSAF as helping the enlisted

force gain perspective on events affecting them and supporting the current CMSAF as he/she

tackles current challenges.”12

201

CMSAF Finch discusses issues with CMSgt Teddy Wilson while visiting deployed airmen in

Southwest Asia in early 2002.
NOTES

1. Unless otherwise noted, this biographical interview is based on materials researched

and compiled by the Office of the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.

2. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2000, p. 66.

3. CMSAF Finch responded to his questionnaire (hereinafter Finch Questionnaire) via

e-mail. A printed copy of his questionnaire is available in the files of the Office of Air Force

History, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.

4. Finch Questionnaire.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Warrior Week comes toward the end of basic training and affords the recruits a realistic exposure to the rigors of deployment as part of an expeditionary force.

8. Finch Questionnaire.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

202
Gerald R. Murray

July 1, 2002–Present

★

203
Gerald R. Murray

July 1, 2002–Present

★
G

erald R. Murray became the chief master sergeant of the Air Force on July 1, 2002.

George W. Bush was President of the United States, James G. Roche was the secretary of the Air Force, and Gen. John P. Jumper was the Air Force chief of staff. The

U.S. Air Force was actively engaged in the global war on terrorism, which began following

the attacks of September 11, 2001, and would soon begin gathering forces for the war with

Iraq. The USAF enlisted force numbered 292,500 men and women, 40,000 of whom were

deployed during the Iraq war.

Gerald Murray was born in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, on January 18, 1956, and

was raised in the small town by parents with strong Christian faith and conservative values.

“My parents provided the love, morals, and upbringing that laid the foundation for my life,”

said Murray. “They taught me the value of honest living and hard work.”

Following high school, Murray married his high school sweetheart, Sherry, and worked

in construction for a few years. With the economy in a downturn, work was sporadic, and

Murray was looking for other employment. He joined the Air Force in October 1977, thinking he’d “do four years and get out.” 

“When I entered the Air Force in the late ’70s, the service was struggling with a myriad

of problems—poor retention, inconsistencies in standards and discipline, and working hard

to maintain combat readiness with an aging aircraft fleet,” he said. “It was a challenging time

in our history, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to make the Air Force a career. Thankfully, I had

some good supervisors who helped keep me on track.”

The chief enjoyed his field of aircraft maintenance and excelled at it. His first assignment was to MacDill Air Force Base, near Tampa, Florida. “Definitely not a bad first assignment for an airman, “ he said. It was there that he met a senior airman below-the-zone board,

and when asked what his goal in the Air Force was, said, “I want to be the chief master

sergeant of the Air Force.”

“I really had put no thought into that at all,” Murray said. “I was trying to think of something that would show them I was motivated.” It must have worked, because Murray was promoted below the zone.

205
After he spent three years on the flight line at MacDill, Murray’s maintenance capabilities were recognized, and he was selected to be maintenance aircraft instructor. Murray describes his speaking abilities at the time as less than desirable. “I was a pretty good crew

chief, but I couldn’t stand in front of a group of students and speak at all,” he said. Fortunately, an “old master sergeant” saw him in action, and recommended he sign up for a speech

class. Murray did just that, but he “did terribly.” The class instructor even recommended he

give up his instructor duty and go back to the flight line. “Fortunately, public speaking is a

206

CMSgt Murray discusses policy with his staff.
learned skill, and I’ve gotten much better over the years,” said Murray, who, in the first year

of his job as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, averaged approximately three formal

speaking engagements a month and at least a dozen informal presentations to airmen around

the Air Force. 

Shortly afterwards, he and Sherry moved to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, where

he continued as a maintenance instructor. Their first son, Robert, was born there in 1982, and

they enjoyed a tour close to their home state of North Carolina and the new baby’s grandparents. In 1984, they were on the move again. 

Murray continued in the maintenance field, and his next assignment was to Incirlik Air

Base, Turkey, where he spent two years as a senior crew chief on “Victor (nuclear) Alert” on

the F–16 aircraft. “Sherry and I did not have any desire to leave Shaw Air Force Base or to go

to such a foreign place as Turkey,” Murray said. “But that assignment turned out to be one of

our best, and we made friends there that we continue to stay in touch with today.”

Murray’s next—and longest—assignment brought him much more responsibility. Over a

six-year period, he managed and led an aircraft maintenance unit support section, a squadron

mobility unit, and ultimately, became the production superintendent of a fighter squadron at

Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina. The Murrays’s second son, Stephen, was born

there in 1989.

In 1990, the United States started building up forces in the Middle East for the Gulf War.

Murray deployed to King Faud International Airport and King Khalid Military City, Saudi

Arabia. The production superintendent for over two years, Murray believes he was fortunate

to be in the middle of the mission during Desert Storm. “It was extremely rewarding to be a

part of history like that,” he said. “I worked with some great leaders and learned a lot about

how to lead, not just manage, people by watching how they motivated and led airmen into

combat.”

In 1992, Murray transferred to McChord Air Force Base, in Washington State, as the superintendent of a maintenance flight, but a base realignment closed the unit, leaving him with

the next big challenge—setting up a new squadron in record time.

“In 1994, we set up a new A–10 squadron at Moody Air Force Base [in Georgia] in operational commission faster than any squadron since World War II, deployed it, and then proceeded to set records for some of the highest sortie production rates in the Air Force,” Murray

said. “Morale soared. We included our families and concentrated on teamwork while building the new squadron. The cooperation between maintenance and operations was outstanding. It was a great effort and example of what people can do together,” he said.

After a three-month deployment to Kuwait with the A–10 squadron, Murray returned

home to Moody two days early in 1996 to see his youngest of three children, Elizabeth, born.

Murray was now a chief master sergeant. Yet another challenge awaited him back at home

base, one that he was not thrilled about accepting at the time.

207
“Brig. Gen. L. D. Johnston asked me to be the wing’s senior enlisted adviser [later redesignated as command chief master sergeant],” said Murray. “First of all, I didn’t want to leave

the flight line I loved; secondly, I wasn’t sure I was prepared for that responsibility.”

But saying no to General Johnston was not an option, and, given Murray’s desire to do a

good job at whatever the service asked of him, he took the job. Murray began what he calls

an “incredibly vertical learning curve.”

“No longer was I responsible for just two hundred-plus maintainers; I was responsible

for, and to, every airmen in that wing,” said Murray. In 1997, Murray left for his third extended deployment, this time as command chief master sergeant at Sheikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain.

After the seven-month deployment, Murray returned home. At that time, he questioned

whether the sacrifices his family were making were worth the compensation he received. “I

came home to Sherry and that little one-year-old girl..., plus my two older children, and had

to evaluate whether I really wanted to continue this after twenty years in the service.” Gen.

Mike Ryan, then the chief of staff, had just introduced the expeditionary aerospace force concept, and senior leaders and Congress were beginning to work to adjust the pay tables and

compensation packages. “I saw what I believed to be good things happening, and Sherry and

I decided we wanted to be a part of that,” he said. “We’ve never regretted that decision.”

Murray’s success as a command chief master sergeant at the wing level took him to the

next level, and he was selected as the command chief for U.S. Forces Japan and Fifth Air

Force at Yokota Air Base, Japan. From there, he was selected to be the Pacific Air Forces

command chief in 2001.

After only ten months at Headquarters Pacific Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base,

Hawaii, Murray was nominated by the PACAF commander, Gen. William Begert, to be the

fourteenth chief master sergeant of the Air Force. “I was honored that General Begert nominated me, but I really was not packing my bags,” said Murray. He began to realize that it

might actually happen only when he found out that he was on the short list of four people to

be interviewed by Gen. John Jumper, the chief of staff.

“When the call came from General Jumper, I was both excited and a little bit daunted by

the tremendous amount of responsibility I was about to take on,” Murray said. 

In his first year as chief master sergeant of the Air Force, Murray focused on issues that

involved balancing the force. “Balancing the force is a necessity driven by demands that the

global war on terrorism and Operation Iraqi Freedom placed on us,” said Murray. “All our

people work extremely hard, but there are certain career fields and airmen who are more

stressed than others,” he said. 

The evolution of the expeditionary air force and a changed world following the terrorist

attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were catalysts for change during Murray’s first year as chief master

sergeant of the Air Force. “Much of our manning priorities and authorizations were set for a

cold-war, stay-at-home force,” he said. “We are now an expeditionary air force whose normal

208
operations are away from home. We needed to evaluate our force and make changes where

necessary to ensure our manning is consistent with the mission we perform today.” 

In 2003, Murray pushed for and reenergized the NCO Retraining Program, which would

move authorizations and people from less-stressed career fields into stressed career fields.

Other tools Murray advocated to balance the force included applying critical career field status to E–8 and E–9 promotions and the return of Career Job Reservations for first-term airmen seeking to reenlist. 

In Murray’s view, change and transformation have been a reality since the establishment

of the U.S. Air Force as a separate service in 1947. Throughout his own career, Murray witnessed a shift in the posture of the force from an in-garrison to an expeditionary force.

“Early in my career, our mission was focused on the Cold War and readiness to fight another major conflict or world war. We prepared for this with a heavy exercise and inspection

schedule,” he said. “In the ’80s, our force structure stabilized. In Europe and the Pacific, our

bases were postured for major theater operations, with our CONUS [continental United

States] bases ready to deploy forces forward. However, we were by no means an expeditionary force.”

Murray believes Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm changed that, as it was the beginning for our military to evolve and become more mobile. From that conflict, the foundations of the expeditionary aerospace force concept were laid. But it would take the service

several more years and other combat operations to fully implement the concept, to provide

209

CMSgt Murray is greeted by his daughter, Elizabeth, and wife, Sherry, upon his return from a

deployment to Sheikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain, in 1997.
more stability for and ease the strain on USAF personnel in this new era of high operations

tempo.

“We still have a ways to go to fully embrace the expeditionary mindset, Murray said

after one year as chief master sergeant of the Air Force. “It usually takes an organization

seven to ten years for a cultural change to really take effect,” he added. 

A focused effort on force development by the chief of staff and secretary of the Air Force

included the enlisted force, along with the officer and civilian corps. This gave Murray an opportunity to evaluate the way enlisted airmen are prepared for future leadership positions.

“Enlisted-force development will allow us to tailor the professional development of our

airmen to best meet the expeditionary needs of the Air Force today and in the future,” Murray

said. “Our enlisted force is the finest in the world,” he stated, “bar none. There is nothing

we’re trying to fix with enlisted force development efforts. But at the same time,” he added,

“just as the landscape of the world and our missions are ever evolving, it’s extremely important that we look at the way we train and educate our people to better prepare them to lead the

force in the future.” 

As part of the early stages of enlisted force development, management of chief master

sergeants was moved from the Air Force Personnel Center to the Air Force Senior Leader

Management Office, aligning the management and use of the highest enlisted members with

the Air Force’s senior officers and civilians. “This move recognizes the important role our senior enlisted leaders play in our force today,” said Murray. “We want to make sure that we are

using them in a way that capitalizes on their experience and education and gives them opportunities to grow in their leadership roles in our Air Force,” said Murray.

As Murray moved into his second year in the highest enlisted position, he set his sights

on continuing to improve what generations of chevrons began and carried on before him.

“Each chief master sergeant of the Air Force helped our force work through considerable issues and challenges,” said Murray. “Each of them are heroes in their own right in what they

were able to accomplish for our enlisted force. I will continue, with the help of my family and

my staff, to try to make a small difference, and to leave our Air Force a little better than when

I arrived.”

210
APPENDIXES

★

CMSAF Paul W.Airey

April 3, 1967–July 31, 1969

CMSAF Donald L. Harlow

August 1, 1969–September 30, 1971

CMSAF Richard D. Kisling

October 1, 1971–September 30, 1973

CMSAF Thomas N. Barnes

October 1, 1973–July 31, 1977

CMSAF Robert D. Gaylor

August 1, 1977–July 31, 1979

CMSAF James M. McCoy

August 1, 1979–July 31, 1981

CMSAF Arthur L.Andrews

August 1, 1981–July 31, 1983

CMSAF Sam E. Parish

August 1, 1983–June 30, 1986

CMSAF James C. Binnicker

July 1, 1986–July 31, 1990

CMSAF Gary R. Pfingston

August 1, 1990–October 25, 1994

CMSAF David J. Campanale

October 26, 1994–November 4, 1996

CMSAF Eric W. Benken

November 5, 1996 –July 30, 1999

CMSAF Frederick J. Finch

August 2, 1999–June 28, 2002

CMSAF Gerald R. Murray

July 1, 2002–Present

213

APPENDIX I

The Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force

PRESIDENT SECRETARY AIR FORCE CHIEF MASTER 

OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF SERGEANT OF 

AIR FORCE THE AIR FORCE

Harry S Truman, W. Stuart Symington Gen. Carl A. Spaatz

12 Apr 45–20 Jan 53 18 Sep 47–24 Apr 50 26 Sep 47–29 Apr 48

Thomas K. Finletter Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg

24 Apr 50–20 Jan 53 30 Apr 48–

Harold E. Talbott

4 Feb 53–

Dwight D. Eisenhower Harold E. Talbott Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg

20 Jan 53–20 Jan 61 –13 Aug 55 –29 Jun 53

Donald A. Quarles Gen. Nathan F. Twining

15 Aug 55–30 Apr 57 30 Jun 53–30 Jun 57

James H. Douglas, Jr. Gen. Thomas D. White

1 May 57–10 Dec 59 1 Jul 57–

Dudley C. Sharp

11 Dec 59–20 Jan 61

John F. Kennedy Eugene M. Zuckert Gen. Thomas D. White

20 Jan 61–22 Nov 63 24 Jan 61– –30 Jun 61

Gen. Curtis E. LeMay

30 Jun 61– 

Lyndon B. Johnson Eugene M. Zuckert Gen. Curtis E. LeMay CMSgt. Paul W. Airey

22 Nov 63–20 Jan 69 –30 Sep 65 –31 Jan 65 3 Apr 67–

Harold Brown Gen. John P. McConnell

1 Oct 65– 1 Feb 65–

215

APPENDIX II

Presidents, Secretaries of the Air Force,

Chiefs of Staff and Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force
Richard M. Nixon Harold Brown Gen. John P. McConnell CMSgt. Paul W. Airey

20 Jan 69–9 Aug 74 –14 Feb 69 –31 Jul 69 –31 Jul 69

Robert C. Seamans, Jr. Gen. John D. Ryan CMSgt. Donald L. Harlow

15 Feb 69–14 May 73 1 Aug 69–31 Jul 73 1 Aug 69–30 Sep 71

John L. McLucas Gen. George S. Brown CMSgt. Richard D. Kisling

(Acting) 1 Aug 73–30 Jun 74 1 Oct 71–30 Sep 73

15 May 73–18 Jul 73

Gen. David C. Jones CMSgt. Thomas N. Barnes

John L. McLucas 1 Jul 74– 1 Oct 73–

18 Jul 73–

Gerald R. Ford John L. McLucas Gen. David C. Jones CMSgt. Thomas N. Barnes

9 Aug 74–20 Jan 77 –23 Nov 75

James W. Plummer

(Acting)

24 Nov 75–1 Jan 76

Thomas C. Reed

2 Jan 76–

Jimmy Carter Thomas C. Reed Gen. David C. Jones CMSgt. Thomas N. Barnes

20 Jan 77–20 Jan 81 –6 Apr 77 –20 Jun 78 –1 Jul 77

John C. Stetson Gen. Lew Allen, Jr. CMSgt. Robert D. Gaylor

6 Apr 77–18 May 79 1 Jul 78– 1 Aug 77–31 Jul 79

Hans M. Mark CMSgt. James M. McCoy

(Acting) 1 Aug 79–

18 May 79–26 Jul 79

Hans M. Mark

26 Jul 79–

Ronald W. Reagan Hans M. Mark Gen. Lew Allen, Jr. CMSgt. James M. McCoy

20 Jan 81–20 Jan 89 –9 Feb 81 –30 Jun 82 –31 Jul 81

Verne Orr Gen. Charles A. Gabriel CMSgt. Arthur L. Andrews

9 Feb 81–30 Nov 85 1 Jul 82–30 Jun 86 1 Aug 81–31 Jul 83

Russell A. Rourke Gen. Larry D. Welch CMSgt. Sam E. Parish

8 Dec 85–7 Apr 86 1 Jul 86– 1 Aug 83–30 Jun 86

Edward C. Aldridge, Jr. CMSgt. James C. Binnicker

(Acting) 1 Jul 86–

8 Apr 86–8 Jun 86

Edward C. Aldridge, Jr.

9 Jun 86–16 Dec 88

216
James F. McGovern

(Acting)

16 Dec 88–29 Apr 89

John J. Welch, Jr.

(Acting)

29 Apr 89–21 May 89

George H. W. Bush Donald B. Rice Gen. Larry D. Welch CMSgt. James C. Binnicker

20 Jan 89–20 Jan 93 22 May 89– –30 Jun 90 –31 Jul 90

Gen. Michael J. Dugan CMSgt. Gary R. Pfingston

1 Jul 90–17 Sep 90 1 Aug 90–

Gen. John M. Loh

(Acting)

18 Sep 90–29 Oct 90

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak

30 Oct 90–

William J. Clinton Donald B. Rice Gen. Merrill A. McPeak CMSgt. Gary R. Pfingston

20 Jan 93–20 Jan 2001 –20 Jan 93 –25 Oct 94 –25 Oct 94

Michael B. Donley Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman CMSgt. David J. Campanale

(Acting) 26 Oct 94–1 Sep 97 26 Oct 94–4 Nov 96

20 Jan 93–13 Jul 93

CMSgt. Eric W. Benken

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart 5 Nov 96–30 Jul 99

(Acting) (Acting)

14 Jul 93–5 Aug 93 2 Sep 97–5 Oct 97 CMSgt. Frederick Finch

2 Aug 99–

Sheila E. Widnall Gen. Michael E. Ryan

6 Aug 93–31 Oct 97 6 Oct 97–

F. Whitten Peters

(Acting)

13 Nov 97–3 Aug 99

F. Whitten Peters

3 Aug 99–20 Jan 01

George W. Bush James G. Roche Gen. Michael E. Ryan CMSgt. Frederick Finch

20 Jan 2001–present 1 Jun 01–present –6 Sep 01 –28 Jun 02

Gen. John P. Jumper CMSgt. Gerald R. Murray

6 Sep 01–present 1 Jul 02–present

217

SOURCE: George M. Watson, Jr., Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force (Washington,

D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2001), pp. 197-202.
218
219

APPENDIX III

Department of Defense Enlisted Personnel 

Active Duty Enlisted Personnel, 1947 through 2003

Year Total Army Navy Marine Air

Corps Force

1947 1,385,436 594,078 442,729 85,547 263,082

1948 1,270,051 484,061 369,136 78,081 338,773

1949 1,418,528 581,422 396,895 78,715 361,496

1950 1,273,122 518,921 332,905 67,025 354,271

1951 2,921,440 1,399,362 663,326 177,470 681,282

1952 3,254,790 1,446,266 738,451 215,554 854,519

1953 3,173,066 1,386,500 709,254 230,488 846,824

1954 2,943,209 1,274,803 644,965 205,275 818,166

1955 2,577,884 985,659 582,675 186,753 822,797

1956 2,450,793 905,711 594,509 182,971 767,602

1957 2,446,984 885,056 599,733 183,427 778,768

1958 2,267,209 792,508 564,899 172,754 737,048

1959 2,178,515 758,458 553,332 159,506 707,219

1960 2,152,414 770,112 544,770 154,418 683,114

1961 2,160,062 756,932 552,262 160,777 690,091

1962 2,454,068 948,597 584,773 174,101 746,597

1963 2,355,957 865,768 584,235 172,946 733,008

1964 2,339,438 860,514 585,419 172,934 720,571

1965 2,306,001 854,929 587,940 172,955 690,177

1966 2,733,549 1,079,682 659,186 241,204 753,477

1967 2,980,851 1,296,603 663,923 261,677 758,648

1968 3,119,541 1,401,727 673,610 282,697 761,507

1969 3,028,201 1,337,047 684,145 284,073 722,936

1970 2,651,110 1,153,013 605,899 234,796 657,402

1971 2,329,754 971,872 542,298 190,604 624,980

1972 1,975,533 686,695 510,669 178,395 599,774
220

1973 1,920,587 681,972 490,009 176,816 571,790

1974 1,849,074 674,466 475,479 170,062 529,067

1975 1,824,981 678,324 466,121 177,360 503,176

1976 1,790,148 677,725 457,692 173,517 481,214

1977 1,785,173 680,062 462,176 173,057 469,878

1978 1,775,021 669,515 463,217 172,427 469,862

1979 1,740,260 657,184 457,102 167,021 458,953

1980 1,759,693 673,944 459,569 170,271 455,909

1981 1,784,048 675,087 470,184 172,257 466,520

1982 1,803,762 672,699 481,186 173,405 476,472

1983 1,811,060 669,364 484,568 174,106 483,022

1984 1,821,257 667,711 491,288 175,848 486,410

1985 1,828,454 666,557 495,444 177,850 488,603

1986 1,844,338 666,668 504,389 178,615 494,666

1987 1,853,340 668,410 510,208 179,478 495,244

1988 1,820,120 660,445 515,548 177,271 466,856

1989 1,813,907 658,321 515,898 176,857 462,831

1990 1,733,835 623,519 502,804 176,694 430,818

1991 1,681,592 602,777 495,103 174,287 409,425

1992 1,520,828 511,335 468,412 165,397 375,684

1993 1,435,915 480,379 439,461 159,949 356,126

1994 1,352,800 452,513 402,635 156,335 341,317

1995 1,268,489 422,073 371,670 156,808 317,938

1996 1,227,110 406,502 355,048 156,952 308,608

1997 1,199,058 408,337 335,267 156,081 299,373

1998 1,171,148 401,188 323,120 155,250 291,590

1999 1,154,231 398,138 315,180 154,744 286,169

2000 1,154,624 401,414 315,471 155,383 282,356

2001 1,155,344 400,461 319,601 154,872 280,410

2002 1,177,806 404,304 325,996 155,445 292,061

2003 1,434,377 499,301 382,235 177,779 375,062

SOURCE: See Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics, 2001, pp. 64–66. The

most recent available total for enlisted can be found online on the Department of Defense,

Directorate for Operations and Reports, Statistical Information Analysis Division web site

at http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/military/miltop.htm.
No. Member Name Unit Date

1 Brig. Gen. Roland J. Barnick MAC 26 May 67

2 Gen. Howell M. Estes, Jr. MAC 20 Dec 67

3 Brig. Gen. Gilbert L. Curtis MAC 18 Jun 68

4 Brig. Gen. William V. McBride MAC 26 Feb 69

5 Col. Reid J. Anderson MAC 26 Jul 69

6 Col. Gilbert G. Smith, Jr. MAC 29 Jul 69

7 Col. Thomas J. Arbogast MAC 12 May 70

8 Brig. Gen. Clare T. Ireland, Jr. MAC 23 Jul 70

9 Brig. Gen. John H. Germeraad MAC 2 Oct 70

10 Brig. Gen. John F. Gonge MAC 24 Feb 71

11 Gen. Jack J. Catton MAC 30 Apr 71

12 Col. Leonard V. Gillespie MAC 29 Sep 71

13 Honorable F. Edward Hebert ATC 28 Oct 71

14 Maj. Gen. Archie M. Burke NORAD 11 Feb 72

15 Brig. Gen. Richard M. Baughn USAFE 20 Mar 72

16 Maj. Gen. William G. Moore, Jr. MAC 6 May 72

17 Col. Tedd L. Bishop MAC 14 Jul 72

18 Maj. Gen. Jerry D. Page ATC 25 Jul 72

19 Gen. George B. Simler ATC 25 Aug 72

20 Brig. Gen. Van N. Blackman MAC 8 Sep 72

21 Col. Robert H. Campbell MAC 11 Jun 73

22 Maj. Gen. Frank M. Madsen, Jr. ATC 24 Jan 74

23 Maj. Gen. Frank W. Elliott, Jr. ATC 26 Jul 74

24 Col. James I. Baginski PACAF 29 Jul 74

25 Brig. Gen. Irbey B. Jarvis, Jr. AFLC 31 Oct 74

26 Brig. Gen. Thomas M. Sadler MAC 12 Mar 75

27 Maj. Gen. Lester T. Kearney MAC 21 May 75

28 Col. Donald A. Michela PACAF 11 Aug 75

29 Brig. Gen. Harry A. Morris MAC 19 Sep 75

30 Maj. Gen. Leroy J. Manor PACAF 19 Apr 76

31 Brig. Gen. Emil N. Block MAC 9 Jun 76

32 Brig. Gen. James E. McAdoo AFRES 11 Oct 76

33 Lt. Gen. John W. Roberts ATC 12 Nov 76

221

APPENDIX IV

The Order of the Sword
34 Gen. Paul K. Carlton MAC 11 Feb 77

35 Gen. Louis L. Wilson PACAF 18 Mar 77

36 Gen. Russell E. Dougherty SAC 5 Apr 77

37 Maj. Gen. Ralph S. Saunders MAC 6 May 77

38 Col. James T. Albritton USAFE 6 May 77

39 Maj. Gen. Alden G. Glauch MAC 19 Jul 77

40 Brig. Gen. Kenneth D. Burns AFSS 20 Oct 77

41 Maj. Gen. Andrew P. Iosue ATC 3 Mar 78

42 Gen. Robert J. Dixon TAC 10 Mar 78

43 Brig. Gen. James L. Wade AFRES 11 Mar 78

44 Maj. Gen. Thomas A. Aldrich MAC 30 Mar 78

45 Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Morgan AFSC 22 Apr 78

46 Col. Sharman R. Stevenson PACAF 31 May 78

47 Gen. David C. Jones SAC 31 May 78

48 Col. Dale L. Oderman MAC 1 Jun 78

49 Lt. Gen. James D. Hughes TAC 8 Jun 78

50 Maj. Gen. Rupert H. Burris AFCS 19 Jul 78

51 Maj. Gen. Paul M. Myers AFSC 14 Sep 78

52 Lt. Gen. Bryon M. Shotts SAC 10 Oct 78

53 Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis (Ret.) TAC 10 Nov 78

54 Maj. Gen. William Lyons AFRES 3 Mar 79

55 Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Starr, Jr. MAC 10 Apr 79

56 Col. Anthony J. Dibaggio USAFSS 19 Apr 79

57 Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford AFSC 5 May 79

58 Brig. Gen. Attilio Pedroli ATC 6 Dec 79

59 Maj. Gen. William C. Norris USAFE 9 Apr 80

60 Maj. Gen. LeRoy W. Svendsen, Jr. AFMPC 10 Apr 80

61 Maj. Gen. Robert E. Sadler AFCS 12 Apr 80

62 Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, Jr. AAC 16 May 80

63 CMSAF Donald L. Harlow (Ret.) TAC 20 May 80

64 Mr. Robert (Bob) Hope MAC 10 Jun 80

65 Col. Thomas G. McInerney PACAF 22 Jul 80

66 Gen. Curtis E. LeMay SAC 18 Sep 80

67 Gen. Alton D. Slay AFSC 18 Oct 80

68 Brig. Gen. Sidney S. Novaresi AFRES 14 Mar 81

69 Brig. Gen. Alan G. Sharp AFRES 4 Apr 81

70 Gen. Richard H. Ellis SAC 8 May 81

71 Maj. Gen. John T. Guice ANG 13 May 81

72 Lt. Gen. Walter D. Druen, Jr. USAFE 16 May 81

73 Gen. Kenneth L. Tallman USAFA 21 May 81

74 Gen. Robert G. Huyser MAC 19 Jun 81

75 Brig. Gen. Staryl C. Austin (Ret.) ANG 30 Oct 81

76 Maj. Gen. Doyle E. Larson ESC 27 Mar 82

77 Col. Bruce M. Purvine MAC 3 Jun 82

78 Brig. Gen. Norma Brown ATC 11 Jun 82

79 Brig. Gen. Albert J. Kaehn, Jr. MAC 27 Jul 82

80 Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Peek AFMPC 5 Nov 82

222
81 Col. Lester R. Mellott, Jr. ESC 13 Feb 83

82 Lt. Gen. Richard C. Henry AFSC 16 Apr 83

83 Lt. Gen. Robert W. Bazley USAFE 5 May 83

84 Gen. James R. Allen MAC 18 May 83

85 Lt. Gen. Charles L. Donnelly, Jr. PACAF 28 May 83

Gen. Charles L. Donnelly, Jr. USAFE 21 Feb 87

86 Lt. Gen. Robert T. Herres AFCC 27 Aug 83

87 Gen. Thomas M. Ryan, Jr. ATC 3 Sep 83

88 Gen. W. L. Creech TAC 4 Feb 84

89 Gen. Robert T. Marsh AFSC 16 Jun 84

90 Gen. James V. Hartinger NORAD/

SPACECOM 29 Jun 84

91 Lt. Gen. James W. Stansberry AFSC 2 Sep 84

92 Maj. Gen. Donald W. Bennett MAC 12 Oct 84

93 Gen. Bennie L. Davis SAC 18 Oct 84

94 Maj. Gen. John E. Taylor, Jr. USAFR 27 Oct 84

95 Maj. Gen. John B. Conaway ANG 10 Apr 85

96 Brig. Gen. Regis F. Urschler ESC 1 May 85

97 Maj. Gen. Cornelius Nugteren AFLC 31 May 85

98 Col. Paul E. Landers, Jr. MAC 17 Jun 85

99 Maj. Gen. Sloan R. Gill AFRES 27 Oct 85

100 Col. Robert D. Acres AFLC 2 Nov 85

101 Gen. John L. Piotrowski TAC 24 Jan 86

102 Col. James D. Elmer MAC 8 Feb 86

103 Gen. Charles A. Gabriel USAF 22 Mar 86

104 Maj. Gen. Raymond A. Matera ANG 18 Apr 86

105 Brig. Gen. George E. Chapman MAC 26 Apr 86

106 Brig. Gen. Vernon J. Kondra MAC 14 Jun 86

107 Col. Louis V. Pelini MAC 25 Jul 86

108 Maj. Gen. William J. Breckner, Jr. USAFE 30 Aug 86

109 Gen. Earl T. O'Loughlin AFLC 19 Sep 86

110 Brig. Gen. Floyd A. Hargrove MAC 11 Oct 86

111 Maj. Gen. Gerald L. Prather AFCC 17 Oct 86

112 Lt. Gen. Thomas C. Richards AU 1 Nov 86

113 Maj. Gen. Chris O. Divich ATC 15 Jan 87

114 Maj. Gen. Donald D. Brown MAC 31 Mar 87

115 Maj. Gen. Donald Snyder PACAF 8 Apr 87

116 Gen. Lawrence A. Skantze AFSC 25 Apr 87

117 Brig. Gen. Richard S. Beyea, Jr. AFOSI 25 Sep 87

118 Col. Richard C. Youngs AFRES 26 Sep 87

119 Maj. Gen. Jack W. Sheppard MAC 2 Oct 87

120 Lt. Gen. Edward L. Tixier PACAF 11 Jan 88

121 Lt. Gen. David L. Nichols AAC 7 May 88

122 Congressman Sonny Montgomery AFRES 12 May 88

123 Gen. Jack I. Gregory PACAF 21 Jun 88

124 Maj. Gen. Ralph E. Spraker AFSPACECOM1 Jul 88

125 Honorable Caspar W. Weinberger USAF 19 Nov 88

223
126 Maj. Gen. Melvin G. Alkire AFCOMS 14 Jan 89

127 Gen. William L. Kirk USAFE 18 Mar 89

128 Brig. Gen. Alfred P. Bunting ANG 28 Mar 89

129 Gen. Alfred G. Hansen AFLC 28 Apr 89

130 Maj. Gen. Paul H. Martin ESC 14 Jul 89

131 Gen. Duane H. Cassidy MAC 18 Aug 89

132 Maj. Gen. Fredric F. Doppelt AFSC 7 Oct 89

133 Maj. Gen. James C. Wahleithner AFRES 14 Oct 89

134 Maj. Gen. Vernon Chong ATC 2 Dec 89

135 Gen. Larry D. Welch USAF 3 Mar 90

136 Gen. Bernard P. Randolph AFSC 17 Mar 90

137 Col. Edmund C. Morrisey, Jr. (Ret.) ANG 20 Mar 90

138 Gen. Robert D. Russ TAC 20 Apr 90

139 Maj. Gen. Robert B. Patterson (Ret.) MAC 20 Apr 90

140 Lt. Gen. Robert C. Oaks ATC 9 Jun 90

141 Maj. Gen. Larry N. Tibbetts ATC 20 Jun 90

142 Maj. Gen. Roger P. Scheer AFRES 25 Aug 90

143 Maj. Gen. Paul R. Stoney (Ret.) AFCC 25 Sep 90

144 Gen. Michael J. Dugan USAFE 10 Nov 90

145 Lt. Gen. James B. Davis PACAF 24 Nov 90

146 Maj. Gen. Paul A. Harvey ATC 2 Feb 91

147 Lt. Gen. Charles R. Hamm USAFA 26 Apr 91

148 Lt. Gen. Gordon E. Fornell AFSC 11 May 91

149 Gen. John T. Chain, Jr. SAC 13 Jun 91

150 Lt. Gen. Donald L. Cromer AFSC 17 May 91

151 Col. Richard F. Law AFOSI 20 Jun 91

152 Maj. Gen. Richard M. Pascoe TAC 16 Jul 91

153 Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Ahearn USAF 21 Aug 91

154 Lt. Gen. Richard J. Trzaskoma MAC 27 Sep 91

155 Lt. Gen. Robert H. Ludwig AFCC 28 Sep 91

156 Gen. Charles C. McDonald AFLC 29 Feb 92

157 Lt. Gen. Charles A. Horner TAC 14 Mar 92

158 Lt. Gen. Clifford H. Rees, Jr. USAFE 25 Jul 92

159 Col. Charles L. Fox PACAF 20 Oct 92

160 Gen. Hansford T. Johnson AMC 6 Feb 93

161 Gen. Charles G. Boyd AU 25 Feb 93

162 Maj. Gen. John S. Fairfield AFCC 11 May 93

163 Maj. Gen. Philip G. Killey ANG 9 Nov 93

164 Gen. Ronald Fogleman AMC 14 May 94

165 Maj. Gen. Robert S. Deligatti USAFE 29 Apr 94

166 Lt. Gen. Bradley C. Hosmer USAFA 29 Apr 94

167 Gen. Ronald W. Yates AFMC 5 Mar 94

168 Maj. Gen. Robert A. McIntosh AFRES 29 Jul 94

169 Gen. Merrill A. McPeak HQ USAF 20 Aug 94

170 Gen. Robert L. Rutherford PACAF 23 Aug 94

171 Lt. Gen. Henry Viccellio (Ret.) AETC 1 Oct 94

172 Maj. Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan AIA 24 Oct 94

224
173 Lt. Gen. Edward P. Barry AFMC 14 Nov 94

174 Gen. Thomas Moorman AFSPC 28 Nov 94

175 Gen. John Michael Loh ACC 25 Feb 95

176 Lt. Gen. Malcolm B. Armstrong AMC 23 Sep 95

177 Gen. James L. Jamerson USAFE 18 Nov 95

178 Gen. Joseph W. Ashy AFSPC 17 Aug 96

179 Col. John E. Killeen AFSPA 14 Sep 96

180 Dr. William J. Perry HQ USAF 19 Oct 96

181 Gen. James E. Sherrard AFRES 2 Nov 96

182 Maj. Gen. James L. Hobson, Jr. AFSOC 24 Jan 97

183 Gen. John G. Lorber PACAF 30 Jun 97

184 Lt. Gen. Paul E. Stein USAFA 12 Jul 97

185 Maj. Gen. Donald W. Shepperd NGB 4 Nov 97

186 Col. John L. Hayes AFWA 4 Apr 98

187 Gen. Michael E. Ryan USAFE 17 Apr 98

188 Gen. Walter Kross AMC 18 Jul 98

189 Gen. Howell M. Estes III AFSPC 7 Aug 98

190 Lt. Gen. Kenneth E. Eickmann AFMC 15 Aug 98

191 Gen. Richard E. Hawley ACC 17 Apr 99

192 Gen. Lloyd W. Newton AETC 18 Jun 99

193 Col. Raymond W. Owens III AFOSI 21 Oct 99

194 Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver, Jr. ANG 22 Nov 99

195 Lt. Gen. Charles R. Holland AFSOC 22 Jan 00

196 Gen. George T. Babbitt AFMC 27 Mar 00

197 Gen. John P. Jumper USAFE 8 Apr 00

198 Brig. Gen. Steven A. Roser (Ret.) AMC 14 Apr 00

199 Lt. Gen. Tad J. Oelstrom USAFA 7 Jun 00

200 Brig. Gen. Richard A. Coleman AFSFC 24 Aug 00

201 Honorable F. Whitten Peters HQ USAF 16 Dec 00

202 Brig. Gen. Hinnie Aderholt (Ret.) AFSOC 18 Jan 01

203 Gen. Patrick K. Gamble PACAF 6 Apr 01

204 Maj. Gen. David E. Tanzi AFRES 2 Jun 01

205 Gen. Charles T. Robertson AMC 3 Nov 01

206 Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart AFSC 25 Jan 02

207 Lt. Gen. Maxwell C. Bailey AFSOC 15 Mar 02

208 Gen. Lester L. Lyles AFMC 7 Nov 02

209 Gen. Gregory S. Martin USAFE 30 May 03

210 Dr. James G. Roche HQ USAF 13 Sep 03

225

A1C Airman first class

A2C Airman second class

A3C Airman third class

AACS Airways and Air Communications Service

AAF Army Air Forces

ACC Air Combat Command

AFB Air Force Base

AFMPC Air Force Military Personnel Center

AFROTC Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps

AFSA Air Force Sergeants Association

AFSC Air Force specialty code

ALS Airmen Leadership School

AP Air Force police

AQE Airman Qualifying Examination

ARRS Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service

ARS Air Rescue Service

ASC Air Service Command

ASVAB Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

ATC Air Training Command

ATSO Ability to survive and operate

AWOL Absent without leave

AWS Air Weather Service

BAS Basic allowance for subsistence

CAP Civil Air Patrol

CCAF Community College of the Air Force

CCM Command chief master sergeant

CCT Combat Control Team

CEPME College for Enlisted Professional Military Education

CHAMPUS Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services

CMSAF Chief master sergeant of the Air Force

CMSgt. Chief master sergeant

Cpl. Corporal

DAL Developing Aerospace Leaders

DCM Deputy commander for maintenance

227

GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS 

AND ABBREVIATIONS
EPR Enlisted Performance Report

FAI Federation Aeronautique Internationale

IG Inspector general

KIA Killed in action

LMDC Leadership and Management Development Center

MAC Military Airlift Command

MAJCOM Major command

MARS Military affiliate radio system

MATS Military Air Transport Service

MOS Military occupational specialty

MSgt. Master sergeant

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NCO Noncommissioned officer

NCOA Noncommissioned Officer Academy

NCOIC Noncommissioned officer in charge

NCOLS Noncommissioned Officer Leadership School

NCOPC Noncommissioned Officer Preparatory Course

PACAF Pacific Air Forces

PME Professional military education

POW Prisoner of war

RIF Reduction in force

SAC Strategic Air Command

SEA Senior enlisted adviser

SERB Selective Early Retirement Board

SGLI Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance

Sgt. Sergeant

SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe

SMSgt. Senior master sergeant

SrA. Senior airman

SSB Special separation bonus

SSgt. Staff sergeant

TACP Tactical Air Control Party

TDY Temporary duty

TI Training instructor

TOPCAP Total Objective Plan for Career Airmen Personnel

TSgt. Technical sergeant

USAF United States Air Force

USAFE United States Air Forces in Europe

USAFSS United States Air Force Security Service 

USEUCOM United States European Command

VSI Voluntary separation incentive

WAC Women’s Army Corps

WAF Women in the Air Force

WAPS Weighted Airman Promotion System

WASP Women’s Air Service Pilots

228
BOOKS

Airmen Memorial Museum. Unsung Heroes: A History of the Enlisted Airmen from the Dawn

of Flight to Desert Storm. Airmen Memorial Museum, 1997.

Arbon, Lee. They Also Flew: The Enlisted Pilot Legacy, 1912–1942. Washington, D.C.:

Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Bednarek, Janet R., ed. The Enlisted Experience: A Conversation with the Chief Master

Sergeants of the Air Force. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program,

1995.

Berger, Carl, ed. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973: An Illustrated Account, revised edition. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1984.

Boyne, Walter J. Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947–1997. New York:

St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

DeBenedetti, Charles. An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1990.

Grandstaff, Mark R. Foundation of the Force: Air Force Enlisted Personnel Policy,

1907–1956. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997.

Gropman, Alan L. The Air Force Integrates, 1945–1964. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air

Force History, 1978.

Holm, Maj. Gen. Jeanne. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato, Calif.:

Presidio Press, 1986.

Huntington, Samuel P. The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1957.

Janowitz, Morris. The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait. New York: Free

Press, 1960.

Lanning, Michael Lee. The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell.

Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press, Carol Publishing Group, 1997.

McNamara, Robert S. The Essence of Security: Reflections in Office. New York: Harper and

Row, 1968.

229

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Moskos, Charles C., Jr. The American Enlisted Man: The Rank and File in Today’s Military.

New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1970.

Nalty, Bernard C. Strength for the Fight. New York: Free Press, 1986.

Segal, David R., and H. Wallace Sinaiko, eds., Life in the Rank and File: Enlisted Men and

Women in the Armed Forces of the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Washington, D.C.: Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1986.

Treadwell, Mattie E. The Women’s Army Corps. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History,

1985.

ARTICLES

Allen, MSgt. Ken. “Academies of Leadership.” The Airman (June 1968).

Bednarek, Janet R. “Not Soldiers—Airmen: The Development of the USAF Enlisted Force.”

Air Power History 99 (Summer 1992).

Callendar, Bruce D. “The Evolution of the Air Force NCO.” Air Force Magazine (September

1986).

Clifford, MSgt. Frank J. “School for Zebras.” Air Force 38 (April 1955).

Correll, John T. “Pitsenbarger, Medal of Honor.” Air Force Magazine 84 (February 2001).

Craven, TSgt. Harold L. “Schools for Air Force Sergeants.” The Airman (October 1958).

Day, SMSgt. George H. “Nonsense, Common Sense, and the Professional NCO.” Air University Review 29 (July–August 1978).

Janowitz, Morris, and Charles C. Moskos, Jr. “Five Years of the All-Volunteer Force:

1973–1978.” Armed Forces and Society 5 (Winter 1979).

Kastl, Maj. Joseph W. “Antimilitarism in the Age of Aquarius.” Air University Review 23

(November–December 1971).

Kaus, Maj. Norbert R. “They Call It TOPCAP.” The Airman (September 1971).

Leavitt, William A. “Project 100,000: An Experiment in Salvaging People.” Air Force Magazine 51 (January 1968).

Magee, Lt. Col. Ernest M. “The Evolution of the NCO Academies.” Air University Review 17

(September–October 1966).

O’Doherty, TSgt. John K. “The 55/45 Air Force.” The Airman (March 1960).

Pugh, Sgt. Craig, and Robert K. Ruhl. “Up Front—Where the Action Is.” The Airman (February 1981).

Short, MSgt. Kammie. “CEPME Internationally Recognized as Center of Excellence for Professional Military Education.” Maxwell-Gunter Dispatch (February 7, 1997).

Sturm, Ted R. “Don’t Overlook CHAMPUS.” The Airman (April 1970).

———. “They Make Military Managers.” The Airman (February 1976).

Turner, MSgt. Paul J. “USAF’s Middleman.” The Airman (June 1958).

Wolk, Herman S. “Antimilitarism in America.” Air University Review 23 (May–June 1972).

230
Bold numbers indicate an illustration.

AACS. See Airways and Air Communications Service

AAF. See Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces

ACC. See Air Combat Command

Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service (ARRS):

18

AFMPC. See Air Force Military Personnel Center

African-Americans

admission into Army Air Corps: 5

racial integration. See Racial integration

Tuskegee Airmen: 7, 5

AFSA. See Air Force Sergeants Association

Air Combat Command (ACC): 34, 197

Aircraft, United States

A–10: 206, 207

AC–47: 18

B–1: 173

B–17: 4

B–24: 47–48, 48, 49

B–25: 85

B–29: 2

B–47: 156

B–52: 144, 157, 158, 170–71, 173

C–17: 19

C–45: 85

C–47: 18, 85

C–54: 84, 85, 132

C–118: 85

C–123: 54

C–130: 18, 171

C–141: 161

F–4: 86, 122

F–16: 206

F–22: 187, 188

F–86: 75

F–100: 75

F–105: 76

FB–111A: 173

JN4–D (Jenny): 2

KC–135: 144, 158, 173

T–11: 85

T–38: 86, 87

T–39: 87

Aircrew, enlisted: 4

Air Education and Training Command: 80

Airey, Dale Paul: 54

Airey, Paul Wesley

Amazon jungle assignment: 48

appointment to CMSAF: 47, 51

B–24 bailout: 48

enlisted PME advocacy: 53

enlistment and training: 47–48

first sergeant position: 13–14, 50–51

influence on Andrews: 122

personnel retention problem work: 52–53

photos: 46, 49, 51

post-retirement activities: 53–54

POW experience: 49

promotion system overhaul: 53

senior enlisted adviser position: 51

shaping of CMSAF role: 26–27

TOPCAP comments: 20

Airey, Shirley Babbit: 49, 50

Air Force Association: 25, 33, 62, 65, 78, 110, 115

231

INDEX
Air Force Cross recipients: 19, 27, 29

Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center: 101

Air Force Military Personnel Center (AFMPC):

40n107, 146–47, 194, 195, 196

Air Force Personnel Center: 209

Air Force Retiree Council: 67, 115, 190, 201

Air Force Senior Leader Management Office: 209

Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA)

about: 23

Airey’s work for: 53

Airmen Memorial Museum parent organization:

19

Andrews’s work for: 126

Harlow’s lobbying work for: 66, 68

Kisling’s work for: 79

Air Force Systems Command: 123, 133–34

Air Force Systems Command Academy: 136

Airman Council: 25

Airman Leadership School (ALS): 34, 136, 157,

185, 195

Airman Qualifying Examination (AQE): 156

Air Mechanician specialty: 2

Air Medal recipient: 85

Airmen Memorial Museum: 19, 53–54, 152

Air Mobility Command (AMC): 174

Air Research and Development Command: 133

Air Rescue Service (ARS): 17, 18

Air Service Command (ASC): 5

Air Training Command (ATC): 22, 86, 87

Airways and Air Communications Service 

(AACS): 16–17

Air Weather Service (AWS): 17, 134

Aldridge, Edward C., Jr.: 143

Allen, Lew, Jr.: 107, 112–13, 100, 102, 119, 123,

125

All-volunteer force

competition between services: 28–29

downsizing and: 163

impact of change to: 160

impact of Cold War: 28

ALS. See Airman Leadership School

AMC. See Air Mobility Command

Andrews, Arthur L.

appointment to CMSAF: 119

belief in PME: 126

biographical background and enlistment: 119

first sergeant positions: 121–22

focus as CMSAF: 125

influence of Airey: 122

military police work: 119–20

Morocco tour: 120

personal philosophies: 125, 127

photos: 118, 121, 124

post-retirement activities: 126–27

quality-of-life issues: 31

recruitment and retention issues: 123

reenlistment and air police work: 121

senior enlisted adviser position: 122

AQE. See Airman Qualifying Examination

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

(ASVAB): 156

Army, U.S.: 11, 25. See also Army Air Corps/Army

Air Forces

Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces (AAF)

admission of women: 5–6

creation of USAF: 9

enlisted entry: 1–2

enlisted force structure changes, WWII: 8–9

enlisted pilots policies: 6–7

enlistment policies: 3

evolution from Aviation Section: 1

pay incentives: 4–5

racial and segregation problems: 5

specialization emphasis: 3

Army Signal Corps: 1

ARRS. See Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service

ARS. See Air Rescue Service

ASC. See Air Service Command

ASVAB. See Armed Services Vocational Aptitude

Battery

ATC. See Air Training Command

Aviation Section, Army Signal Corps

benefits of transfer into: 2

evolution to Army Air Corps: 4

origin of enlisted airmen force: 4

AWS. See Air Weather Service

232
Baker, Mitchel H.: 10

Bandel, Betty: 6

Barnes, Marie: 88

Barnes, Thomas N.

appointment to CMSAF: 83, 88

ATC assignment: 86–87

experiences with racial segregation: 83, 84, 88

flight engineer assignments: 85–86

flight engineer training and certification: 84–85

influence on Binnicker: 146

Laredo AFB racial incident: 88

leadership and management style: 88–89

personal philosophy: 90

photos: 82, 84, 87

post-retirement activities: 90

racial inequality activism: 22, 89

on revised rank structure: 11

senior enlisted adviser positions: 28, 86

shaping of CMSAF role: 27

Simler’s influence on: 86–87

Social Actions programs work: 89

TOPCAP comments: 20

Begert, William: 207

Beilke, Bob: 160

Benken, Eric W.

appointment to CMSAF: 181, 186

biographical background and enlistment: 181

on Cold War’s end: 186

European tours: 183–85

influence of Quatowski: 181–82

personal philosophies: 184

photos: 180, 182, 185, 187

PME endorsement: 185

retirement system problems: 32

senior enlisted adviser positions: 28, 184

on state of the AF: 188–89

USAFE assignment: 185, 186

Vietnam War tour: 183

Benken, Johnne: 184, 185, 186, 190

Binnicker, James C.

appointment to CMSAF: 143, 147–48

aspirations to be CMSAF: 146

compensation commission work: 146

early good performance: 144

early interest in AF: 143

enlistment: 144

hearing loss consequences: 143

housing policies: 33

influence of Barnes: 146

management style: 147

performance ratings work: 148–49

personal philosophies: 147, 150

personnel/MPC assignments: 145, 146

photos: 142, 145, 151

post-retirement activities: 152

promotions: 144

senior enlisted adviser positions: 146, 147

senior NCO academy attendance expansion:

150, 151

Welch’s endorsement: 148, 151–52

on women in the military: 31, 150–51

Binnicker, Jan: 146

Blanton, Eugene T.: 132–33

Boehner, John: 19

Boles, Billy: 80, 163

Boyd, Jan: 173

Bray, Jeffrey W.: 29

Brown, George: 83, 88

Brown, Harold S.: 47 51

Bryant, Leonard: 20

Bryant, John: 111

Burge, Vernon Lee: 6

Bush, George H.W.: 155, 159

Bush, George W.: 205

Campanale, Barbara: 136, 138, 139

Campanale, David J.

appointment to CMSAF: 169, 174

decision to join AF: 169

evolution of work ethic: 170, 171, 172

Fogleman’s view of: 174–76

master sergeant positions: 172–73

performance system overhaul: 149

personal philosophies: 177–78

photos: 168, 171, 175

PME schools: 171, 172

233
senior enlisted adviser position: 173

Vietnam War duty: 170

Cannon, John K.: 14, 15

CAP. See Civil Air Patrol

Capehart Amendment (National Housing Act): 15

Career Field Education and Training Plans: 164

Carter, Jimmy: 30, 95, 107, 113, 146

Casey, John P.: 4

Cash, Harry H.: 28

CCAF. See Community College of the Air Force

CCMs. See Command chief master sergeants

CCT. See Combat control team

CEPME. See College for Enlisted Professional Military Education

Chain, Jack: 173

CHAMPUS. See Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services

Chief master sergeant of the Air Force (CMSAF).

See also specific chiefs

chronological listing: 213

duties: 27

position establishment: 25, 26

shaping of role: 26

Chief master sergeant rank: 13

Civil Air Patrol (CAP): 143

Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS): 21, 33, 176

Civil rights movement: 15, 17, 21, 22, 26

Clay, Lucius D., Jr.: 112

Clinton, Bill: 169, 181, 185, 193

CMSAF. See Chief master sergeant of the Air Force

Cold War

enlisted airmen roles: 10, 16, 17

impact of end: 32, 186

impact on all-volunteer force: 28

College for Enlisted Professional Military Education

(CEPME): 33–34

Combat control team (CCT): 18

Command chief master sergeants (CCMs): 28, 51,

187, 197, 199, 207

Community College of the Air Force (CCAF): 17,

24

Compensation commission: 146

Cook, Dan: 174

Cook, Jim: 16

Cuban missile crisis: 74, 85, 157

DAL. See Developing Aerospace Leaders

Daugherty, Russell P.: 111

Davis, Bennie L.: 135

Defense Race Institute (DRI): 22

Developing Aerospace Leaders (DAL): 199–200

Dormitory standard

1-Plus-1: 33, 164

2-Plus-2: 177

Downsizing period: 163, 197

DRI. See Defense Race Institute

Dugan, Michael J.: 155, 161, 162, 163

Education

continuing education opportunities: 24

level of in enlisted force: 23

PME schools. See Professional military 

education

Edwards, Idwal H.: 15, 37n43

Ellis, Richard: 112

Enlisted airmen history

Air Force Base named for: 31

all-volunteer service challenges: 28–29

antimilitarism response: 19

Aviation Section origin: 1

Cold War roles: 1

enlisted entry into Army Air Corps: 1–2

enlisted heroes

Air Force Cross recipients: 19, 27, 29

Medal of Honor recipients: 18–19, 26, 27,

59, 137

enlisted pilots: 6–9

AF leadership’s opposition to: 8

first enlisted pilots: 6

training program: 6, 7

training reinstatement during 

WWII: 8

unofficial existence in 1920s: 6

health care benefits: 1

housing issues: 1

Korean War roles: 1

members on active duty, by year: 219–20

234
Order of the Sword: 68

pay and reenlistment problems: 14

professionalism. See Professionalization of 

the force

promotion system problems: 4, 10, 17, 19

quality-of-life issues importance: 19

racial integration beginnings

civil rights movement influences: 21

mandate for: 15

racial incidents: 22

senior NCO emphasis: 9–10

technological advances challenges: 3

Vietnam War roles: 17–18

Enlisted Council: 25

Enlisted Performance Report (EPR): 149–50

EPR. See Enlisted Performance Report

Equal Rights Amendment: 22

Espinosa, Cal: 101

EUCOM. See European Command

European Command (EUCOM): 61

Executive Order 9981: 15, 37n43, 83, 95

Expeditionary Aerospace Force: 34, 35, 200

Expeditionary Force Experiment 98: 35

Extension Course Institute (ECI): 20, 24

Fales, Scott C.: 29

Federal Aviation Administration certification program: 164

Finch, Frederick J.

ACC assignment: 197

accomplishments as CMSAF: 199–200

AFMPC assignment: 194–95

appointment to CMSAF: 193, 198

enlistment: 193

Expeditionary Aerospace Force issues: 35, 200

NCOLS experience: 193–94

personal philosophy: 199

photo: 192, 201

PME leadership assignments: 194–96

senior enlisted adviser position at ACC: 

196–97

Finch, Pat: 159

Finney, William M.: 30

First sergeant rank: 12, 13

Airey’s opinion on: 13–14, 50–51

Andrews: 121, 122, 126

Gaylor’s opinion on: 14

Harlow: 61

Kisling: 73–74

Pfingston: 161

First Sergeant of the Year program: 134, 135, 137

First Sergeants Academy: 13, 189

Fogleman, Ronald R.: 34. 149, 169, 174, 175, 181,

187

Foundation of the Force: Air Force Enlisted Personnel Policy: 12

Franklin, William: 4

Gabriel, Charles A.: 131, 135–36, 138

Gates, Celestine: 23

Gavin, John: 119

Gaylor, Robert D.

on administration support: 31

appointment to CMSAF: 95, 102

basic training instructor assignment: 98

enlistment and first MP assignment: 95

on first sergeant position’s importance: 14

memories of AF’s transition years: 95–96

personal philosophy: 103–4

photos: 94, 97, 99, 100

PME instructor assignments: 99–100

post-retirement activities: 103

on promotion system’s early problems: 20

on racial integration: 15

SAC assignments: 99

USAFE leadership training work: 100

on women in the military: 30, 31

Gaylor, Selma: 98, 100

Gilmore, J.R.: 30

Great Depression: 7, 71

Gulf War issues: 206

Harlow, Donald L.

AFROTC assignment: 61

appointment to CMSAF: 59, 62–63

biographical background: 59

contribution to enlisted peoples’ status: 65

first sergeant job at EUCOM: 61

235
focus on young troops: 63

induction and instructor assignments: 59–60

lessons learned as CSMAF: 62–64

move into personnel: 60

off-duty interests: 61

Order of the Sword recipient: 67, 68

Pentagon assignment: 61–62

per diem equality push: 66

personal philosophies: 61, 62

photos: 58, 62, 65

post-retirement lobby work: 66

reenlistment and Morocco assignment: 60

reputation: 61

shaping of CMSAF role: 26–27

TOPCAP comments: 20

Harlow, Dorothy: 65

Hasty, Chuck: 196

Hawley, Richard E.: 186

Health care benefits: 21, 33, 188

Heroes, enlisted

Air Force Cross recipients: 19, 27, 29

Medal of Honor recipients: 18–19, 26, 27, 59,

137

“Hollow force”: 28, 31, 110, 160

Holloway, Bruce: 52

Holm, Jeanne: 22, 23

Holmes, Dorothy: 107

Holmes, George: 9

Housing for enlisted: 9–10, 14–15, 164. See also Recruitment and retention

Jamerson, James L.: 184, 186

James, Daniel “Chappie,” Jr.: 86

John Levitow Award: 136

Johnson, H.T.: 174

Johnson, Harold K. (USA): 25

Johnson, Lyndon B.: 47

Johnston, L.D.: 207

Jones, David C.: 95, 100, 101, 102

Jumper, John P.: 205, 207

Kisling, Alene O’Dell: 73, 76, 77

Kisling, Richard D.

appointment to CMSAF: 71, 76

CMSAF aspirations: 77–78

on creation of senior NCOA: 78

death: 79

first sergeant positions: 73

induction and WWII duty: 72–72

Outstanding Support Airman award: 75

personnel assignments: 74

photos: 70, 74, 77

PME system support: 77

post-retirement activities: 79

promotion to chief master sergeant: 76

reenlistment in AAF: 72

revised rank structure: 11

Security Service: 28

senior enlisted adviser position: 28

TAC assignment in France: 75

USAFSS assignment: 76

view of leadership: 76–77

work with McCoy: 112–13

Korean War: 1, 10, 13, 16–17

Krebbs, Josh: 163

Lahm, Frank B.: 6

Laredo AFB racial incident: 22, 88

Lavender, Jimmy: 194

Leadership and Management Development Center

(LMDC): 194

LeMay, Curtis E.: 22

Levitow, John L.: 18–19, 26

Levitow Honor Graduate Award: 18

NMDC. See Leadership and Management Development Center

MAC. See Military Airlift Command

Marine Corps, U.S.: 25

Mark, Hans: 107, 113

Marsh, “Red”: 52

Martin, Dick: 173

Master sergeant rank: 9

MATS. See Military Air Transport Service

McBride, William: 88

McConnell, John P.: 18, 26, 27, 27, 47, 51, 52

McCoy, James M.

administration support: 31

236
Air Force Association: 33

appointment to CMSAF: 107, 112

basic training instructor assignment: 107–8

biographical background and enlistment: 107

on health care benefits: 33

interest in CMSAF job: 109–10

personal philosophies: 107–8, 109, 115

personnel retention problem work: 110

photos: 106, 108, 109, 111

post-retirement activities: 115

senior enlisted adviser for SAC: 28, 110

training and PME assignments: 109

work strategy: 112

work with current CMSAF: 110

McCoy, Kathy: 109

McLucas, John L.: 83

McPeak, Merrill A.: 157, 161, 162, 163, 165

Medal of Honor recipients: 18–19, 26, 27, 59, 137

Medical care. See Health care benefits; Civilian

Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed

Services (CHAMPUS); TRICARE

Medicare: 33

Messerli, Robert E.: 134

Military Airlift Command (MAC): 87, 108, 134,

173, 174

Military Air Transport Service (MATS): 16–17

Military Personnel Center (MPC). See Air Force

Military Personnel Center

Military retirees health care benefits: 21

Missile technicians: 17, 24

Moore, Donald F.: 133

MPC. See Air Force Military Personnel Center

Murray, Elizabeth: 209

Murray, Gerald R.

appointment to CMSAF: 205, 208

biographical background: 205

enlistment and first assignment: 205

and Expeditionary Aerospace Force: 208

Gulf War issues: 207, 200

management of chief master sergeants: 210

NCO Retraining Program: 209

photos: 204, 206, 209

public speaking: 206–7

senior enlisted adviser: 208

“Victor Alert” assignment: 207

war on terrorism: 208

Murray, Sherry: 207, 209

National Defense Act (1926): 8

National Defense Authorization Act (2000): 19

National Housing Act (1955): 15

Navy, U.S.: 25

NCO Academy (NCOA): 14, 23, 34, 98, 136, 185

NCO Academy Graduates Association: 134

NCO Leadership School: 34, 98, 136, 171, 194, 185.

See also Airman Leadership School

NCO Preparatory Course: 194

NCO Preparatory School: 108, 157

NCO Professional Development Seminar: 185

NCOA. See NCO Academy

Nixon, Richard: 18, 59, 71, 83

Northern, Steve M.: 17

Olds, Robin: 86

O’Malley, Jerome F.: 135–36

Order of the Sword

description of: 68

Harlow’s induction into: 67, 68

list of members: 221–25

Orr, Verne: 113, 114, 119, 123

Owen, Ellis: 18

Pararescues: 18, 19

Parish, Ingeborg Zimmerman: 133

Parish, Sam E.

appointment to CMSAF: 131, 136

enlistment and first assignment: 131–32

Hanscom assignment: 134

leadership style: 135

Levitow Honor Graduate Award: 18

opposition to Redux: 32

personal philosophies: 137–38

photos: 130, 132, 135

post-retirement activities: 138

promotion system work: 136

push to attend seven-level school: 133

SAC assignment: 135

senior enlisted adviser position: 134

237
senior NCO academy attendance: 134

weather squadron assignments in Germany:

132, 134

Pay incentives

Army Air Corps: 2

attractiveness of, 1930s: 4–5

commission on compensation: 146

enhancement effort, 1950s: 14

pay rate problems: 14, 113, 123, 157–58, 160

per diem equality push: 66

Peek, Kenneth L., Jr.: 135

Personnel issues. See Enlisted airman history; Pay

incentives; Promotion system; Quality-of-life 

issues; Recruitment and retention

Peters, F. Whitten: 19, 193

Pfingston, Gary R.

administration support: 31

on AF downsizing period: 163

on all-volunteer force: 160

appointment to CMSAF: 155, 161

back injury: 161

baseball team membership: 156

biographical background: 155

career paths idea: 164

description of poor early benefits: 157–58

first sergeant positions: 161

Gulf War issues: 34, 163

housing policies: 33, 164

induction and basic training: 155–56

influence of Beilke: 160

on integration of women: 34, 160, 164

most memorable experience: 165

pay and reenlistment problems, late 1970s: 160

personal philosophies: 164, 165

personnel cuts: 33

photos: 154, 159, 162

promotion system experiences: 158

quality-of-life issues importance: 31, 164

reenlistment: 158

senior enlisted adviser position: 161

training instructor assignment: 159

uniform changes: 164–65

Pfingston, Marsha A. Hunt: 155, 156

Photo specialists: 3, 4

Pilots, enlisted: 6–9

AF leadership’s opposition to: 8

first enlisted pilots: 6

training program: 6, 7

training reinstatement during WWII: 8

unofficial existence in 1920s: 6

Pitsenbarger, William H.: 19

PME. See Professional military education

President’s Commission on Military Compensation:

146

Professional military education (PME)

Airey’s support of: 53

Andrews’s support of: 126

Benken’s endorsement: 185

Finch’s attendance and assignment: 194–96

Gaylor’s work for USAFE: 100

levels available in 1960s: 157

McCoy’s instructor assignments: 86

promotion requirements and: 13

reduction in 1960s: 22

senior NCO academy establishment: 62

start in 1950s: 12, 14

support by Kisling: 77

Professionalization of the force

education

continuing education opportunities: 24

PME schools. See Professional military 

education

military professional: 12, 23

professional NCO organization: 23

rank structure revision

chief master sergeant of the AF: 13–14

first sergeant position: 13

new positions created: 13

senior enlisted adviser position: 28

scholarship on: 12

steps toward: 12

Promotion system. See also Recruitment and 

retention

Parish’s work on: 136

overhaul under Airey: 53

performance ratings work: 148–49

personnel retention problem: 52–53

Pfingston’s early experiences with: 158

238
PME requirements: 34

problems at start of USAF: 13

TOPCAP adoption: 20

unit vacancy rule: 13

WAPS adoption: 20

Public Law 99 (1941): 8–9

Public Law 658: 9

Quality-of-life issues. See Recruitment and retention, quality-of-life issues importance

Quatowski, Elizabeth: 181–82

Racial integration

Barnes’s experiences with: 83, 84, 88

civil rights movement influences: 21–22

Executive Order 9981: 15, 37n43, 83, 95

Laredo AFB racial incident: 22, 88

mandate for: 15, 83

racial incidents: 15–16, 22, 70

racial inequality activism of Barnes: 22, 89

segregation problems during WWII: 5

Rafferty, Tom: 9

Ralston, Joseph W.: 34, 196–97

Rank structure

chief master sergeant of the AF: 13–14, 25

first sergeant position history: 13

new positions created: 13

senior enlisted adviser history: 23, 27

Reagan, Ronald: 30, 113, 119, 131, 143

Recruitment and retention. See also Promotion 

system

Airey’s work with: 52–53

health care benefits: 21

housing issues: 14

pay and benefits attractiveness, 1930s: 4–5

pay and reenlistment problems: 14, 110, 123,

157–58, 160

quality-of-life issues importance: 19, 20–21, 164

Reed, Dale: 163

Renfroe, Bobby G.: 119

Rice, Donald: 155

Rich, Dawn: 198

Richard D. Kisling scholarship fund: 67

Rivers, Evelyn: 8

Rivers, L. Mendel: 9, 20, 25, 27, 52, 64

Rivers bill: 25

Roche, James G.: 205

Roller, Rich: 194

Rourke, Russell A.: 131

Russ, Robert D.: 147

Russell, Harry: 62

Rutherford, Robert: 174

Ryan, John D.: 59, 71, 76–77, 77

Ryan, Michael E.: 186, 187, 193, 200, 207

SAC assignments. See Strategic Air Command

Saenz, Tony: 170

Scott AFB: 32

Seamans, Robert, Jr.: 59, 71

Senior enlisted adviser rank: 23, 27

Airey’s opinion on: 51

Andrews: 122

Barnes: 28, 86

Benken: 28, 184

Binnicker: 146, 147

Campanale: 173

Finch: 196–97

Kisling: 28

McCoy: 28, 110

Parish: 134

Pfingston: 161

Senior master sergeant rank: 13

Senior NCO Academy

Andrews’s attendance: 122

Barnes’s attendance: 134

Benken’s concern about: 185

Binnicker’s attendance: 150

establishment: 78

Finch’s work with: 194–95

McCoy’s attendance: 134

Parish’s attendance: 134

start by Kisling: 77–78

Sergeants Major Personnel Conference: 25

Shank, Donald: 73

Simler, George: 86–87

Social actions programs: 21, 89

Sopp, Duane C.: 6

Spaatz, Carl: 37n43

239
Spahn, Lois: 8

Special separation bonus (SSB): 163

Specialty Knowedge Test (SKT): 157

Spruce Division, Army Signal Corps: 3, 4

SSB. See Special Separation Bonus

Stetson, John C.: 95

Stevens, Conrad: 52

Strategic Air Command (SAC)

Campanale: 173

Gaylor: 99

McCoy: 109, 110

Parish: 135

Sweet, Hubert (USMC): 25

Symington, Stuart: 37n43

TAC. See Tactical Air Command

TACP. See Tactical air control party

Tactical Air Command (TAC)

Andrews: 122

Benken: 182

Kisling: 75, 76

Tactical air control party (TACP): 18

Tanner, Jimmy: 163

“Top kick”: 13

TOPCAP. See Total Objective Plan for Career Airmen Personnel

Total Objective Plan for Career Airmen Personnel

(TOPCAP): 20

Training of enlisted airmen. See Education; Professional military education

TRICARE: 33, 176, 188, 197

Truman, Harry S: 15, 83, 95, 

“Truman Year”: 97

Tuskegee Airmen: 5, 7

Uniform changes: 10, 11, 164–65

Unit vacancy rule: 13

United States Air Force (USAF). See also Enlisted

airmen history; Strategic Air Command; Tactical

Air Commnnd; United States Air Forces in Europe

Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service

(ARRS): 18

Air Combat Command (ACC): 34, 197

Air Mobility Command (AMC): 174

Air Rescue Service (ARS): 17, 18

Air Service Command (ASC): 5

Air Training Command (ATC): 22, 86, 87

Airways and Air Communications Service

(AACS): 16–17

Air Weather Service (AWS): 17

Combat control team (CCT): 18

Continental Air Defense Command: 5

creation from AAF: 9

enlisted promotion system, early problems:

9–10

European Command (EUCOM): 61

Military Airlift Command (MAC): 87, 108, 134,

173, 174

Military Air Transport Service (MATS): 16–17

Military Personnel Center (MPC). See Air Force

Military Personnel Center (AFMPC)

quality-of-life issues importance: 19

United States Air Force Security Service 

(USAFSS): 76

WAPS adoption: 20

United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS):

76

United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE)

Benken’s tour: 185, 186

Gaylor’s leadership training work in: 100

Parish’s tour: 134

USAF. See United States Air Force

USAFE. See United States Air Forces in Europe

USAFSS. See United States Air Force Security Service

Vietnam War

antimilitarism during: 19

Benken’s experience: 183

Binnicker’s tour: 146

Campanale’s tour: 170

decline in reenlistment rate during: 52

enlisted airmen roles: 17–18

Harlow’s focus on young troops during: 63

impact on public’s view of military: 112

Vision 2020 policy: 33, 164

Voluntary Separation Incentive (VSI): 163

VSI. See Voluntary Separation Incentive

240
WAC. See Women’s Army Corps

WAF. See Women in the Air Force

Wagner, Master Sergeant: 121

WAPS. See Weighted Airman Promotion System

Warrior Week: 189, 199, 200, 202

WASP. See Women’s Air Service Pilots

Weather observers: 4, 6

Weighted Airman Promotion System (WAPS): 20,

53, 64, 113, 145, 157 172

Weinberger, Caspar: 30, 123

Welch, Larry D.: 143, 147, 148, 149, 151, 161

Wherry Mortgage Insurance Act (1949): 14

Widnall, Sheila E.: 163, 169, 181

Wilkinson, Timothy A.: 29

Wilson, Charles: 14

Windt, Larry: 4

Womble Committee: 14

Women, enlisted

acceptance in AAF: 5–6

beginnings of integration: 164

Binnicker’s view of: 31, 150–51

career fields allowed: 5–6

Gaylor’s opinion on: 30

gender issue: 29–30

incorporation into USAF: 28

integration into all jobs: 164

percentage serving in AF: 30

Women in the Air Force (WAF): 5, 16, 22

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP): 5

Women’s Army Corps (WAC): 5, 16

Woolridge, William O. (USA): 25

World War I: 2, 4, 6

World War II: 2–3

Airey’s enlistment during: 47

changes to enlisted force structure during: 8–9,

10

Kisling’s enlistment during: 71

professional military education after: 14

slots filled by women: 16

Year of Training: 34, 157, 164, 176

Zelesnikar, Art: 170

Zuckert, Eugene: 37n43

241