Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff

of the United States Air Force

Biographical Sketches and Portraits

George M. Watson, Jr.

AIR FORCE HISTORY AND MUSEUMS PROGRAM

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

WASHINGTON, D.C.

2001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Watson, George M., Jr.

Secretaries and chiefs of staff of the United States Air Force : biographical 

sketches and portraits /George M. Watson, Jr.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. United States. Dept. of the Air Force--Biography. 2. United States. Dept. of 

the Air Force. Chief of Staff--Biography. I. Title.

UG626 .W38 2001

358.4'0092'273'--dc21 2001034136

[B]
This volume is a unique and concise career compilation of the military and civilian leadership of the Headquarters USAF from its founding in 1947 to 2000. In addition to recording

the individual career summaries of the secretaries and chiefs of staff of the United States Air

Force, this work tracks the various issues that confronted the Headquarters leadership through

its half-century of existence. Also included are the officially designated portraits of the secretaries and chiefs and brief biographies of the artists who created them.

The leaders profiled here came from different backgrounds and diverse fields of training.

Included within the secretariat professions are engineers, industrialists, financiers, lawyers,

and scientists. The military chiefs came from all walks of life and from all sections of the

country—the sons of doctors, teachers, and people in myriad other professions, and from families with and without traditions of military service.

Over the decades these civilian and military leaders faced a number of recurring problems, particularly those involving budgetary, personnel, and weapons system acquisition matters. The secretaries and chiefs of staff of the Air Force were instrumental in developing policies to deal with the post-World War II retrenchment of personnel and equipment in the late

1940s; the post-Korean War spending cuts in the mid-1950s; the resurgence of defense spending following the launch of Sputnik and the start of the Vietnam War; the post-Vietnam War

“Hollow Force” Air Force of the late 1970s; the crest of President Ronald Reagan’s defense

spending effort to terminate the Soviet “evil empire”; and the peace dividends of the late

1980s and early 1990s at the end of the Cold War. Although these issues are not resolved

definitively here, the divergent solutions of the Headquarters USAF staff to these similar problems are tracked vividly.

Aspiring future leaders of the Air Force would do well to peruse these pages to identify

the character traits, youthful experience, and professional assignments that carried these people to the peaks of their professions. 

RICHARD P. HALLION, Ph.D.

Air Force Historian

FOREWORD

v

Several individuals within the Air Force History Support Office (AFHSO) assisted me in

this project, which was completed on a part-time basis. Jacob Neufeld conceived the idea for

this volume and provided wisdom and support throughout. As each biographical sketch

reached fruition, Barbara Wittig’s editorial hand enhanced the copy. Herman Wolk, Dr. Wayne

Thompson, and Dr. Perry Jamieson from the AFHSO, and Dr. Fred Shaw of the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) provided substantive comments and greatly improved the

text. Robert A. Limbrick, Jr., and TSgt. Gregory A. Thompson of the Air Force Art Program

guided me through the official portrait collection and their assistant, Linda Kelley, provided

some essential biographical data about the artists. Dr. Priscilla D. Jones, the AFHSO contract

manager, saw the manuscript through the final editorial process and contributed significant

suggestions. Credit for final editing, design, and layout belongs to Christine Cotting of Upper

Case Publication Services, Ltd. Finally, Dr. Richard I. Wolf guided the work through the final

publication process. For the efforts of all concerned I am infinitely grateful.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
George M. Watson, Jr., is chief of the special projects team at the Air Force History Support

Office. He has been an Air Force historian since 1975, serving at Air Force Systems Command and Headquarters USAF. He was chief historian with the Office of the Surgeon General

of the Air Force and served as chief historian of the Headquarters USAF Air Staff Branch of

the Center for Air Force History. Watson received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Maine in 1966, a master of arts degree from Niagara University in 1968, and a doctor of

philosophy degree from Catholic University of America in 1974. He served in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He has written numerous articles and conducted many interviews; coauthored An Illustrated Guide to the Air War over Vietnam: Aircraft of

the Southeast Asia Conflict (1981); and contributed to The Vietnam War: The Illustrated History of the Conflict in Southeast Asia (1979) and The War in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to

Tokyo Bay (1991). More recently, he coauthored With Courage: The U.S. Army Air Forces in

World War II (1995). His book The Office of the Secretary of the Air Force 1947–1965 (1993)

is the authoritative work on that subject.

vi

THE AUTHOR
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

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

Secretaries of the Air Force

W. Stuart Symington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Thomas K. Finletter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Harold Elstner Talbott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Donald A. Quarles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

James Henderson Douglas, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Dudley Crawford Sharp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Eugene M. Zuckert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Harold Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Robert C. Seamans, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

John L. McLucas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Thomas C. Reed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

John C. Stetson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Hans M. Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Verne Orr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Russell A. Rourke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Edward C. Aldridge, Jr.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Donald B. Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Sheila E. Widnall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

F. Whitten Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force

Gen. Carl Andrew Spaatz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

vii

CONTENTS
Gen. Nathan Farragut Twining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Gen. Thomas Dresser White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Gen. John Paul McConnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Gen. John D. Ryan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Gen. George Scratchley Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Gen. David Charles Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Gen. Lew Allen, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Gen. Charles A. Gabriel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Gen. Larry D. Welch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Gen. Michael J. Dugan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Gen. Michael E. Ryan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Appendixes

I. The Secretaries of the United States Air Force and Their Antecedents . . . . . . . . . 197

II. The Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force and Their Antecedents . . . . . . 199

III. Chronological Listing of Presidents of the United States, Secretaries of 

Defense, and the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

IV. Promotions, Assignments, and Decorations of the Air Force Chiefs of Staff . . . . 203

V. Biographies of the Portrait Artists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

viii
On July 26, 1947, the National Security Act established the Department of the Air Force and the United States Air Force. When the act became effective

on September 18, 1947, W. Stuart Symington became the first secretary of the Air Force and Gen.

Carl A. Spaatz the first Air Force chief of staff. As

founded, the civilian hierarchy was to have precedence over the military, but Symington—who previously had served as the assistant secretary of war for

air—believed the military was the authority when

evaluating the challenges of war and when training

and readying a force for conflict. Symington saw his

role as articulating the needs of the Air Force and

pursuing its requirements through the Congress. His

approach was, “Give me the ball and [I will] run with

it on the Hill.”

The newly created department authorized the

Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (OSAF), an

undersecretary, and two assistant secretaries. Both

the secretary and the chief of staff of the Air Force

attained coequal status with their counterparts within

the Departments of the Army and Navy.

This new status was not achieved without struggle. Rather, it was the culmination of years of effort

by advocates of air power and proponents of a separate air component. Army aviation activities ran a

course from the U.S. Army Signal Corps balloon observation in the Civil War and the Spanish-American

War; the foundation of the Aeronautical Division of

the Signal Corps in 1907; the award to the Wright

brothers of the first airplane contract in 1909; the

establishment of the Aviation Section, Signal Corps,

in 1914; and the valiant efforts of the 1st Aero

Squadron during the Punitive Expedition against

Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916 and 1917.

On the eve of U.S. entry into World War I, the

Army’s air arm found itself poorly equipped and illprepared, with only fifty-six pilots and fewer than

250 aircraft, most of which were obsolete. Indeed, at

that time the nation’s aircraft manufacturers had produced only 1,000 planes, but the administration

naively responded with enthusiasm to France’s request for 4,500 aircraft and fifty thousand men. Even

with congressional approval of Secretary of War

Newton D. Baker’s request for $640 million for aviation, the Signal Corps had failed to achieve its goals

by the spring of 1918. A reorganization seemed

essential, and on May 20, 1918, President Woodrow

Wilson ordered the War Department to establish the

Air Service. That entity consisted of two agencies:

one agency dealt with manufacturers and was under

civilian leadership; the other trained and organized

units and was led by a military officer. This twofactor structure was further streamlined in August

1918 when President Wilson appointed John D. Ryan

to serve as aviation “czar” and strengthen the system.

The most significant U.S. contribution to the air war

effort was the Liberty engine—not aircraft—because

at the signing of the armistice on November 11,

1918, nearly all of the 740 U.S. airplanes at the front

in France had been built in Europe.

The U.S. Army Air Service did enjoy some success in its brief wartime experience. With Maj. Gen.

Mason M. Patrick organizing the Air Service efforts

and Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell in charge of

air combat, the air arm found immediate work flying

1

INTRODUCTION

The Department of the Air Force: Its Secretaries and Chiefs
reconnaissance missions that proved invaluable in

locating enemy troop formations and in supporting

U.S. ground forces. In air-to-air encounters U.S.

pilots made a good showing, with seventy-one

“aces,” each with five or more kills. Capt. Eddie

Rickenbacker led the count with twenty-six victories.

During seven months of combat, U.S. air forces

launched some 150 bombing missions and claimed

756 enemy aircraft and seventy-six balloons destroyed, while losing 289 aircraft, forty-eight balloons, and 237 crewmen.

Few could ignore the important role that air

power played during World War I. Its achievements

supported efforts by air proponents over two decades

to establish an independent air force. Aficionados of

the concept pointed to the experience of Great

Britain, which in 1918 had combined its army and

navy aviation elements into the Royal Air Force

(RAF) under an Air Ministry. But the U.S. Army’s

leaders viewed the airplane primarily as a support

weapon for the infantry and relegated the Air Service

to a status similar to the field artillery or the engineers, that is, responsible for procuring aircraft and

training flying units. In addition, between 1920 and

1926, attempts to legislate needed changes in the

nation’s air defense were blocked by a jurisdictional

conflict between the Air Service on one side and the

War Department and the Navy on the other. The Air

Service was dominated then by a small group of

zealots like Billy Mitchell—subsequently courtmartialed in 1925 for insubordination—who were

bound together by their passion for and practical

knowledge of military aviation. They firmly believed

that the Air Service should support the advancement

of aeronautical science, but they doubted that could

happen as long as the Air Service was subject to the

direction of those whose views on aviation differed

from their own. During that period, a series of boards

and commissions studied and restudied the air organization issue, and their efforts culminated in the

Army Air Corps Act of 1926. Although the act did

not grant independence or autonomy, it did establish

the Army Air Corps and ceded it more personnel, aircraft, and prestige than its predecessor had enjoyed.

The act also called for Air Corps representation on

the Army General Staff and reestablished a second

assistant secretary—the assistant secretary of war for

air. F. Trubee Davison was the first person to hold

that position, and he remained there until 1932 when

he ran for lieutenant governor of New York.

Despite opposition to a separate service and a

paucity of funding affecting all the services, the Air

Corps achieved a great deal during the interwar period. In concert with flights by both civilian and military

fliers who broke records in speed, distance, and

endurance, an Air Corps doctrine of precision bombing against industrial targets by heavily armed, longrange bombers began to emerge in the Air Corps Tactical School. A major reorganization in March 1935

established the General Headquarters (GHQ) Air

Force, which allowed the Air Corps to achieve unified

command over its combat units. This command was

headed by Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, a bomber

enthusiast and an advocate of an independent air force.

It succeeded in removing combat air units from the

control of local commanders by obtaining jurisdiction

in all matters relating to the organization of units, the

maintenance of aircraft, and the operation of technical

equipment, maneuvers, and training. Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois, chief of the Air Corps, retained

responsibility for supply and procurement and for

developing doctrine affecting the use of air elements.

Despite efforts by the Army General Staff to

obtain larger appropriations for the air arm during the

mid-1930s, the aircraft inventory in the Air Corps

fell in 1936, and Congress authorized it to purchase

only a few of the new four-engine B–17s specifically

designed for strategic bombing. As late as 1938 only

thirteen of these bombers were in the inventory.

The fortunes of air power and its advocates

changed when World War II began, as events in

Europe in 1939 and 1940 presaged the dominant role

of the airplane in war. On June 20, 1941, a further

U.S. military reorganization occurred when Maj. Gen.

Henry H. Arnold, chief of the Air Corps, became the

chief of the Army Air Forces (AAF) and assumed

command of the Air Force Combat Command, as the

GHQ had been renamed. Less than a year later, in

2
March 1942, Arnold became the commanding general, AAF—a position that made him coequal with the

commanders of Army Ground Forces and Services of

Supply. Arnold now reported directly to the chief of

staff of the Army, Gen. George C. Marshall, and both

men agreed that, although the AAF would have full

autonomy within the War Department, any move

toward an independent Air Force would be postponed

until the end of the war.

Meanwhile, the civilian side of the Air Corps

boosted its cause with the April 1941 appointment of

Robert A. Lovett as the assistant secretary of war for

air—a position that had been vacant since Davison’s

departure eight years earlier. Lovett was an investment banker who had served in the Naval Air Service

during World War I and had retained a keen interest

in aviation throughout the interwar years. Although

not actually granted statutory power to direct procurement, Lovett was encouraged by Secretary of

War Henry L. Stimson to promote aircraft production. At the same time that he advised Stimson,

Lovett worked closely with military leaders and was

free to voice opinions on a variety of issues outside

the formal chain of command.

From April 1940 until the end of World War II,

Lovett was vitally concerned that nothing should

threaten industry’s adherence to realistic aircraft production schedules. He tried to settle labor disputes

and at times intervened when the Office of Production Management and, subsequently, the War Production Board, were at odds with AAF contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers. During the war, Lovett

acted as a sounding board for industry’s complaints

and requests. Stimson had a clear conception of

Lovett’s role and told him, “Whatever authority the

secretary of war has, you have.”

Lovett and Arnold formed a partnership in fashioning the AAF into the world’s most powerful air

force. Indeed, beginning with 20,000 men in 1939,

the AAF expanded by war’s end to a force of 2.4 million personnel. From a 1939 total of 2,400 aircraft,

U.S. industry had produced by the end of the war

almost 160,000 aircraft, including the B–17 Flying

Fortress, the B–24 Liberator, and the B–29 Superfortress—the bomber workhorses of the European

and the Pacific theaters—and the P–47 Thunderbolt,

the P–51 Mustang fighter, and the C–47 Skytrain

transport. The tremendous increase in numbers necessitated a reorganization that replaced Air Force Combat Command with four air forces in the continental

United States. This force was subsequently complemented with twelve additional overseas air forces.

While tactical air units supported Operation

Torch—the November 1942 invasion of North

Africa—the Eighth Air Force complemented the

RAF with an “around-the-clock” strategic bombing

offensive against Germany. Mission after mission

pounded targets in Germany, often enduring heavy

losses. Beginning in early 1944, the P–51, equipped

with drop tanks, provided long-range bomber escort

and proved decisive in gaining Allied air superiority.

Coordinated attacks by the Eighth Air Force based in

the United Kingdom and the Fifteenth Air Force stationed in Italy targeting the German petroleum industry, along with tactical air support of the ground

armies, continuously frustrated the enemy. Allied

control of the air was attained before the Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. By war’s end, the

AAF’s strategic campaign had dropped 1.36 million

tons of bombs on Germany, at a cost of 67,646 personnel and 8,325 bombers.

In the Pacific theater, Gen. Douglas MacArthur

relied on his imaginative airman, Commanding Gen.

George C. Kenney, Far East Air Forces, to gain air

superiority over the enemy and to advance the bomber

line north and west toward the Philippines and ever

nearer the Japanese homeland. In addition, the AAF’s

Seventh and Thirteenth Air Forces supported aircraft

carriers under Adm. Chester Nimitz, USN, in their

island-hopping efforts in the central Pacific; and the

Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces did the same for

Allied forces in Burma and China. From Washington,

General Arnold directed the Twentieth Air Force in its

B–29 bombing of the Japanese home islands. This air

campaign, culminating in two atomic bombs dropped

by B–29s on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, induced Japan

to surrender, thus obviating a planned two-phase

Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland.

3
After the war, the AAF and the newly appointed

assistant secretary of war for air, Stuart Symington,

worked toward independence. As the AAF demobilized, Symington sought to instill cost-control measures to coincide with an austerity-minded Congress

and public. He believed the AAF “had an unusual

opportunity to look toward efficiency, [with] no past

heritages, no barnacled procedures to first overcome.” He and General Spaatz, the new AAF chief of

staff, worked toward a goal of a seventy-group postwar Air Force.

Having gained its independence with the passage

of the National Security Act of 1947, the Air Force

meanwhile had created three major combat commands in the United States: the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the Tactical Air Command (TAC), and

the Air Defense Command (ADC). Under its commanding general, Curtis E. LeMay, SAC became the

dominant Air Force command. Although the Military

Air Transport Service played the key role in delivering supplies during the Berlin Airlift and tactical air

forces were built up during the Korean conflict, SAC

maintained first call on U.S. Air Force resources.

Funding would remain a problem for the Air Force as

well as the other services throughout the late 1940s.

When he left office in April 1950, Symington was

disappointed at not having attained a seventy-group

Air Force. But the Korean War provided increased

funding for a larger air force, new weapon systems,

and more personnel, and permitted Secretary of the

Air Force Harold E. Talbott to concentrate on other

important issues, such as military housing.

During the 1950s, three pieces of legislation

diminished the authority of the secretary of the Air

Force. The 1949 amendments to the National Security Act gave more power to the Office of the Secretary

of Defense (OSD) by granting him an undersecretary

and three assistant secretaries. The secretary of the

Air Force, along with the other service secretaries,

lost their seats on the National Security Council,

where they had been coequal with the secretary of

defense. The 1953 Reorganization Act further eroded

the power of the service secretaries by adding six

more assistant secretaries to the OSD. Next, the 1958

Reorganization Act took the service secretaries out of

the direct chain of operational (combat) command,

which now ran from the president and the secretary

of defense through the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the

unified and specified commands. That act made the

service secretaries responsible for operational support activities, such as training and logistics. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, appointed by

President John F. Kennedy, took full advantage of the

powers granted by this legislation.

The 1950s saw a huge Korean War buildup of a

ninety-five–wing air force under the leadership of

Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter and

Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg and the

beginnings of missile technology. The missile program was advocated by Trevor Gardner, an Air Force

special assistant for research and development, and

implemented by Brig. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever.

General Schriever founded the Space and Ballistic

Missiles Organization and later became commander

of Air Force Systems Command. Under Schriever,

the Air Force developed the Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman long-range missiles and established the basis for

the Air Force space program.

Secretary of the Air Force James H. Douglas and

Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan F. Twining had to

cope with a major retrenchment following the Korean

War buildup. But their forced downsizing was alleviated somewhat by the technological advancements in

both missiles and satellites spurred by advances of the

country’s Cold War nemesis, the Soviet Union. In

1957, prompted by the shock of Sputnik and fears of a

“missile gap,” SAC began complementing its bomber

fleet with land-based missiles. By the end of the

1960s, more than a thousand intercontinental ballistic

missiles were on alert, although bomber numbers had

dwindled. Thus the Air Force possessed two key legs

of the important triad of strategic weaponry—

bombers and land-based missiles—and the Navy

fielded the third element—submarine-launched missiles. Meanwhile, TAC benefited from the Kennedy

administration’s emphasis on conventional forces that

could respond to several protracted conventional conflicts, under the nuclear umbrella.

4
In Southeast Asia, U.S. strategy was to hold off

North Vietnam until South Vietnam became a viable

nation, able to defend itself. During the Vietnam War,

from 1965 to 1973, the United States dropped three

times the number of bombs that it had dropped during World War II.

During the Rolling Thunder air campaign

against North Vietnam, from March 1965 to October

1968, the Air Force faced a formidable air defense

system. Hampering its efforts were restrictive rules

of engagement, such as a thirty-mile restricted area

around Hanoi. Rolling Thunder caused about $2 billion in losses to the North Vietnamese economy, at

the expense of perhaps $2 billion in U.S. aircraft, but

it failed to thwart the Communist efforts in the south.

Supplying and transporting troops was a major

Air Force war mission, according to Secretary of the

Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert; and that charge, as well

as ensuring that the men and women of the service

were properly equipped, adequately trained, and

appropriately deployed, became the role of the secretariat. Secretary McNamara took advantage of the previous decade’s legislation that had dampened the powers of the service secretaries to assert the centralized

authority of the OSD. This was as troubling a situation

for Zuckert, who had known the previous power of the

secretariat as Symington’s assistant secretary, as it was

for the man who had constructed SAC, General

LeMay. The Air Force chief of staff, who remained

ultimately responsible for the day-to-day activities of

the organization, also served as one of the Joint Chiefs

of Staff. Thus, Air Force aircraft like the C–47 Skytrain, C–119 Boxcar, C–123 Provider, and C–130 Hercules maneuvered vast supplies over the jungle terrain,

while C–141 Starlifters and C–5 Galaxies, assisted by

commercial airlines, moved troops and supplies from

the United States to Vietnam. SAC B–52 bombers and

tactical forces assisted the U.S. and South Vietnamese

armies in South Vietnam and struck at North Vietnamese army supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh

Trail and in southern Laos where their air strikes supported the Laotian government’s counterinsurgency

efforts. In addition, operations over Cambodia were

designed to support the war in South Vietnam.

Air Force operations at Khe Sanh during the Tet

Offensive of 1968 and the Easter Offensive in the

spring of 1972 proved notable but could not alone

bring the enemy to its knees. Pursuing his Vietnamization policy and anxious to settle the conflict,

President Richard M. Nixon ordered a massive bombing campaign, Linebacker I, from May to October,

1972, against targets in North Vietnam and the mining of Haiphong and other ports. As Communist

negotiators employed delaying tactics at the Paris

peace talks, Nixon ordered Linebacker II, an elevenday bombing effort that began on December 18,

1972. As a result of the U.S. offensives, a treaty was

signed in January 1973, but two years later a North

Vietnamese offensive secured a Communist victory.

Following the war, the Air Force had to adjust to

tighter budgets and at the same time build up its

strategic forces and maintain a readiness in Europe—

a theater that had been neglected during the conflict in

Southeast Asia. The post-Vietnam retrenchment and

modernization of the Air Force actually began while

the fighting raged in Southeast Asia. In 1970 Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird popularized the term

total force to describe the relationship between the

active duty and reserve components. Total force was a

catchphrase intended, in part, to assure the public that

the U.S. National Guard and the Air Force Reserves,

although only partially mobilized for the Vietnam

War, remained vital elements of the nation’s armed

forces and were well worth the money invested in

them. During the early 1970s, smaller, lighter warheads were developed for installation on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and sea-launched

ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) were introduced.

John L. McLucas became Air Force secretary as

the Vietnam conflict ended, and he viewed his role as

that of repairing the wreckage caused by equipment

losses and dampened morale. With his chiefs of staff,

Generals George S. Brown and David C. Jones,

McLucas concentrated on newer weapon systems,

such as the B–1, F–15, and F–16, and occasionally

selected from rival prototypes to avoid the acquisition

5
difficulties such as cost overruns experienced with

the C–5A and the FB–111 of the previous decade. In

light of dwindling monies, General Jones professed a

policy of “readiness”—that is, streamlining headquarters organizations and pursuing development of hightechnology weapons. Budgetary restraint had its

effect throughout the force as training and flying-hour

retrenchments led some to label the mid- to late1970s as the era of the “Hollow Force.”

After taking office in January 1981, President

Ronald Reagan announced an extensive effort to

modernize the Air Force’s strategic forces. The B–1B

program, canceled in 1977, was revitalized, and the

bomber reached initial operational capability in September 1986. The Air Force modified its B–52G and

H models to carry air-launched cruise missiles and

modernized its ICBM force by deploying Peacekeeper (formerly M–X) missiles in Minuteman silos. Two

stealth aircraft flew for the first time during the

decade: the F–117A in June 1981, and the B–2A in

1989.

The Reagan administration also devoted considerable attention to space. Air Force Space Command

was activated on September 1, 1982; and in the following March, Reagan introduced the Strategic

Defense Initiative (SDI), a wide-ranging effort to

investigate technologies that could contribute to a

ballistic missile defense. The Air Force transferred its

SDI efforts to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization in 1994.

Throughout the first half of the 1980s, Air Force

budgets enjoyed unprecedented double-digit percent

real growth, enabling Secretary of the Air Force

Verne Orr to concentrate on people issues, such as

service personnel housing and the advancement of

women. The 1980s also witnessed a trend toward

unity among the services that was spurred on by the

Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Both of Orr’s chiefs

of staff, Gen. Charles A. Gabriel and Gen. Larry D.

Welch, supported that effort, although the act

reduced their power and that of the other service

chiefs in favor of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of

Staff. Earlier, on May 22, 1984, General Gabriel and

his Army counterpart, Gen. John A. Wickham, Jr.,

had signed a landmark agreement on “thirty-one

joint initiatives” that the Army and Air Force had

identified as essential to supporting affordable and

effective air/land combat forces. The agreement formalized the “participation of each service in the

other’s budget process” and committed them to a

“long-term, dynamic process” to exchange, review,

and update initiatives. General Welch held that it was

natural to pursue joint initiatives, especially because

they had saved both Air Force and Army expenditures.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990,

President George Bush mobilized an international

coalition and ordered U.S. military units to carry out

Operation Desert Shield, an enormous deployment

of forces to defend Saudi Arabia. Within six weeks,

Air Force cargo aircraft had brought more tonnage

to the Persian Gulf than they had carried during the

entire fifteen-month-long Berlin Airlift. The Desert

Shield air transporters moved five hundred thousand

passengers and nearly five hundred thousand tons of

dry cargo a third of the way around the world in

about seven months.

Saddam Hussein continued his occupation of

Kuwait for five-and-one-half months, defying a series

of United Nations’ resolutions and a naval embargo.

On January 17 (January 16, EST), 1991, after exhausting every effort to reach a diplomatic settlement of the

crisis, the United States and its allies began Operation

Desert Storm, a military action to liberate Kuwait. The

Persian Gulf War that followed was remarkable for its

brevity, relatively low coalition casualties, and decisive result. The Air Force component of U.S. Central

Command, U.S. Central Air Forces (CENTAF), provided the centerpiece of the victory. The war lasted

only forty-three days—thirty-nine of them devoted to

a stunningly successful coalition air campaign against

targets throughout Iraq and the Kuwaiti theater of

operations (southern Iraq and Kuwait). CENTAF aircraft destroyed Iraq’s air defenses; crippled its electrical source infrastructure; and leveled many of its

nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare facilities.

Coalition air attacks against Iraqi forces made possible the rapid success of the ground campaign that

6
followed. The allies drove the Iraqis from Kuwait

within one hundred hours.

With the end of the Cold War, the Air Force

entered another era of austerity: FY1992 and FY1994

budgets showed –10.0 and –8.5 percentages of real

decline, respectively. With a reduced force structure

as well as a blurring of the distinction between strategic and tactical missions—which had been evident

during the Gulf War—the Air Force under Secretary

Donald Rice and Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak

began to reorganize several of its major commands.

On June 1, 1992, the Air Force activated Air Combat

Command, which combined all of the TAC assets

with most of the assets of the SAC and a small portion of those belonging to the Military Airlift Command (MAC). On the same day, Air Mobility Command was established and blended most of MAC’s

force structure with SAC’s tankers. Air Force Materiel

Command, combining the resources of Air Force Systems Command and Air Force Logistics Command,

was activated a month later. Although downsizing and

retrenchment were part of the USAF’s reorganization,

the USAF adopted the expansive slogan “Global

Reach, Global Power” and considered its future role

as the guarantor of world stability.

Promoting “Global Reach, Global Power,” Secretary of the Air Force Rice sought to develop a

strategic framework for the Air Force as a whole. He

emphasized air power’s inherent strengths—speed,

range, flexibility, precision, and lethality. He foresaw

an Air Force that rapidly could span the globe on

short notice to extend U.S. influence or achieve political objectives. Not only did the Gulf War further that

goal, but it also established a precedent that an Air

Force secretary could become heavily involved in

determining the policies and methods the Air Force

would use to fight a war. Meanwhile, General McPeak

responded to the downsizing mandated by Congress

and the administration of President Bill Clinton by

setting out to reorganize the Air Force. In addition to

a major command restructuring, he experimented

with different wing-level organizational concepts,

including the composite wing and the objective

wing. McPeak stressed the heritage of the Air Force

in determining which units would be retained and

which would be cut.

McPeak’s successors, Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman

and Gen. Michael E. Ryan, fine-tuned his process:

Fogleman supported a “Global Engagement” longrange plan and a “core values campaign”; Ryan

encouraged an “Air Expeditionary Force” (AEF)

capable of rapid deployment and ready to meet any

global challenge. He envisioned ten AEFs, each

deployed for ninety days every fifteen months with

two AEFs on call at all times, but Congress did not

provide the sustained funding that his plan required.

As the twentieth century drew to a close, the USAF

definitely was a smaller force, but Congress—the

engine for change—seemed to believe that the Air

Force had been sufficiently downsized.

7

SECRETARIES OF THE AIR FORCE

W. Stuart Symington

September 18, 1947–April 24, 1950

11 
W. Stuart Symington

September 18, 1947–April 24, 1950

Portrait by Alfred H. Jonniaux




W.STUART SYMINGTON was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on June 26,

1901. After serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War I, he

went to Yale University and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1923.

The following year he married Evelyn Wadsworth, and they eventually had two sons. He

entered the business world, engaging in various enterprises and earning a reputation for saving

companies from bankruptcy and making them profitable. In 1941, after exercising those skills

at the Emerson Electric Company of St. Louis, Missouri, where he had been president and

chairman of the board, he was asked by the military services to go to England with a group of

aeronautical engineers to study aircraft armament, with particular emphasis on the new British

power gun turrets. When he returned to the United States, Symington worked to make Emerson Electric the world’s largest manufacturer of airplane armament. Following the advice of

his father-in-law, Senator James W. Wadsworth of New York, Symington resigned from Emerson when President Harry S Truman asked him to join the government. In July 1945 he

became chairman of the Surplus Property Board and the following October, administrator of

the Surplus Property Administration.

In February 1946 Truman selected Symington as assistant secretary of war for air. It was

Symington’s modus operandi to leave the day-to-day running of the air arm to professional airmen. He believed he could best accomplish his management goals by persuading Congress of

the importance of air power, in effect promoting the operational programs devised by uniformed leaders like Gen. Carl Spaatz, who would become the first chief of staff for the soonto-be created U.S. Air Force. As assistant secretary of war for air and later as the nation’s first

secretary of the Air Force, Symington showed himself unafraid to confront higher authorities

to advance the cause of air power. In addition to assisting the drive for Air Force independence, perhaps his most noteworthy achievement as assistant secretary of war for air was the

establishment of a cost-control system within the Army Air Forces.

The National Security Act of July 26, 1947, established the Department of the Air Force,

fulfilling the dreams and aspirations cherished for many years by U.S. Army air leaders. On

September 18, 1947, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force was officially activated and

Stuart Symington took the oath of office. As he had done when he was assistant secretary of

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war for air, Symington continued to represent the Air Force in Congress. He had a knack for

keeping in touch with almost every facet of his operation, while avoiding becoming bogged

down in details. Symington had the utmost respect for his chiefs of staff, Generals Spaatz and

Hoyt S. Vandenberg, and their relationships solidified during his tenure.

On several occasions, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal was so much at odds with the

air secretary that he contemplated asking for Symington’s resignation. Forrestal basically supported President Truman who, when referring to budget matters, called for cooperation among

the services to present a “solid front” to the world on the essential elements undergirding U.S.

foreign policy. And on these budgeting issues on which Forrestal wanted solidarity Symington

dissented.

The air secretary’s views again diverged from Forrestal’s on the question of the seventygroup Air Force program, the minimum force size that airmen considered adequate for national security. Forrestal wanted and supported only a fifty-five–group program and insisted that a

strong Air Force by itself “could not ensure peace or gain victory in war.” But Symington

believed that even a seventy-group program would provide only a means of survival against an

initial enemy onslaught; it would not provide the United States with the means to win a war.

He further emphasized that the seventy-group program was a peacetime program, not a warstrength Air Force. That the Air Force did not reach seventy groups during Symington’s tenure

was one of his greatest disappointments.

Symington’s final year in office was dominated by the B–36 controversy, an issue that

shook the new Air Force organization to its roots. Not only on the line were the secretary’s

integrity and career and the reputation of prominent Air Force generals, but the future roles

and missions of the Air Force as well.

When Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson canceled the Navy’s supercarrier, the USS

United States, on April 23, 1949, the Air Force’ s huge long-range bomber, the B–36, became

the object of Navy criticism. Detractors questioned the plane’s capacity to perform its mission

at the range, speed, and altitude the Air Force claimed. Attacks against the aircraft culminated

on May 26, 1949, when Rep. James E. Van Zandt told Congress that he demanded answers to

specific questions about the B–36, which were based on statements he had read in an anonymous document.

In January 1950 the final report of the House Investigative Committee declared the Air

Force’s B–36 procurement record clean and stated that there was not a “scintilla” of evidence

to support the charges, reports, rumors, and innuendoes, alleging irregularities or improprieties in the procurement process. The committee wanted it made known that Symington, the

leaders of the Air Force, and Secretary of Defense Johnson had survived the inquiry with

“unblemished, impeccable reputations.”

With the B–36 investigation completed, Symington shifted his focus to other issues and

soon became disgruntled with the Air Force’s lack of funding. He thought that the Air Force

14
budget had been cut excessively, especially after Truman’s September 1949 announcement

that the Soviets had detonated an atomic device. The secretary doubted that the Air Force

could perform in peacetime—and certainly not in war. He found it difficult to accept increased

responsibilities for the Air Force without the means to do the job. Thus, after a four-year struggle to gain respect for the Air Force and to cement its status as an independent service,

Symington resigned. He was confident he had built a sound management organization in the

Office of the Secretary of the Air Force and believed he had moved air power in the proper

direction by “stressing modernity over tradition.”

Symington was equally certain that the Air Force had overcome many problems during

his four years of leadership. It had become an equal member of the national defense team, had

recovered substantially from the effects of postwar demobilization, and had made a good start

toward “becoming that Air Force essential to our security in this air-atomic age.” He attributed

those accomplishments to the loyal efforts of Air Force personnel, working in cooperation

with the other services, government agencies, Congress, and the U.S. public.

Although he resigned as air secretary, Symington told the president that he was willing to

accept another position, and so he stayed with the Truman administration as chairman of the

National Security Resources Board and administrator of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In 1952 Symington won election as a United States senator from Missouri and subsequently distinguished himself during four terms in Congress.

Stuart Symington was a leader that the Air Force needed during its infancy, and there is no

doubt that his excellent leadership qualities greatly benefited the new Air Force. But he also

had an inestimable advantage over any Air Force secretary who followed him—he had power.

Indeed, the National Security Act of 1947 provided the air secretary as well as the other service secretaries a seat on the National Security Council, a body that included the president and

the secretary of defense. Although not an official cabinet member, the air secretary had direct

access to President Truman to whom the views of the Air Force could be expressed.

Symington endured the tightfisted maneuverings of an administration whose budget constraints soured any hope of securing a seventy-group Air Force during his tenure. Shortly after

he left office, however, the issue became moot. When the Korean War began in June 1950,

federal coffers opened again, and an austerity-minded administration and Congress pursued

instead a how-much-do-you-need policy. In spite of the paucity of funds in 1947–48, Symington managed to distribute enough Air Force contracts to keep the U.S. aviation industry alive.

Balancing scarce funding with building a modern force and the research and development

facilities to keep it going was a creditable achievement.

After he left the Senate, Symington became vice chairman and a director of First American Bankshares, in Washington, D.C. Two years after the death of his first wife, he married

Ann Hemingway Watson on June 14, 1978. He died at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut,

on December 14, 1988, at age eighty-seven.

15

Thomas K. Finletter

April 24, 1950–January 20, 1953

17 
Thomas K. Finletter

April 24, 1950–January 20, 1953

Portrait by Albert K. Murray




THOMAS K. FINLETTER was born into a prominent Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

family on November 11, 1893. Educated at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia,

he received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1915.

After two years of service as an army captain, which included a stint in France with the 312th

Field Artillery, he returned to the same institution and earned a bachelor of laws degree in

1920. While in France he had met Gretchen Blaine Damrosch, the daughter of orchestra conductor Walter Damrosch and a granddaughter of James G. Blaine, who had been secretary of

state under President Benjamin Harrison. They were married on July 17, 1920. They had two

daughters.

Following his graduation from law school, Finletter broke with the Republican Party,

angered because some of its members had scuttled the League of Nations in the United States

Senate. “I had just come back from the Army,” he said, “like many others, terribly concerned

with the idea of world peace,... and so I became a Democrat, and have been ever since.”

Finletter was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1920 and to the New York Bar the following year. As a specialist in bankruptcy law, he became a successful partner in the New York

law firm of Coudert Brothers from 1926 to 1941. He also lectured at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1931 to 1941.

Finletter’s government career began in 1941 with a three-year assignment as a special

assistant to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. His responsibilities included planning economic

activities in areas liberated by the Allies during World War II, controlling foreign exchange,

and overseeing the operations of the Alien Property Custodian. In May 1945 he became a consultant to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization,

held in San Francisco, California. At that time he moved into the postwar international sphere

with his association with the United World Federalists. His most notable public service prior to

becoming air secretary occurred between 1947 and 1948 when he chaired the President Harry

S Truman’s Air Policy Commission. The commission’s findings, titled Survival in the Air

Age—but commonly called the Finletter Report—cautioned that an understrength Air Force

would be unable to defend the United States against atomic attack. It urged that service capability be restored as soon as possible with the help of a viable aircraft industry, and it endorsed

19
a seventy-group Air Force of 6,869 first-line aircraft, backed by a twenty-seven–group Air

National Guard and an adequately equipped thirty-four–group Air Reserve.

After the commission disbanded, Finletter headed the Economic Cooperation Administration’s special mission to the United Kingdom until 1949. The mission was charged with managing Marshall Plan aid there. President Truman selected him to succeed Stuart Symington as

secretary of the Air Force in April 1950, primarily because of his excellent work on the Air

Policy Commission.

While Finletter concentrated on the larger issues of nuclear strategy and U.S. relations

with member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the power vacuum

within the national military establishment that had existed when James Forrestal was secretary

of defense began to diminish as authority became centralized within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The individual services lost their executive branch status and were redesignated as military departments within the Department of Defense. In addition, the service secretaries lost their membership on the National Security Council, where they previously had sat

as equals to the secretary of defense.

After several months in office and in consultation with the Air Staff, Finletter drew up a

new set of Air Force objectives largely in response to the Korean War. In descending order of

priority, these objectives were to provide the primary air defense of the United States, a strategic retaliatory force, tactical air support, and air transport operations. The long-sought-after

goal of a seventy-group Air Force, espoused so intently by Stuart Symington, at last could be

realized. It was Finletter’s task to evaluate the needs of the Air Force and to present them

before a Congress that was willing to fund them. The Korean War, which began in June 1950,

forced President Truman and Congress to make significant changes in fiscal policy, from

which the Air Force benefited almost immediately. Over the next years, the 48-wing force of

June 1950 grew swiftly, at least on paper, in successive steps: from 68 to 95 to 120 to 137 to

143, and finally to 168 wings. The increase in planes, equipment, and personnel proved difficult for the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Staff to manage. Adjusting

budgets to fit these changing figures and, afterwards, attempting to explain them to Congress

required the efforts of both organizations.

During Finletter’s tenure, the Air Force Organization Act of 1951 finalized the Air Force’s

internal structure. Although the act did not resolve problems like those associated with supply,

it did clarify the roles and responsibilities of the air secretary and the chief of staff. Finletter

believed that the chief of staff should command the three major combat commands: Strategic

Air Command, Tactical Air Command, and Air Defense Command. He argued that the direction of operations was a military rather than a civilian function. Under the Air Force Organization Act of 1951, the air secretary remained the nominal head of the Air Force.

Secretary Finletter consistently advocated creating an Air Force strong enough to deter

the growing Soviet threat and adaptable enough to react to sudden or limited hostilities. For

20
reasons beyond than the Korean War, Finletter must be credited with furthering the modernization and growth of the Air Force, which by the end of his tenure was nearly three times the

size it had been under Secretary Symington. Finletter accomplished that feat at a time when

the Office of the Secretary of Defense was expanding its jurisdiction. By September 1953,

seven new assistant secretaries of defense had been added to the civilian hierarchy, with status

over the service secretaries.

When his three-year tenure as air secretary ended in 1953, Finletter returned to Coudert

Brothers and stayed there until 1961, when he was appointed the U.S. ambassador to NATO, a

post he held until 1965. He published several books during his lifetime, including Principles

of Corporate Reorganization (1938), The Law of Bankruptcy Reorganization (1939), Power

and Policy (1960), and Interim Report (1968).

In the meantime, Finletter’s interest in New York politics broadened. He was a close associate of W. Averell Harriman and helped Harriman win election as governor of New York in

1954. He joined with Eleanor Roosevelt and former governor Herbert H. Lehman to found the

antiorganization reform movement in the Democratic Party.

Following the death of his first wife in December 1969, Finletter married Eileen Wechsler

Geist in January 1973. He died on April 24, 1980.

21

Harold Elstner Talbott

February 4, 1953–August 13, 1955

23 
Harold Elstner Talbott

February 4, 1953–August 13, 1955

Portrait by Gardner Cox




HAROLD ELSTNER TALBOTT was born in Dayton, Ohio, on March 31, 1888. He

attended the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and spent two years at Yale

University before returning to his father’s construction company in 1911. He was

vice president and general manager of the H. E. Talbott Company of Dayton, in charge of

hydroelectric development and industrial construction. He remained there until 1920 and

served simultaneously as vice president and general manager of the Dayton Metal Products

Company (1914–20).

Talbott’s interest in aviation dated from the early days of the Wright brothers. In 1915 he

helped build one of the first wind tunnels for aviation experiments in Dayton. In the spring of

1916, Talbott’s father, Colonel Deeds, and Charles Kettering formed the Dayton-Wright Company, a reorganization of the Orville Wright Company. The young Talbott was made president

and Orville Wright became vice president and engineer. At the beginning of World War I, the

Dayton-Wright Company took over the newly built Delco-Light plant. The expanded plant

turned out about four hundred training planes and constructed the two-seat fighter, the

DeHaviland–4, later modified to the DeHaviland–9. In October 1918 the plant, which

employed twelve thousand people, produced thirty-eight planes per day and manufactured

more wartime aircraft overall than any other U.S. plant.

In September 1918 Talbott was commissioned a major in the Air Service of the Signal

Corps. His assignment as one of a group of officers in charge of aircraft maintenance and

repair in France was canceled by the armistice.

In 1919 the Dayton-Wright Company merged with General Motors, and Talbott spent the

next five years as president of the new firm and of Inland Manufacturing Company. In 1925

he moved to New York to become a director of the Chrysler Corporation, of which he was an

original investor. Also in 1925 he married Margaret Thayer of Philadelphia, a union that produced four children. From 1931 to 1932 he served as chairman of the board for the North

American Aviation Company, and in 1934 he became a director and chairman of the finance

committee of Electric-Auto-Lite. In addition, he was a director of the Mead Paper Company

for more than thirty years and a director of the Commercial National Bank of New York for

more than twenty years.

25
Talbott had been one of the most active Republican fund-raisers in the presidential campaigns of Wendell L. Willkie in 1940, Thomas E. Dewey in 1948, and Dwight D. Eisenhower

in 1952. He was chairman of the Republican national finance committee in 1948 and 1949.

He also had been a member of the War Production Board during 1942 and 1943.

Talbott became Secretary of the Air Force on February 4, 1953, during a period when the

Korean War had jolted Congress into authorizing additional wings and their supporting infrastructure. Consequently he was able to focus his efforts on the needs of airmen and their families. Thanks to comparatively generous funding, he succeeded in obtaining more military

housing than had his predecessors. Combining better housing with pay increases and other

needed improvements, he raised the service personnel retention rate by linking enhanced military benefits to reenlistment.

In 1955 Talbott suffered a very serious professional disappointment when he became

involved in a conflict of interest that eventually forced his resignation following a congressional investigation of his business activities. Talbott had retained his partnership in the New

York investment group, Paul B. Mulligan and Company, a firm he had founded in 1948. He

received more than $132,000 from the firm and had used Air Force stationery and telephones

to contact various businesses on behalf of the Mulligan interests, some of which businesses

were Air Force contractors. Under pressure, Secretary Talbott relinquished his position in

August 1955, maintaining that he wished to spare the President Dwight D. Eisenhower further

embarrassment. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 2, 1957.

26
Donald A. Quarles

August 15, 1955–April 30, 1957

27 
Donald A. Quarles

August 15, 1955–April 30, 1957

Portrait by Germain Green Glidden




DONALD A. QUARLES was born in Van Buren, Arkansas, on July 30, 1894. He

graduated from high school at age fifteen, took summer courses at the University of

Missouri, and taught school in Van Buren. Like his predecessor, Harold Talbott,

Quarles saw service with the U.S. Army during World War I. After he earned a bachelor of arts

degree in mathematics and physics from Yale University in 1916, he enlisted in the Rainbow

Division and served for two years in France and Germany, attaining the rank of captain in the

field artillery.

As an engineer for the Western Electric Company during the early 1920s, he studied theoretical physics at Columbia University. Quarles stayed with the inspection engineering department of Western Electric, which later became the Bell Telephone Laboratories. He was director of the transmission development department and director of apparatus development until

he became the company’s vice president in 1948. He also was a member and, in 1949, chairman of the Committee on Electronics of the Joint Research and Development Board of the

Department of Defense (DOD).

In 1952 he was made president of Sandia Corporation, a Western Electric subsidiary that

operated the Sandia Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Atomic Energy Commission. In September 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him assistant secretary of defense for research and development, and he was subsequently selected by both the

secretary of defense and the secretary of commerce to become the first chairman of the reorganized Air Navigation Development Board. In March 1954 the president appointed Quarles

to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

Quarles was the first Air Force secretary with a strong formal or scientific background.

He was familiar with the leading scientists, and his excellent scientific knowledge was a solid

foundation on which to base a great many of his own decisions. He also was the first Air Force

secretary whose views on important issues diverged from those of such prominent airmen as

Chief of Staff Gen. Nathan F. Twining and commander of the Strategic Air Command Gen.

Curtis E. LeMay. In support of the administration’s economy drive, Secretary Quarles urged

that research and development funds be cut and that both the long-pursued 137-wing program

and newly emphasized missile program be “stretched out.” His recommendations caused him

29
difficulty, not only with his own military leaders, but also with a Democrat-controlled Senate

subcommittee investigating U.S. air power, headed by former Secretary of the Air Force Stuart

Symington.

Quarles consistently stressed the importance of the United States maintaining qualitative

superiority in the face of the USSR’s (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) rapid technological

advances. He urged the Air Force to devote adequate attention to research and development

because pilots and ground crews had to “have at their disposal the best possible equipment.” In

company with a strong and sustained research and development program, Quarles supported

the continuous strengthening of the service and he recommended that B–52, F–102, and

F–104 production proceed without delay.

Quarles devoted his attention to research and development and proved in his twentymonth tenure that a scientist could lead and manage the Air Force competently. Like the first

air secretary, Stuart Symington, Quarles was the right man at the right time. The Air Force was

developing missiles and supersonic bombers with increasingly complex technologies that

Quarles understood. Quarles was unable, however, to confront President Eisenhower the way

Symington had confronted President Harry S Truman. The legislative acts of 1949 and 1953

had changed the DOD relationships, and by 1953 the secretary of defense had a deputy and

nine assistant secretaries who stood between him and the individual service secretaries. Quarles simply did not have the power that Symington had possessed. He had to support the administration against the wishes of his own airmen and, if he aspired to higher office within the

DOD, he had to toe Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson’s line.

Promotion soon followed. Quarles replaced Reuben B. Robertson, Jr., as deputy secretary

of defense, and remained in that position until his sudden death from a heart attack on May 8,

1959. President Eisenhower stated at the time that Quarles had devoted his extraordinary talents to the service of his country. His contribution was of inestimable value to the security of

the United States and of the entire free world.

Among the many awards Quarles received during his career were honorary doctorates

from the University of Arkansas in 1953 and New York University in 1955. He was awarded

the USAF Exceptional Service Award in 1957 and the United States Medal of Freedom Award

posthumously. Twice married, Quarles was the father of three children.

30
James Henderson Douglas, Jr.

May 1, 1957–December 10, 1959

31 
James Henderson Douglas, Jr.

May 1, 1957–December 10, 1959

Portrait by George A. Weymouth




J

AMES HENDERSON DOUGLAS, JR. was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on March 11,

1899. His family founded the Quaker Oats Company, and he grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois, where his father was a vice president of the company. He was an undergraduate of

Princeton University in 1918 when he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army. He

did not go overseas, and after World War I he returned to Princeton, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1920. He then spent a year studying at Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge before enrolling in Harvard Law School and earning a degree in 1924.

He began his career as a lawyer with the Chicago firm of Winston, Strawn & Shaw the following year but switched to investment banking in 1929 and joined Field, Glore & Company.

In 1932 President Herbert Hoover’s secretary of the treasury, Ogden L. Mills, brought

Douglas to Washington, D.C. Douglas served as an assistant secretary of the treasury to Mills.

He remained at that post under President Theodore Roosevelt, but he grew disenchanted.

When he resigned in June 1933, he organized a Citizens’ Committee on Monetary Policy that

publicly opposed the Roosevelt financial program. He returned to Chicago and became a partner of the law firm of Gardner, Carton & Douglas.

During World War II, Douglas served with the U.S. Army Air Forces in South America,

Africa, Europe, and Asia. He rose in rank from major to colonel and became chief of staff of

the Air Transport Command. In 1951 he was a member of a National Security Resources

Board study group that was assigned to evaluate the adaptability of civil air transport facilities

to military uses in time of war or emergency. It was Douglas’s connection with the board that

brought him to the attention of Secretary of the Air Force Harold Talbott. When asked by Talbott to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force, Douglas hesitated, pleading professional and

personal obligations. He had planned to build up his own law firm. His oldest son convinced

him to reconsider, however, reminding him that he had referred frequently to his experiences

in the Air Force as some of the best in his life. When Talbott asked again, Douglas promised to

work in Washington, D.C., for eighteen months. He stayed for eight years—four as undersecretary of the Air Force, two as secretary of the Air Force, and two as deputy secretary of

defense.

33
Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson had asked Douglas to become secretary of the Air

Force after Talbott resigned in August 1955, but Douglas declined because of ill health, choosing instead to continue as undersecretary of the Air Force. He recommended Donald Quarles

to Secretary Wilson as a suitable replacement for Talbott. During his four years as undersecretary, Douglas attained a record of proven performance and was considered by some to be the

unsung workhorse of the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

Douglas became air secretary in May 1957. His preference for briefings rather than

detailed memoranda endeared him to many on the Air Staff. Douglas’s own staff believed that

those reporting to him would save themselves the time and effort of developing written reports

if they kept a list of important subjects and presented them to him orally when they had the

opportunity. This means of operating soon earned Douglas a reputation for a remarkable memory. He was held in great esteem by the chief of staff, Gen. Thomas D. White, who met with

him daily.

As air secretary, Douglas testified frequently before Congress. One of his most important

Air Force objectives was the completion of the Air Force Academy. He also was watchful of

the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, making certain that their activities did not infringe on those of the Air Force. He helped

the Air Force weather serious personnel cuts demanded by Congress and the administration in

early 1957 and stood ready to take advantage for the service of Sputnik’s impact on congressional attitudes toward defense funding.

In addition, in 1958 he reaffirmed the 1925 court-martial guilty verdict against the crusader for air power, Brig. Gen. William (Billy) Mitchell. Douglas said it was legally correct for

Mitchell to have been found guilty of violating military law for attacking his superiors because

they would not accept his views on the military significance of the airplane. Douglas noted,

however, that Mitchell’s faith in air power had been vindicated and called attention to the

posthumous Medal of Honor that Congress had voted for Mitchell in 1946.

As deputy secretary of defense from December 11, 1959, to January 24, 1961, Douglas

counseled President Eisenhower on such issues as accepting responsibility for the U–2 espionage flight over the USSR and early U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. He was awarded the

Distinguished Service Medal and in 1960 the Medal of Freedom for his government service.

He returned to his Chicago law practice in 1961. He served as a trustee of the University

of Chicago for fifty-five years and held honorary doctorates of law from Princeton University

and from Lake Forest and Grinnell Colleges. He was a past president of the Commercial Club

and a director of American Airlines, March & McLennan, the Chicago Title and Trust Company, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

Douglas had four sons by his first marriage to Grace Farwell McGann, who died in 1949.

He married Elinor Thompson Donaldson in 1950. He died of cancer on February 24, 1988, at

his home in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was eighty-eight years of age.

34
Dudley Crawford Sharp

December 11, 1959–January 20, 1961

35 
Dudley Crawford Sharp

December 11, 1959–January 20, 1961

Portrait by Lloyd Bowers Embrey




DUDLEY CRAWFORD SHARP was born in Houston, Texas, on March 16, 1905.

He attended public and private schools in Houston and completed his pre-college

schooling at the Gilman Country School in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated

from Princeton University with a bachelor of science degree in 1927. In January 1929 he married Tina Cleveland, and they had two children.

Immediately following graduation from Princeton, Sharp joined the Mission Manufacturing Company of Houston as its vice president. The firm, which had been started by his oldest

brother, specialized in the manufacture of petroleum industry equipment. Sharp founded the

Texas Fund Inc., an investment firm; in 1935 he became the company executive vice president

and in 1946 its president. During World War II, Sharp served in the U.S. Navy, on sea duty in

various capacities as executive officer and commanding officer of antisubmarine warfare vessels. He later served in the Office of Procurement and Materiel with the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C.

At the end of the war, Sharp returned to Mission Manufacturing as president and chairman of the board. In 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower recalled him to Washington to

become assistant Air Force secretary for materiel. Although hesitant to leave his business, he

accepted the opportunity to serve in government on the condition that he retain his right to

criticize other government officials. As assistant secretary he suggested a plan that would have

had business leaders taking turns in government assignments so that no one would have to

make too great a personal sacrifice in leaving his own business. He was the Air Force representative on the Air Coordinating Committee; the Mutual Defense Assistance Management

Council and the Research and Development Policy Council in the Office of the Secretary of

Defense; and the Maintenance Facilities Board in the Office of Defense Mobilization. He

stayed for three-and-one-half years, resigning in 1959 when labor troubles erupted at his

Houston company. He told his government associates not to hesitate to recall him should he be

needed.

In August 1959 Sharp returned to the Pentagon to succeed Malcolm A. McIntyre, who

was retiring as undersecretary of the Air Force. In December of that year, when Secretary of

the Air Force James H. Douglas, Jr., rose to become deputy defense secretary, Sharp assumed

37
the top Air Force post. His thirteen-month stint as Air Force leader at the end of the Eisenhower administration was far too short to establish precedents for future air secretaries. Despite his

lame-duck status he continued the policies of Secretary Douglas and, with his predecessor,

advocated that contracts for civil cargo airlift proceed in peacetime to ensure overseas logistical support. While at the Pentagon, Sharp gained a reputation for his work in developing efficient procurement and supply techniques. In the continuing defense debate, he supported President Eisenhower against those who wanted to increase government spending on missiles and

bombers.

In January 1960 he returned to Mission Manufacturing, where he remained until he sold

the company to TRW in 1976. After his retirement he served as director of the Lighthouse for

the Blind, chairman of the local Republican Party, and a board member of the Museum of Natural History and the M. D. Anderson Cancer Hospital. He was also president of the Houston

Chamber of Commerce and helped raise money for the Alley Theater, a professional repertory

group in that city. The sixth secretary of the Air Force died of cancer on May 17, 1987, in

Houston.

38
Eugene M. Zuckert

January 24, 1961–September 30, 1965

39 
Eugene M. Zuckert

January 24, 1961–September 30, 1965

Portrait by Charles J. Fox




EUGENE M. ZUCKERT was born on November 9, 1911, in New York City. He

attended public elementary and high schools in suburban New York, received

preparatory education at the Salisbury School, Salisbury, Connecticut, and earned his

bachelor of arts degree from Yale University in 1933. Zuckert entered the combined Yale Law

School–Harvard Business School course sponsored by William O. Douglas, who later served

on the Supreme Court. That course, a pioneer experiment by Yale and Harvard, supplemented

legal training with administration to foster an awareness of the business problems of clients.

After graduation, Zuckert became a member of both the Connecticut and New York Bars. He

later became a member of the Bar in the District of Columbia.

In 1940, following a three-year stint as an attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange

Commission, he became an instructor in government and business relations at the Harvard

Graduate School of Business Administration, and later he became an assistant dean. While at

Harvard he also served as a special consultant to the commanding general of the Army Air

Forces (AAF) in developing statistical controls. In that capacity he was an instructor in the

AAF Statistical Control School at Harvard, which trained more than three thousand Air Force

officers, and he served at various AAF bases in the United States on special assignments for

the commanding general of the AAF.

In 1944 Zuckert entered the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant (jg) and worked in the Office of

the Chief of Naval Operations, where he was assigned to the service’s inventory control program. In September 1945 he was released from the Navy to become executive assistant to the

administrator, Surplus Property Administration, under W. Stuart Symington. When Symington became assistant secretary of war for air in February 1946, Zuckert became his special

assistant.

With the passage of the National Security Act in 1947 and Symington’s subsequent

appointment as the first secretary of the Air Force, Zuckert took the oath as assistant secretary

of the Air Force. His principal duties were in the field of management: supervision of the Air

Force’s cost control plan, which required sound business administration; management of the

statistical control system; and development of organizational policy, civilian and military personnel policies, budgetary policies, and educational and training policies. He helped institute

41
Symington’s program of “Management Control Through Cost Control,” an initiative to place

the U.S. Air Force on a business-like basis, using accepted industrial practices as a yardstick

for establishing Air Force procedures. Zuckert represented the Air Force in the formulation of

the FY1950 budget, the first joint Army–Navy–Air Force budget in U.S. history.

The accomplishment that Zuckert considered his most professionally satisfying stemmed

from President Harry S Truman’s 1948 directive requiring the armed services to abolish segregation. Working with Lt. Gen. Idwal H. Edwards, head of Air Force personnel, Zuckert oversaw implementation of the integration program. In addition, Zuckert served as the Air Force

member of the Interservice Committee created by Secretary of Defense James Forrestal to

develop a Uniform Code of Military Justice for the Department of Defense.

Remaining in the secretariat after Thomas K. Finletter succeeded Symington as secretary,

Zuckert was charged with handling the “highly controversial and vexatious problem of the

civilian components, including the reserves and the Air Force National Guard.” As Finletter

concentrated more on larger issues, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and

nuclear weapons development, Zuckert dealt with the daily operations of the office. When he

left his position as assistant secretary in February 1952 to become a member of the Atomic

Energy Commission (AEC), he left an Air Force cost-control system that had established a

new high point in sound business administration within the military establishment, and he had

secured a personal reputation as one of the top-flight, younger career officials in government.

After a two-year stay at the AEC, Zuckert went into private law practice with an old friend,

Coates Lear, in what was primarily an aviation law practice. He also specialized as a consultant in the field of atomic energy. He served as chairman of the board of Nuclear Science &

Engineering Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a firm doing pioneer work in the field

of radiation chemistry. He helped organize and was associated with Information for Industry,

Inc., which published a Chemical Patents Index and an Electronics Patents Index. He also

served as director of AMF Atomics, Ltd. (Canada), and of the atomic energy subsidiary of

American Machine & Foundry, Inc. With Arnold Kramish he coauthored the book, Atomic

Energy for Your Business. He was a member of the Executive Council of the Yale Law School

Association and a former trustee of Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. Zuckert directed

the People-to-People Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operated the HOPE

ship as part of President Eisenhower’s People-to-People Program.

In December 1960 Robert S. McNamara, President-elect John F. Kennedy’s designee for

secretary of defense, recommended to Kennedy that Zuckert be appointed Air Force secretary.

Zuckert was nominated and confirmed in January 1961. With nearly six years of Air Force

experience, Zuckert was better prepared for and more knowledgeable about the secretariat and

its organization than any previous appointee. During his service as secretary, he witnessed the

shifting of decision-making powers from the military departments to the Office of the Secretary

of Defense, a process that continued throughout the 1950s but culminated under McNamara.

42
Zuckert was also involved in controversies associated with the B–70, Sky Bolt, and the TFX

(later the F–111) weapon systems, and with direct participation in the war in Vietnam. Both he

and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Thomas D. White opposed the administration’s decision to cut

the B–70 bomber. Zuckert later admitted that he erred in promoting the bomber because of its

increasing vulnerability to enemy defenses.

The TFX was a tactical fighter-bomber designed and built for both the Air Force and the

Navy. In negotiations over the development of that weapon, Zuckert supported the administration, which wanted the plane, against the Air Force, which did not. In so doing, he strained his

relationship with the Air Force and lost a measure of the confidence it had placed in him.

When the Sky Bolt missile was canceled in December 1962, Zuckert and the Air Staff were

allied, as they had been during the B–70 debate, against the secretary of defense and the

administration. Zuckert often found himself to be the “man in the middle,” at times supporting

the Air Force against the secretary of defense and the administration. Both the Air Force and

the secretary of defense agreed on one of Zuckert’s ideas: Project Forecast. That study, initiated in March 1963, was prompted by Zuckert’s observation that the Air Force ought to investigate technologies that would have some bearing on future aerospace military operations.

Shortly after Zuckert left office in September 1965, the Air Force instituted the Zuckert

Management Award, which is given annually on September 30 to a general officer or highlevel civilian for “outstanding management performance.” The award perpetuates Secretary

Zuckert’s commitment to sound and effective management within the Air Force. Zuckert himself attended every awards ceremony through 1998.

After several months as a sole practitioner, Zuckert joined Scoutt & Rasenberger, the successor to the aviation law firm he had left in 1961. Zuckert’s name soon preceded those of the

firm’s two partners. Until his retirement in 1988, Zuckert practiced law, did consulting, and

was active in pursuing his long-standing interest in corporate governance. Over the years he

served as a director of several small, technically oriented companies. In 1967 he became a

member of the boards of Washington Gas Light Company and Martin Marietta Corporation.

On June 5, 2000, Eugene Zuckert died of pneumonia complicated by a heart ailment at the age

of eighty-eight.

43

Harold Brown

October 1, 1965–February 14, 1969

45 
Harold Brown

October 1, 1965–February 14, 1969

Portrait by Samuel Edmund Oppenheim




HAROLD BROWN was born in New York City on September 19, 1927. He received

a bachelor of arts degree in 1945, a master of arts degree in 1946, and a doctorate in

physics in 1949 at the age of twenty-one, all from Columbia University. In 1964 the

Stevens Institute of Technology awarded him an honorary doctorate in engineering. In 1967 he

was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Between 1947 and 1952 Brown lectured in physics and was a member of the scientific

faculty at Columbia University. He lectured in physics at Stevens Institute of Technology,

spent a year in postdoctoral research at Columbia, and joined the University of California

Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley as a research scientist in 1950. In 1952, when the Livermore, California, site of the E. O. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory was established, Brown

joined the staff there and became the director in July 1960. In 1953 he married Colene Dunning McDowell and they had two daughters.

From 1956 to 1957 Brown was a consultant to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board

and served as a member of the board from 1958 to 1961. From 1956 to 1958 he also was a

member of the Polaris Steering Committee. From November 1958 to February 1959 Brown

was senior scientific advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Discontinuance of

Nuclear Weapons Tests. From 1958 to 1961 he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Ballistic Missiles to the secretary of defense.

In 1961, at age thirty-four, Brown was listed as one of the ten outstanding young men of

the year by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce and received the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award. In 1963 he was awarded the Columbia University Medal of Excellence.

Before he became secretary of the Air Force, Brown served as director of defense

research and engineering for the Department of Defense from May 3, 1961, to September 30,

1965. He was considered one of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara’s “whiz kids.”

When Brown became secretary of the Air Force in late 1965, at age thirty-eight, the

buildup of ground and air forces in Southeast Asia was still underway. His immediate problem

was one of deployment, base structure, procurement of bombs and other ordnance, and training. The more fundamental problem for the secretary and for the Air Force was to determine

47
how air power, in general, could be applied to a limited conflict in a remote area in an unconventional war. That issue would remain basic throughout Brown’s tenure and beyond.

As air secretary, Brown was one of the top defense planners in the Johnson administration

and had a reputation for expertise in both armament and disarmament matters. Shortly after

leaving office, Brown conceded that McNamara’s initiative to develop the F–111B aircraft to

perform somewhat different missions for the Air Force and the Navy might have been a $200-

million mistake. Secretary Brown oversaw a great many technical changes and improvements,

especially in the areas of ballistic missiles, space technology, and antiballistic missile systems.

The Vietnam War refocused tactical systems from antiguerrilla actions to large-scale conventional wars. Other examples of advancements during Brown’s tenure involved target acquisition, rapid processing of data for intelligence purposes, successful use of air-to-air missiles in

air-to-air combat, and electronic countermeasures. The war occupied less than half of Brown’s

time. He maintained that one lesson McNamara, he, and others who were analytically inclined

ought to have discerned from that war was that “analysis is only moderately applicable to

some of the more vital questions in a conventional or subconventional war.” Questions dealing

with political motivation, he found, are not necessarily well suited to analytical study.

Brown left office when the Nixon administration took power in 1969. That year he

became president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and subsequently guided

the campus through a difficult period, which included controversies over U.S. involvement in

Vietnam, major cuts in aid to higher education, recession, and rising inflation. During his

tenure there, women were admitted for the first time as undergraduates and equal opportunity

programs were implemented. During Brown’s term, the Environmental Quality Laboratory at

Caltech was established, computing facilities were developed, and the social science program

was expanded. From 1969 to 1975 Brown served as a delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks. He left Caltech in 1977 to return to the Pentagon, this time as secretary of

defense under President Jimmy Carter.

While serving as defense secretary, Brown launched a comprehensive review of the

defense organization that eventually brought significant change. With regard to strategic planning, he shared many of the same concerns as his Republican predecessors—the need to

upgrade U.S. military forces and improve collective security arrangements—but had a

stronger commitment to arms control. He adhered to the principle of “essential equivalence”

in nuclear competition with the USSR. He considered it essential to maintain the triad of intercontinental ballistic missiles, sea-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers. Some of

the Carter administration’s most important decisions on weapons systems reflected Brown’s

commitment. Although he decided not to produce the B–1 bomber, he did recommend

upgrading existing B–52s and equipping them with air-launched cruise missiles, and he gave

the go-ahead for developing a “stealth” technology.

48
Arms control formed an integral part of Brown’s national security policy. He staunchly

supported the June 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) between the United

States and the USSR, and he was the administration’s leading spokesman in urging the U.S.

Senate to approve it.

Brown left office on January 20, 1981, following President Carter’s unsuccessful bid for

reelection. After leaving the Pentagon, he remained in Washington, D.C., and joined the Johns

Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies as a distinguished visiting professor and served as chair of the university’s Foreign Policy Institute from 1984 to 1992. He

continued to speak and write widely on national security issues, and in 1983 he published

Thinking about National Security: Defense and Foreign Policy in a Dangerous World. In later

years Brown was affiliated with research organizations and served on the boards of a number

of corporations, including AMAX Mining Corporation, CBS, IBM, Philip Morris, Cummins

Engine Co., and Mattel. Beginning in 1992, he served as counselor for the Center for Strategic

and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

49

Robert C. Seamans, Jr.

February 15, 1969–May 14, 1973

51 
Robert C. Seamans, Jr.

February 15, 1969–May 14, 1973

Portrait by Bruno Beran




ROBERT C. SEAMANS, JR., was born on October 30, 1918, in Salem, Massachusetts. After attending the Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts, he earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering at Harvard University in 1939, a master of science degree in aeronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1942, and a

doctor of science degree in instrumentation from MIT in 1951. Subsequently he received honorary doctor of science degrees from Rollins College (1962), New York University (1967),

Norwich Academy (1971), Notre Dame (1974), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) (1974),

University of Wyoming (1975), George Washington University (1975), Lehigh University

(1976), Thomas College (1980), and Curry College (1982). In 1942 Seamans married the former Eugenia A. Merrill and they had five children.

From 1941 to 1955 Seamans held teaching and project management positions at MIT,

where he worked on aeronautical problems, including instrumentation and the control of airplanes and missiles. From 1948 to 1959, he served on technical committees of the National

Air and Space Administration’s (NASA) predecessor organization, the National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics. Seamans served as a consultant to the Scientific Advisory Board

of the Air Force from 1957 to 1959, as a member of the board from 1959 to 1962, and as an

associate advisor from 1962 to 1967.

He joined the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1955 as manager of the Airborne

Systems Laboratory and chief systems engineer of the Airborne Systems Department in

Boston, Massachusetts. In 1958 he became chief engineer of the Missile Electronics and Controls Division at RCA in Burlington, Massachusetts.

In 1960 Seamans joined NASA as associate administrator with responsibilities for

research and development programs, field laboratories, assembling and launching facilities,

and a worldwide network of tracking stations. From December 1965 until January 1968 he was

deputy administrator of NASA, retaining many of the management responsibilities of his prior

position. Much of the development of the space program, from completion of Project Mercury

through Projects Gemini and Apollo, was approved and put into effect during his tenure.

While at NASA Seamans also worked closely with the Department of Defense (DOD) in

research and engineering programs and served as cochairman of the Astronautics Coordinating

53
Board. Through those associations, NASA was kept aware of DOD’s military developments

and technical needs, and Seamans was able to advise DOD of NASA activities that were applicable to national security.

In January 1968 Seamans resigned from NASA to become a visiting professor at MIT. In

July 1968 he was appointed to the Jerome Clarke Hunsaker professorship, an MIT-endowed

visiting professorship in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, named in honor of

the founder of the Aeronautical Engineering Department. During that period at MIT, Seamans

also served as a consultant to the administrator of NASA.

Having received little forewarning that he would be selected as air secretary, he sold his

house in Washington, D.C., a few days prior to accepting the position. With his confirmation

as secretary of the Air Force in 1969 he became a member of a burgeoning elite of government

and industry—scientist-administrators.

At the beginning of his term as air secretary, Seamans saw that the Air Force needed to

modernize, and at the least expense possible. He stressed the need for more efficient management controls. The Air Force had to phase in programs in such a way that excessive peak

demands on the budget were avoided. Because it was impossible to predict a future threat or

the technological innovations that would be required in the foreseeable future, Seamans

argued that the Air Force should provide development options from which to select necessary

procurement programs.

After two years in office, Seamans, who had planned to stay for only two years, informed

Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird that he wished to extend his tour to complete or initiate

several projects. He wanted to place the C–5 contract with Lockheed on a sound basis; resolve

the F–111 cost and technical difficulties; move new programs such as the F–15, B–1, AWACS,

A-X, and F–5E to the point where the Air Force could be confident in its policy of “fly before

buy”; and improve military and civilian personnel policies. His willingness to stay with the

Department of Defense depended on the Nixon administration’s determination to terminate

U.S. activities in Southeast Asia. Seamans’s decision to stay on delighted Laird, who praised

the Air Force secretary for his progress in modernizing forces, managing key weapons systems programs, planning for personnel requirements, and undertaking important domestic

action programs. Laird also credited Seamans for his meaningful role in working toward the

administration’s policy of Vietnamization.

In May 1973, at the time of Seamans’s resignation to become president of the National

Academy of Engineering, President Richard M. Nixon said that his administration was most

fortunate to have had a person of Seamans’s leadership and managerial ability directing the

development of sophisticated new aircraft and helping to improve U.S. missile systems. Nixon

credited Seamans with keeping the Air Force modernization program costs so very close to

projected estimates and for creating an environment in which people serving in the Air Force

believed they could realize their potential.

54
Seamans served as president of the National Academy of Engineering until December

1974, when he became the first administrator of the new Energy Research and Development

Administration. He returned to MIT in 1977 to become the dean of its School of Engineering

in 1978. In 1981 he was elected chairman of the board of the Aerospace Corporation. From

1977 to 1984 he was the Henry Luce professor of environment and public policy at MIT,

where he remained as a senior lecturer in aeronautics and astronautics. In 1996 Seamans published his autobiography, Aiming at Targets. 

55

John L. McLucas

July 19, 1973–November 12, 1975

57 
John L. McLucas

July 19, 1973–November 12, 1975

Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler




J

OHN L. McLUCAS was born on August 22, 1920, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He

attended schools in South Carolina and graduated in 1937 from Latta High School.

Returning to North Carolina, he graduated from Davidson College in 1941 with a bachelor of science degree in physics. In 1943 he received a master of science degree in physics

from Tulane University and in 1950 a doctorate in physics with a minor in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. During World War II, McLucas served as an officer in

the U.S. Navy, including a two-year stint at sea in the Pacific theater as a radar and operations

officer.

In 1950 he joined the electronics firm of Haller, Raymond, and Brown, Inc., as its vice

president and technical director. There he was responsible for all technical work of the company, including forward planning, supervision of technical personnel, proposal preparation,

research, development, and manufacturing. When the firm merged with the Singer Company

in 1958 to form a subsidiary, HRB-Singer, Inc., McLucas became its president. The new ancillary company specialized in military electronic systems. In the twelve years he was affiliated

with HRB-Singer, McLucas increased the number of engineers from ten in 1950 to several

hundred in 1962.

In 1962 he went to work in the Pentagon as a deputy to Harold Brown, the director of

Defense Research and Engineering. It was McLucas’s job to oversee development of tactical

systems of the three services and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. As head of an

office called Tactical Warfare, McLucas spent much of his time with Air Force secretariat officials—Secretary of the Air Force Eugene Zuckert and Undersecretaries of the Air Force

Brockway McMillan and Joseph Charyk—and their military counterparts—Chief of Staff

Gen. Curtis LeMay, and Generals Jim Ferguson, “Spike” Momyer, and “Bennie” Schriever. In

addition, his job entailed liaison with principal agencies of the military departments and laboratories, daily contacts with industry, and visits to industrial and military installations. Frequent contacts with press, other government agencies, and groups like the president’s Scientific Advisory Committee and the Defense Science Board also marked his schedule.

In July 1964 McLucas went to Paris to work for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO) as assistant secretary general for scientific affairs and as chair of the NATO science

59
committee and of the defense research directors’ committee. He was responsible to the NATO

secretary general for the administration of NATO programs in the fields of pure science and

defense science. One of his jobs was to head a committee of defense directors from all NATO

countries who were dealing with the development of common weapons for use by the NATO

allies in case of war in Europe. He also maintained contacts with ministries of foreign affairs,

science, and defense, and with NATO delegations to develop common points of view on science and defense matters.

In 1966 he returned to the United States to become president and chief executive officer

of the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts. MITRE, a nonprofit corporation, that

was organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the request of the United States

Air Force (USAF) in 1958 to assist in procuring and installing the Semi-Automatic Ground

Environment defense system. In 1969 McLucas oversaw a MITRE budget of $42 million, of

which 65 percent was affiliated with the Air Force. While at MITRE McLucas also chaired the

USAF Scientific Advisory Board ad hoc panel on infiltration interdiction in 1967–68; the

Defense Science Board summer study on tactical aircraft in the summer of 1968; and the

Defense Science Board Task Force on Management of Military Research and Development in

1968–69.

In 1969 Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr., asked McLucas to become his

undersecretary. McLucas took the job not only because he respected Seamans as an exceptional engineer and manager, but also because he considered Seamans to be a “decent human

being” and a person he was delighted to call his friend. Seamans wanted a true deputy, someone who would take charge and make decisions in his absence. In this work as undersecretary,

McLucas concentrated on electronics fields, such as satellite communications, fire control,

and electronic warfare, whereas Seamans served as the lead on such weapon systems as new

airplanes. As undersecretary of the Air Force, McLucas also headed the National Reconnaissance Office. He supported the Nixon administration’s policy of reducing U.S. involvement in

the war in Southeast Asia, which moved too slowly for the public’s taste. Seamans and McLucas wrestled with the problems of maintaining an effective military force when the military

was unpopular at home and Soviet power and influence were expanding abroad. It was a time

of decreasing military budgets, rapidly shrinking levels of manpower, and major reductions in

the active forces. Procurements shrank to as little as 10 percent of the number of airplanes

bought during the big defense buildup.

McLucas became secretary of the Air Force in July 1973, just after the United States had

left Vietnam. He perceived his job as salvaging the service from the wreckage caused by the

loss of equipment and a dampened morale, and dealing with the realities of what the Air Force

had always believed—if there was a job to be done, the Air Force could do it. McLucas felt his

task was to rekindle the esprit de corps and simultaneously start a few new projects. The

YF–16/YF–17 flyoff and the Air Force selection and subsequent sale to NATO of the F–16

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were highlights of his tenure. He also strongly supported prototyping to avoid the huge blunders

that were made with the C–5A and the FB–111. Fortunately for him, Secretary of Defense

Melvin Laird, Undersecretary of Defense David Packard, and Bob Seamans shared his views.

McLucas had enjoyed a good relationship with Melvin Laird and had the utmost respect

for his management practices, particularly his penchant for holding weekly meetings with the

three service secretaries, during which he encouraged open discussions and reported about his

activities on the Hill. Such was not the management style of Laird’s successors Elliot L.

Richardson and James R. Schlesinger. During his six-year tenure, McLucas’ aggressive support of weapons systems’ modernization produced a new array of aircraft—the F–15, AWACS

(E–3A), A–10, F–5E, and F–16.

After leaving the Air Force in November 1975, McLucas became the administrator of the

Federal Aviation Administration, where he remained for two years. From 1977 to 1985 he

served as executive vice president of COMSAT, president of COMSAT General, and president

of COMSAT World Systems.

McLucas has been active on the boards of directors of private and pro bono organizations

and as a consultant to several similar groups. In 1991 he authored Space Commerce, which

was published by Harvard University Press.

61

Thomas C. Reed

January 2, 1976–April 5, 1977

63 
Thomas C. Reed

January 2, 1976–April 5, 1977

Portrait by Maxine McCaffrey




THOMAS C. REED was the first secretary of the Air Force to have served in the United States Air Force. Born in New York City on March 1, 1934, he earned a bachelor

of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1956. As a

college student he enrolled in the university’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was the highest-ranking officer, cadet colonel, during his senior year. He was designated a distinguished military graduate and received a commission as a second lieutenant in

the Air Force when he graduated. Reed began active duty with the Air Force in November

1956, serving until 1959 as technical project officer for the Minuteman reentry vehicle system

with the Air Force’s Ballistic Missile Division. While on that assignment, he attended the University of Southern California during off-duty hours and earned a master of science degree in

electrical engineering.

In 1959 Reed was assigned to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of

California, where he engaged in thermonuclear weapons physics. When he was released from

Air Force active duty in May 1961, he rejoined the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory as a civilian for the 1962 reentry vehicle system test series and remained there as a consultant until

1967.

In 1962 Reed organized Supercon Ltd. in Houston, Texas, as its managing partner. The

company developed and produced alloys that served as superconductors. While he maintained

an interest in Supercon, Reed organized the Quaker Hill Development Corporation at San

Rafael, California, in 1965 and served at various times as its treasurer, president, and chairman. Quaker Hill had agricultural, recreational, and construction projects in California and

Colorado. Reed was active in Republican politics and served as a delegate to the Republican

National Conventions of 1968 and 1972 and as a member of the Republican National Committee for the state of California from 1968 to 1972.

In 1973 he was asked by Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger and Deputy Secretary of Defense William P. Clements to work in various capacities in the Department of

Defense. There he served as a procurement specialist and a headhunter until those two men

asked him to become director of telecommunications and command and control systems in

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February 1974. In November 1975 President Gerald R. Ford selected Reed to become secretary of the Air Force, and he was sworn in two months later.

Secretary Reed saw his role as one of training, maintaining, and equipping the forces that

the president and the secretary of defense required. In addition, Reed believed the service secretary had to run interference on high-visibility issues that were not necessarily critical for the

secretary of defense. During Reed’s brief tenure he kept the F–16 foreign partnership from

becoming hopelessly entangled, defended the F–15 from raids for money, kept the A–10 on

track, and generally protected those programs from budget attacks. He had the persistence to

keep programs alive during the austere period that followed the Vietnam War.

After leaving office in 1977, he returned to private business in California as chief executive officer of the River Oaks Agricorp in Healdsburg and to the Quaker Hill Development

Corporation in San Rafael. He was a member of the Defense Science Board from 1977 to

1983 and of the Scientific Advisory Group of the U.S. Strategic Air Command from 1981 to

1983. In 1982 he returned to government for a year as a special assistant for national security

affairs to President Ronald Reagan.

66
John C. Stetson

April 6, 1977–May 18, 1979

67 
John C. Stetson

April 6, 1977–May 18, 1979




J

OHN C. STETSON was born on September 6, 1920, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated

from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943 with a bachelor of science

degree in aeronautical engineering and did postgraduate work at Northwestern University School of Business from 1946 to 1948. He was employed as a structural engineer for Douglas Aircraft Company during World War II before being commissioned in the U.S. Navy,

where he served as a communications officer until the end of the war. After he returned to

civilian life and completed his studies, he resumed an engineering career in the Chicago area.

He served as project manager for Foote Brothers Gear and Machine Company from 1949 to

1951. From 1951 to 1965 he was a member of and then a partner in the consulting firm of

Booz, Allen and Hamilton, responsible for a number of assignments with aircraft companies

and major oil companies operating in the Middle East. In January 1946 Stetson married Gale

McDowell and they had three children.

In 1963 Stetson went to Houston, Texas, to become president of the publishing division of

the Houston Post Company. In 1970 he returned to Chicago to become president of the A. B.

Dick Company, manufacturer and international distributor of business machines, a position he

held until he became the twelfth secretary of the Air Force in 1977.

As President Jimmy Carter’s new air secretary, Stetson realized from the start of his

tenure that the austerity mood of the administration and the Congress would continue to affect

Air Force budgets. He recognized the need to seek out additional avenues, original ideas, and

enlightened management practices to enhance Air Force readiness and combat capability and

further streamline the service’s business methods. He envisioned an era of limited resources

during which there was little expectation that the USSR would diminish its efforts, at military

technological expansion. Therefore, he believed that the Air Force would have to operate more

economically and efficiently. A year into his term he concluded that U.S. taxpayers ought to be

assured that the Air Force was squeezing every ounce of capability from its allotted resources:

the Air Force had cut its manpower, reduced the number of major installations, and used the

savings to reinforce its combat units and to develop new aircraft systems.

When Secretary Stetson left office in June 1979 to return to his business activities in the

private sector, President Carter commended his managerial expertise and genuine concern for

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Air Force personnel and their families. Carter also believed that Stetson had done much to

effect significant improvements in the nation’s air posture to meet commitments as a member

of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In addition to serving as president of his own company, J. C. Stetson Inc., Stetson became

a director of several companies, including the Kemper Corporation; NIBCO, Inc.; MadisonKipp Corporation; Helene Curtis; and Chicago Tube and Iron.

70
Hans M. Mark

July 26, 1979–February 9, 1981

71 
Hans M. Mark

July 26, 1979–February 9, 1981

Portrait by Lynn Buckham




HANS M. MARK was born in Mannheim, Germany, on June 17, 1929. He immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1940 and became a naturalized citizen in

1945. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1951 and a doctorate in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT) in 1954. His father, Herman, a world-renowned chemist widely considered

to be the father of polymer chemistry, inspired Mark’s interest in both physics and nuclear

engineering.

Prior to his first academic appointment as a lecturer in physics at Boston University in

1952, Mark married Marion G. Thorpe. They had two children. Over the years Mark held several academic positions at MIT, and in the University of California system between 1956 and

1969. From 1979 to 1984 he was a consulting professor of engineering at Stanford University.

While at MIT he served as a research associate and acting head of the Neutron Physics Group,

Laboratory for Nuclear Science from 1954 to 1955. At the University of California he served

as a research physicist at the Berkeley campus and then at the university’s Lawrence Radiation

Research Laboratory in Livermore. From 1960 to 1964 he headed the Lawrence Radiation

Research Laboratory Experimental Physics Division, and from 1964 to 1969 he served as

chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley

and administrator of the Berkeley Research Reactor.

Spanning more than three decades, his academic career was distinguished by many

achievements. His pioneering investigation of x-rays emitted from stars led later to the identification of certain objects as black holes. He also has led the engineering development of a

number of spacecraft and experimental aircraft.

Mark served as a consultant for the Institute for Defense Analyses from 1958 to 1961

and for the National Science Foundation from 1966 to 1969. He also served on the U.S. Air

Force Scientific Advisory Board from 1969 to 1976 and on the President’s Advisory Group

on Science and Technology from 1975 to 1976, and he became a member of the Defense Science Board in 1975. He was director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s

(NASA’s) Ames Research Center from 1969 until his appointment as undersecretary of the

Air Force in June 1977. At the Ames Center he coordinated and carried out research in areas

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ranging from fundamental aerodynamics to spacecraft development and to the human factors

that affect space flight.

As acting secretary of the Air Force in May 1979, Mark listed three major responsibilities

as the dominant Air Force priorities for the near term. Modernization of strategic deterrent

forces led the list. He pointed out that the aging bomber force had the thirty-year-old B–52

bomber as its first-line heavy bomber and that the Minutemen III missile force was nearly fifteen years old. He saw the need for an immediate development of new first-line weapons. His

second priority was the enhancement of airlift capability, which he contended had to be both

modernized and increased if “we are to meet our responsibilities around the world.” The third

area of responsibility was in space, especially in the area of strategic reconnaissance, and he

predicted that space-based devices would provide the first warning of future strategic attack.

Mark maintained those priorities throughout his tenure as secretary of the Air Force, and he

also emphasized better pay and benefits for Air Force personnel. In 1979 the Air Force awarded him the Exceptional Civilian Service award, and two years later the Department of Defense

awarded him the Distinguished Public Service Medal.

After leaving the secretariat, Mark was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as

deputy administrator of NASA, where he remained until he took the post of chancellor in the

University of Texas system in 1984. In that position he headed one of the nation’s largest university systems with an enrollment in excess of 150,000. After he left his job as chancellor in

1992, he remained at the University of Texas as a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics. In addition, he held the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering from 1992 to 1998. He also had been associated with the university’s Institute for

Advanced Technology as a senior research engineer since 1990, and in that capacity he

worked on advanced weapons systems for the U.S. Army. During his career, Mark authored

and coauthored more than 150 scholarly articles and many books, including The Space Station: A Personal Journey, The Management of Research Institutions, and In Search of the Fulcrum. In July 1998 Mark became the director of Defense Research and Engineering, serving

as the chief technical advisor to the secretary of defense and the undersecretary of defense for

acquisition and technology on defense research, development, testing, and evaluation. In addition, he had management oversight for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

(DARPA) and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

74
Verne Orr

February 9, 1981–November 30, 1985

75 
Verne Orr

February 9, 1981–November 30, 1985

Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler




VERNE ORR was born on November 12, 1916, in Des Moines, Iowa. He grew up in

the Midwest and moved to California with his family at about the time he entered

high school. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College in

1937 and two years later earned a master of arts degree in business administration from the

Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

At the start of World War II, Orr was a trainee at Bullock’s department store in Los Angeles. Called to active duty in April 1942, he entered service as an ensign in the Supply Corps of

the United States Naval Reserve. During the war, he served in the United States and in the

Pacific theater. He was released from active duty as a lieutenant in November 1945 and honorably discharged from the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant commander in 1951.

Orr became a partner in his father’s Chrysler dealership in Pasadena, California, and

remained there until 1960, when he began a two-year affiliation with a family investment business. From 1963 to 1966 he was president of Investors Savings and Loan in Pasadena. He married Joan Perk of Des Moines and they had two children.

Governor Ronald Reagan of California invited Orr to serve as the state’s director of motor

vehicles, a position Orr held until 1969. In that capacity, he oversaw a department with more

than six thousand employees. He served briefly as the state’s director of general services and

in January 1970 began a five-year term as California’s director of finance.

From 1975 to 1980 Orr taught government finance courses at the University of Southern

California Graduate School of Public Administration. In 1977 he established a small real

estate partnership with his son. He served on Reagan’s presidential campaign committee and

was deputy director of the office of the president-elect during the autumn 1980 transition period. He also served as comptroller for the Reagan presidential campaign and as deputy director

and comptroller for the Reagan-Bush campaign.

Before becoming secretary of the Air Force, Orr was involved in many civic activities. He

served as president of the Pasadena Merchants Association, the Kiwanis Club of Pasadena, the

Family’s Services Association of Pasadena, and the United Way of Los Angeles County; and

as foreman of the Los Angeles County Grand Jury. In 1977 California governor Jerry Brown

named him a regent of the University of California.

77
Orr anticipated that he would be offered the directorship of the Office of Management

and Budget when Reagan was inaugurated, because the responsibilities of that office paralleled those that he had carried as director of finance for the state of California. In the autumn

of 1980, when Orr worked as deputy director of the office of the president-elect during the

transition, President Reagan called on Orr to become secretary of the Air Force. After accepting Reagan’s offer, he received tremendous assistance from the outgoing secretary, Hans

Mark, who even offered to move out of his office before Orr was confirmed as secretary.

The Reagan administration marked a sharp turnabout from its predecessor’s approach to

defense spending. “We are going after more military and civilian authorizations, higher force

levels, and more airplanes and equipment. We are in an expanding mode, not a contracting

mode.” Orr claimed this was the lesson of the November 1980 elections. He admitted that he

rode the crest of the Reagan defense spending wave and thus, much like Harold Talbott nearly three decades earlier, Orr could concentrate on issues other than weapon system procurement. He chose to focus on the quality of life for Air Force personnel. Indeed, he admitted

that his major achievements as secretary were mostly people-oriented. He sincerely believed

that women had more opportunities because of his initiatives; he helped to enhance the promotion opportunities of nonrated officers; and he tried to attain better living conditions for

service members—better dormitories, better gymnasiums, and family service centers. Both

Mrs. Orr and Mrs. Gabriel, the wife of Air Force Chief of Staff Charles A. Gabriel, were

ardent advocates of family support centers on Air Force installations worldwide. Two substantial pay raises in 1981 and 1982 kept Air Force salaries even with inflation. All of those

activities enhanced retention rates.

During Orr’s tenure, he and his wife visited nearly 250 bases, including ones so small that

they housed only a Guard or Reserve unit with a hangar and maintenance shop. For three

Christmases in a row, the Orrs visited remote air bases, such as Thule and Sondrestron in

Greenland and four remote sites in Alaska and Iceland. Not adverse to public speaking, Orr

gave more than seven hundred speeches and press interviews while in office, each time championing the achievements and responsibilities of the Air Force.

When he left office, Orr could point positively to an Air Force that was better equipped

than it had been at any moment in the previous decade. It had the B–1B bomber, the groundlaunched cruise missile, and 650 more fighter aircraft and 30 more KC–10s than it had when

his tenure began. The Air Force Space Command had been initiated and ground had been broken for the Consolidated Space Operations Center in Colorado and for the Air Force Shuttle

Launch Facility in California.

When he left office after nearly five years, Verne Orr had surpassed by two months

Eugene M. Zuckert’s record as the longest-tenured Air Force secretary. Orr would have stayed

longer but left because of his wife’s ill health. He returned to his private life and to his business

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interests in Pasadena, California. He also continued to work on a Ph.D. in public policy and

economics, attaining all but dissertation (ABD) status. In June 1999 he became dean of the

School of Business and Global Studies at the University of LaVerne, in LaVerne, California,

located twenty-five miles east of Los Angeles.

79

Russell A. Rourke

December 8, 1985–April 7, 1986

81 
Russell A. Rourke

December 8, 1985–April 7, 1986




RUSSELL A. ROURKE was born on December 30, 1931, in New York City. He graduated with honors from the University of Maryland in 1953 with a bachelor of arts

degree and earned a law degree from Georgetown University in 1959. He was associated with the law firm of Keogh, Carey and Costello in Washington, D.C., before beginning

his government career in 1960. His first government position was as administrative assistant to

Congressman John R. Pillion (R.-New York); and in 1965 he became administrative assistant

to Congressman Henry P. Smith III (R.-New York).

In 1974 Rourke was the Republican-Conservative nominee for Congress from the 36th

District of New York. After that unsuccessful candidacy, he became deputy to presidential

counselor John O. Marsh, Jr. Appointment as special assistant to President Gerald R. Ford followed in 1976. His principal responsibilities included acting as legislative liaison between the

White House and Congress and regular participation in policy and program meetings with the

president, members of the Cabinet, and the White House senior staff. Rourke also undertook

special projects assigned by President Ford, and among his final assignments was the White

House transition team in 1977.

Rourke served as the administrative assistant to Congressman Harold S. Sawyer (R.-

Michigan) before being sworn in as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs in May

1981. In the latter capacity, Rourke was the principal adviser to Secretary of Defense Caspar

W. Weinberger, regarding congressional consideration of the department’s legislative program;

maintaining direct liaison with the Congress, the executive office of the president, and other

government agencies on defense legislative matters; and overseeing the military department

congressional activities on defense matters. He was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal by Secretary Weinberger for his superb performance as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs.

In July 1985 Rourke retired as a colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after thirtytwo years of service. Before joining the Reserve, he had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in

1953 and completed active duty as a first lieutenant after serving a tour of duty in Korea. From

1972 to 1974 he served as the commanding officer of Marine Air Control Squadron 24, Quantico, Virginia. His decorations included the Legion of Merit.

83
During his short tenure as secretary of the Air Force, Rourke observed that the Air Force

had done a superb job over the years in recruiting, training, and retaining high-quality people,

and that it would continue to work to improve their quality of life. He noted that the Air Force

had steadily expanded opportunities for women and that 17 percent of enlisted recruits were

women. He pointed out that the Soviet threat remained constant and that Soviet efforts at

developing advanced systems continued and covered the complete range of technological

weaponry required to modernize all their forces. He foresaw that pressures for reduced

deficits and balanced budgets would affect U.S. defense programs, and he predicted that the

Air Force could be caught “in the squeeze of lower budget levels and increasing costs to operate and maintain the systems we have been buying over the past five years. That could mean

the threat of less funding for modernization programs at the very time we need most to continue them.” Rourke further predicted that deficit spending would characterize the Air Force budgets for the foreseeable future.

Rourke left office in April 1986, citing personal reasons. He is married to Judith Anne

Muller of New York City. They have three children.

84
Edward C. Aldridge, Jr.

June 9, 1986–December 15, 1988

85 
Edward C.Aldridge, Jr.

June 9, 1986–December 15, 1988

Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler




EDWARD C. ALDRIDGE, JR., was born on August 18, 1938, in Houston, Texas. He

spent his youth in Shreveport, Louisiana, across the river from Barksdale Air Force

Base, where he learned to admire the U.S. Air Force and the leaders who made it a

great institution.

He received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University in 1960 and a master of science degree in the same field from

the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1962. Following his formal education, Aldridge held

various staff and management positions with the Douglas Aircraft Company, Missile and

Space Division, in Santa Monica, California, and in Washington, D.C. Aldridge married

Joanne Knotts of Italy, Texas, and they had four children.

In 1967 he joined the staff of the assistant secretary of defense for systems analysis as an

operations research analyst and then served as director of the strategic defensive division until

July 1972. He also served as an adviser to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty talks in

Helsinki, Finland, and Vienna, Austria. In 1972 he reentered private industry as a senior manager with LTV Aerospace Corporation in Dallas, Texas, and remained there for a year before

being named senior management associate at the Office of Management and Budget, in the

executive office of the president.

Aldridge returned to the Department of Defense in February 1974 as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic programs. In March 1976 he became the director of planning

and evaluation, serving as a principal adviser to the secretary of defense in the planning and

program evaluation of U.S. military forces and support structure.

In March 1977 Aldridge became vice president of the national policy and strategic systems group for the Systems Planning Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, where he was

responsible for the study and analysis of strategic and conventional forces and long-range

strategic planning. In August 1981 he became undersecretary of the Air Force, with additional

responsibility for providing overall direction, guidance, and supervision of Air Force space

programs, including launch and on-orbit operations and planning for future space capabilities.

Before the space shuttle Challenger accident in January 1986, Aldridge was in astronaut training at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

87
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said at Aldridge’s swearing-in ceremony that as

“we pursue the President’s Strategic Defense Initiative, Secretary Aldridge’s space program

background, his expertise in strategic defense, and his commitment to the program will be

enormously useful.”

After taking over as air secretary in the second year of President Ronald Reagan’s second

term, Aldridge did not plan on changing the priorities of the secretariat. He claimed he would

continue his predecessors’ emphasis on people programs, with special focus on retaining quality personnel. He foresaw tremendous budget cuts as well as structural changes issuing from

the administration’s implementation of the findings of the Blue Ribbon (Packard) Commission on Defense Management. He understood that it would be impossible to maintain the rate

of growth in the Air Force budget that had been enjoyed in the previous five years, warning

that, “at best, we might be able to sustain a very limited real growth, and it’s going to be

tougher to get the military manpower to man our forces.” Thus, programs having cost, scheduling, or performance difficulties would be scrutinized closely in terms of requirements and

quite possibly would be cut.

During his tenure, Aldridge consistently pursued personnel benefits, including pay raises

for civilians and for the military and bonus retention initiatives for military members. Following a trip to the USSR in the summer of 1988, the air secretary reported on the wish of the

Soviet government to join with the United States in an exploration of Mars through both

unmanned and manned space missions. Aldridge supported the C–17 program and defended

the B–1B program, and he was critical of those politicians who chose to use the bomber as a

political football. Attaining his office in the wake of the Challenger disaster, Aldridge worked

very hard to rebuild Air Force space-launch capability and to reduce the service’s reliance on

the space shuttle to put military payloads into orbit.

After leaving office in December 1988, Aldridge became president of McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Company. He remained there until 1992, when he became president

and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated

to the objective application of science and technology toward the solution of critical national

problems.

Among his many awards and honors are the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian

Service Award, three Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Awards, the

Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award, the Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the Army Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the National Intelligence

Distinguished Service Award, the National Space Club Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy,

the Air Force Association Jimmy Doolittle Fellow, the Air Force Association Ira Eaker Fellow,

and two Air Force Academy Foundation Distinguished American Awards. He also received the

Max Kriendler, W. Stuart Symington, and Gen. Bernard Schriever Awards from the Air Force

Association.

88
Donald B. Rice

May 22, 1989–January 20, 1993

89 
Donald B. Rice

May 22, 1989–January 20, 1993

Portrait by George Pollard




DONALD B. RICE was born on June 4, 1939, in Frederick, Maryland. He earned a

bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre

Dame in 1961, and a master’s degree in industrial management in 1962 and a Ph.D.

in economics in 1965 from Purdue University. He received three honorary degrees: a doctor of

engineering granted by Notre Dame in 1975, a doctor of management granted by Purdue in

1985, and a doctor of laws granted by Pepperdine University in 1989. Rice married the former

Susan Fitzgerald of Evanston, Illinois. They had three children.

Commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps upon graduation

from Notre Dame, Rice served on active duty from June 1965 to June 1967 as a captain in the

U.S. Army. During that time, he was assistant professor of management and acting deputy

director for academics at the Navy Management Systems Center, Naval Postgraduate School,

Monterey, California.

From February 1969 to September 1970 he served as deputy assistant secretary of

defense for resource analysis. His responsibilities included analysis of cost, manpower, and

logistics’ requirements; preparation of fiscal guidance issued by the secretary to the military

services; and coordination of the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) program and budget planning with the National Security Council. Previous to his DOD service, he had been director of

cost analysis in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from June 1967.

After leaving DOD he served as assistant director in the Office of Management and Budget until April 1972. In that capacity, Rice was responsible for budgeting, program analysis,

and management improvement activities in the areas of agriculture, atomic energy, commerce,

energy, the environment, natural resources, public works, science and technology, space, and

transportation.

In April 1972 Rice became president and chief executive officer of the Rand Corporation,

an independent, nonprofit, public service institution responsible for research and analysis on

problems of national security and domestic affairs and for doctoral degree programs in several

fields of public policy. He served in that capacity until May 1989, when he accepted President

George Bush’s appointment as air force secretary.

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In addition, from 1975 to 1977 he was appointed by President Gerald Ford to serve as

chairman of the National Commission on Supplies and Shortages. He was asked by President

Jimmy Carter to direct a resources management review for the secretary of defense, which he

conducted from 1977 to 1979. From 1974 to 1986 he served two terms on the National Science Board.

As secretary of the Air Force, Rice became the focal point for, and dominant figure in,

setting Air Force policy. He concentrated on developing a strategic framework for the Air

Force as a whole. He sought an environment that would cut across and unite individual packets

of excellence by focusing the institution on air power’s inherent strengths—speed, range, flexibility, precision, and lethality—and on what the Air Force needed to do collectively to create

and nurture those strengths. He published this philosophy in a 1990 white paper titled Global

Reach, Global Power. Both he and Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill A. McPeak used this vision

statement to “kill off ” some of the old organizational barons and redistribute their estates. In

June 1992 Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command, and Military Airlift Command

passed into history and were replaced by Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command.

Air Combat Command blended the winged firepower in the Air Force into one organization—

Global Power. Air Mobility Command lined up most of the mobility and refueling assets on a

single team—Global Reach.

Rice envisioned an Air Force that could span the globe rapidly on short notice to extend

U.S. influence or achieve political objectives. Operation Desert Shield was one example of

global reach: within a few days airlifters vastly exceeded the tonnage and miles of the 450-day

Berlin Airlift of 1948. During the Gulf War, Rice established the precedent that the air secretary would become heavily involved in the policy and methods by which the Air Force would

fight a war.

In addition, responding to administration policy, Secretary Rice became the focal point

for a more efficient, leaner, “meaner” Air Force. He oversaw the cutting of overhead, the

streamlining of logistics and finance, and the scrubbing of the acquisition system. But he consistently warned that a catastrophic drawdown would create a “hollow force,” and he supported the retention of several key modernization programs, such as the B–2 and the C–17.

After leaving office in January 1993, Rice became president and chief operating officer

of Teledyne Corporation, Inc., of Los Angeles, California. Since that time he has served on the

boards of such firms as Vulcan Materials Company and Wells Fargo and Company. Rice also

served as a member of the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations. He has authored

many articles, reports, and papers dealing with economic policy, government organization and

budgeting, defense resources management, energy systems, strategic capabilities and arms

control, regulatory problems, and analytical techniques.

92
Sheila E. Widnall

August 6, 1993–October 31, 1997

93 
Sheila E. Widnall

August 6, 1993–October 31, 1997

Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler




S

HEILA E. WIDNALL was born in Tacoma, Washington, on July 13, 1938. She grew

up near McChord Air Force Base and had a long-standing interest in aircraft and aerodynamics. While in college, she worked summers at the Boeing plant in Seattle. Her

father, Rolland Evans, who died in 1991, was a rodeo rider who arrived in Tacoma almost literally with a saddle on his back. There he put himself through school and eventually became a

professor and later administrator at Tacoma Community College. Her mother was a juvenile

parole officer. Widnall’s interest in flight was matched by an interest in science and math, and

she won the Washington State Science Contest with a project on the atomic deterioration of

uranium. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumnus from Tacoma suggested

Widnall attend that well-respected Cambridge school, and so she received a bachelor of science degree in 1960 and a master of science degree in 1961 at MIT. After earning her doctorate in science there in 1964, she joined the MIT faculty as an assistant professor of aerospace

and astronautics. She became an associate professor in 1970 and a full professor in 1974.

While at MIT she met Bill Widnall, a New Jersey native. They married in 1960 and have two

children.

Widnall headed the MIT engineering department’s division of fluid mechanics from 1975

to 1979 and the Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratory from 1979 to 1990. From 1972 to 1975

she served as a member of the advisory committee for the Aeronautical Systems Division at

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. She has been a member of the Space and Aeronautical

Board; the National Research Council; and the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors, where

she served as chair from 1980 to 1982. In addition, Widnall served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1978 and was a consultant for the

MacArthur Foundation from 1988 to 1992.

Before she became Secretary of the Air Force, Widnall was named associate provost of

MIT and was charged with responsibility in academic integrity, federal relations, faculty

retirement, promotion and tenure policies, and international education programs. She received

the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Lawrence Sperry Award in 1972; the

Society of Women Engineers’ Outstanding Achievement Award in 1975; and the Boston

Museum of Science’s Washburn Award in 1984.

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During her career, she became known internationally for her work in fluid dynamics, specializing in aircraft turbulence. Widnall won the respect of her colleagues, and Air Force leaders who worked with her considered her a natural choice for secretary of the Air Force.

In nominating her as the first female service secretary—although President George

Bush’s secretary of transportation, Elizabeth Dole, indirectly supervised the Coast Guard—in

1993, President Bill Clinton described Widnall as “a woman of high achievement—a respected scientist, a skilled administrator and a dedicated citizen.” He was confident that she would

perform in an outstanding manner, guiding the Air Force through a period of post–Cold War

change.

As Air Force secretary, Widnall oversaw Air Force modernization at a time when the services were enduring sharply reduced budgets. She successfully pushed the C–17 airlifter program and saw the initial flight of the F–22. Her aeronautical expertise enhanced her understanding of Air Force programs and enabled her to ask the right questions about them and to

explain them on Capitol Hill. When she became air secretary, Widnall went from looking at

aircraft as machines to considering the people who fly them. She found no contradiction

between her academic values and those of the Air Force, because the core values of the Air

Force—integrity, service above self, and excellence—were as applicable to academia as they

were to the military.

Widnall focused not only on surviving the drawdown; she also concentrated on the future

of the Air Force—its capabilities, efficiencies, and potential for innovations. The F–22 was

recognized for its stealth and maneuverability characteristics and acknowledged as the vanguard weapon for future air dominance. As secretary, Widnall streamlined the acquisition

processes and explored privatization alternatives for virtually every function, from computers

to base services to depot maintenance. Because of downsizing, the Air Force had trouble

retaining pilots. In the midst of downsizing, she stressed a quality of life program whereby Air

Force people enduring the stresses of new missions and high operations tempos would be

assured that their families’ needs were cared for in their absence. She stood for the Air Force

as an institution during a very difficult time when it was assailed in the press for its position

regarding gender issues of the 1990s.

As she had intended when she accepted her appointment, the first woman secretary saw

the Air Force through its fiftieth anniversary celebration and activities. Widnall resigned her

office to return to MIT in November 1997.

96
F. Whitten Peters

August 3, 1999–the present

97 
F. Whitten Peters

August 3, 1999–the present




F.Whitten Peters was born on August 20, 1946, in Omaha, Nebraska. Following service in the Navy in World War II, Peters’ father decided to reestablish his schoolbuilding architectural business in a northern “lake” suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

There young Peters grew up and attended two local public schools, Lake Bluff Elementary

School and Lake Forest High School. His father died when he was thirteen. Peters earned a

Harvard Club of Chicago scholarship, and with the money earned at odd jobs he was able to

matriculate and thrive at that institution. After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor of

arts degree in government and economics from Harvard University in 1968, he followed his

father’s example by joining the Navy as a Reserve officer in January 1969 and graduated as a

distinguished graduate and company commander the following June. He married Mary Gores

on January 2, 1969. They have three daughters.

His computer program training at Harvard aided his selection to the Atlantic Fleet Intelligence Center in Norfolk, Virginia, where he ran the systems and programming division of the

computer center. Over the next three years, Peters received orders for Vietnam. These orders

were subsequently canceled because his job in nuclear targeting and satellite reconnaissance

prohibited assignment to a war zone and travel to Cold War adversarial countries for ten years

following the Norfolk assignment. While he was at the Norfolk intelligence center, his unit

received a meritorious citation for discovering Russian-built submarine pens in Cuba. In February 1972 he was released by the Navy and, the next day, was hired back as a civilian employee

to complete a project. In August 1972 he earned a Frank Knox Traveling Fellowship from Harvard University to attend the London School of Economics, where the following year he earned

a master of arts with distinction in economics. Believing in the Kennedy ideal and challenge of

public service, Peters thought that the study of law would provide opportunities for such a

career, so he entered Harvard Law School, where for two years he served as president of the

Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude with a doctor of laws degree in 1976. 

Following law school, he clerked for several judges in the District of Columbia, including

Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. As the costs of raising a family and the comparative salaries of private law practice rose above the relatively stagnant state of public remuneration, Peters opted for the private sector. He joined the law firm of Williams & Connolly in

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Washington, D.C., as an associate in 1978; he became a partner in 1984 and remained until

1995. During that time, he served also as an adjunct lecturer at Columbus School of Law,

Catholic University of America, teaching government contract law; and he taught advanced

criminal procedure at Georgetown University Law Center. Peters also served as a member of

the Department of Defense (DOD) Advisory Committee on Streamlining and Codifying

Acquisition Law, and as the chair of the Rules of Professional Responsibility Review Committee at the District of Columbia Bar.

In 1995 Peters became principal deputy general counsel for the Office of the Secretary of

Defense, where he worked on counterterrorism issues, special operations matters, cyber warfare, and information operations issues. He also worked on such matters as the legal implication of the Olympics, several political conventions, and President Clinton’s 1996 inauguration

activities. The following year he served as government representative on a Defense Science

Board study of vertical merger policy. Peters wrote widely and spoke extensively on acquisition reform, legal ethics, and criminal law topics. He was invited by Secretary of Defense

William Cohen to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force. On November 13, 1997, he was

sworn into that office and served as acting secretary of the Air Force when Secretary Sheila

Widnall resigned. For nineteen months he wore those two hats, surpassing by many months

the record of his closest rival for longest tenure as acting secretary. The single most pressing

issue at the moment he assumed office as the acting secretary was the structure of depots—

politically a highly charged matter that had to be handled delicately. During his stint with the

DOD, Peters had worked on other politically sensitive issues, such as the plane crash that

killed Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown, the insubordination case of Kelly Flinn, and the

Air Force’s shooting down of two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq. As a result, he

and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan agreed on the need to establish “a better Public Affairs

early warning network,” which became the “PAZ” function of the Public Affairs Office.

Following the depot problems both Secretary Peters and General Ryan began to focus on

other matters. To address the operations tempo, pay, and, retirement issues, both men supported the Expeditionary Air Force concept in August 1998. A six-month vacancy in the position

of assistant secretary for acquisition also demanded Peters’ time and attention.

On July 30, 1999, Peters was confirmed as Secretary of the Air Force and sworn in on

August 3. In addition to supervising the training and equipping of Air Force personnel and

being responsible for the service’s nearly $70 billion budget, Peters had to oversee one of the

largest drawdowns in the history of the Air Force. Proud of the implications of air power’s victory in Kosovo, he nevertheless had to endure the tortuous political struggles to continue funding the production of the F–22 and tenaciously advocated the need to retain technological air

superiority. Secretary Peters took steps to make an assignment in Washington, D.C., much

more appealing for the best and brightest Air Force majors and lieutenant colonels, rather than

a “burnout-pit” to which they never hoped to return. He wanted the Air Force to make a much

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more persuasive case to Congress in support of its budget and make a better argument for

modernization. Being asked to do so much with such inadequate funds remained a continuing

source of frustration for Peters and the Air Force.

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CHIEFS OF STAFF OF THE AIR FORCE

Gen. Carl Andrew Spaatz

September 26, 1947–April 29, 1948

105 
Gen. Carl Andrew Spaatz

September 26, 1947–April 29, 1948

Portrait byThomas Edgar Stephens




CARL ANDREW SPAATZ was born on June 28, 1891, in Boyertown, Pennsylvania.

While attending local schools he worked as a linotype operator for his father’s newspaper, The Berks County Democrat. He graduated from Boyertown High School at

age fifteen and in 1906 entered nearby Perkiomen Preparatory School, where his academic

career was undistinguished. When his father was injured in a fire two years later, Carl returned

home to run the family newspaper while his father recovered. In 1910 Spaatz entered West

Point as a member of the last class that would report in March. He graduated in the lower half

of his class in June 1914 and was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry. He wanted to

enter flying school but first had to serve a year-long tour as an infantry officer at Schofield

Barracks, Hawaii. In October 1915 he left for a seven-month stint at the Aviation School at

San Diego, California.

In June 1916 Spaatz was assigned to Columbus, New Mexico, and served with the 1st

Aero Squadron under Gen. John J. Pershing in the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. There he

met several men who would become lifelong friends, including Millard Harmon. In May 1917

he joined the 3d Aero Squadron in San Antonio, Texas, and was promoted to captain. Also in

1917 he married Ruth Harrison, the daughter of a cavalry colonel. Spaatz next went to France

with the American Expeditionary Forces as commander of the 31st Aero Squadron. Late that

year he became a member of the American Aviation School at Issoudun and stayed there until

August 30, 1918, when he attained the temporary rank of major. In September 1918 he joined

the 2d Pursuit Group with the 13th Squadron and was promoted to flight leader. On that

assignment he was credited officially with downing three German Fokker aircraft and was

awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. In the following year he was stationed in both California and Texas and became department air service officer for the Western Department in

July 1919. On July 1, 1920, he was promoted to the rank of permanent major, after having

reverted to his former rank of captain following the war.

As a major, Carl Spaatz commanded Kelly Field, Texas, from October 1920 to February

1921 and then served as air officer of the VIII Corps Area until November 1921. He was commanding officer of the 1st Pursuit Group, first at Ellington Field, Texas, and later at Selfridge

Field, Michigan, until September 24, 1924. After graduating in June 1925 from the Air Corps

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Tactical School at Langley Field, Virginia, he served in the Office of the Chief of the Air

Corps at Washington, D.C.

Spaatz commanded the Army plane Question Mark in its refueling endurance flight in

California over the Los Angeles vicinity from January 1 to 7, 1929, keeping the aircraft aloft a

record total of nearly 151 hours, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his

efforts. Spaatz commanded the 7th Bombardment Group at Rockwell Field from May 1, 1929,

to October 29, 1931, and the 1st Bombardment Wing at March Field, California, until June 10,

1933. Then he served in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps and became chief of the

Training and Operations Division. In August 1935 Spaatz enrolled in the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and while there was promoted to lieutenant

colonel. He graduated in June 1936 and served at Langley Field until he returned to the Office

of the Chief of the Air Corps in January 1939.

In November 1939 Spaatz received a temporary promotion to colonel, and during the Battle of Britain in the spring and summer of 1940 he spent several weeks in England as a special

military observer. In August 1940 he was assigned again to the Office of the Chief of the Air

Corps and two months later was appointed assistant to the Chief of the Air Corps with the

temporary rank of brigadier general. He became chief of the Plans Division of the Air Corps in

November 1940, and the following July he was named chief of the Air Staff at Army Air

Forces (AAF) Headquarters.

Several weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Spaatz was assigned as chief of the AAF

Combat Command at Washington and was promoted to the temporary rank of major general.

In May 1942 he became commander of the Eighth Air Force, transferring to the European theater of operations in July 1942 to prepare for the U.S. bombing campaign against Germany.

On July 7 he was given additional duty as commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces in

the European theater. On December 1, 1942, Spaatz became commanding general of the

Twelfth Air Force in North Africa, and the following February he assumed command of the

Northwest African Air Force, which he organized. The following March he attained the temporary rank of lieutenant general.

After Rommel’s Afrika Korps had been driven from North Africa and Italy had been invaded, Spaatz became deputy commander of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, including the

Twelfth Air Force in Africa and the Fifteenth Air Force and the Royal Air Force in Italy. He

returned to England in January 1944 to command the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, which

he headed throughout the preinvasion period and ensuing campaign against Germany. He won

the Distinguished Service Medal for his Africa service and in 1944 was awarded the Collier Trophy, given annually to the American making the most outstanding contribution to aviation.

Briefly stated, Spaatz commanded the largest armada of aircraft and airmen ever assembled

under the control of a single commander. He was one of the chief strategists who resolved the

intricate maze of logistics into an effective strategic bombing campaign for the defeat of Germany, Italy, and Japan. General Eisenhower called him “the best air commander I know.”

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In March 1945 Spaatz received a temporary promotion to four-star rank and in June was

assigned to Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C. The following month he assumed

command of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, with headquarters on Guam. There he

supervised the final strategic bombing of Japan by the B–29, including the two atomic bomb

missions. He was present at all three signings of unconditional surrender by the enemy: at

Rheims, at Berlin, and aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

In October 1945 Spaatz returned to AAF headquarters, and the following February he

was nominated to become commander of the Army Air Forces. In September 1947 President

Truman appointed him as the first chief of staff of the new United States Air Force, a position

he held until April 29, 1948.

Assessing the implications of atomic weaponry was only one of the major problems thrust

upon the AAF in late 1945 and early 1946. Demobilization was also an issue. To be sure, Spaatz

had to oversee the dismantling of the world’s most powerful air force and reduce it from

2,300,000 men to 400,000 and from ninety thousand aircraft to less than ten thousand. Besides

the quest for autonomy, other goals that Spaatz pursued in concert with the first secretary of the

Air Force, Stuart Symington, were the seventy-group Air Force and the reorganization of the

service along functional lines. Like Gen. Henry Arnold, Spaatz sought to press forward on scientific research and development and to build a viable aircraft industry.

Serving for only seven months as the Air Force’s first chief of staff, he retired with the

rank of general on June 30, 1948. In retirement, Spaatz wrote widely on air power subjects and

was a contributing editor to Newsweek magazine. He also served on the Committee of Senior

Advisors to the Chief of Staff, USAF, from 1952 until his death in 1974. He was chairman of

the National Executive Board of the Civil Air Patrol starting in 1948 and a member of the

American Battle Monuments Commission beginning in 1953. He was a member of the board

of directors and third vice president of the Retired Officers Association; a member of the

board of directors of the First National Bank of Arlington, Virginia; and a past president and

member of the board of directors and the executive committee of the Air Force Association. In

addition, he was a past president and member of the board of trustees of the Air Force Historical Foundation. Other boards and committees on which Spaatz served included the Harmon

International Trophy Committee, Committee for the Collier Trophy Award, the Hoover Committee on the Reorganization of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, and as chairman on the USAF Academy Site Selection Board.

General Spaatz died of congestive heart failure on July 14, 1974, at the age of eightythree and was interred at the USAF Academy. His longtime friend and associate Lt. Gen. Ira

C. Eaker commented at the time that Spaatz always exhibited absolute integrity and possessed

wisdom and tremendous common sense.

109

Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg

April 30, 1948–June 29, 1953

111 
Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg

April 30, 1948–June 29, 1953

Portrait by Francis Henry Beaugureau




HOYT S. VANDENBERG was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 24, 1899.

His father, William Collins Vandenberg, was president of a bookbinding company.

His uncle, Arthur H. Vandenberg, went from newspaper publishing in Grand Rapids

to prominence as a Republican member of the U.S. Senate. His family moved to Lowell,

Massachusetts, in 1910 and Hoyt participated in the gamut of high school sports—baseball,

football, hockey, golf, and track. He had an avid interest in scouting, ultimately becoming an

Eagle Scout. His experience at the Plattsburg Junior Camp at Plum Island, New York—a sort

of military school for the wealthy—in the summer of 1916 instilled a desire for a military

career. Political connections and a year of hard work at Columbian Preparatory School in

Washington, D.C., earned him an appointment to West Point, where he graduated and was

commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Service in 1923.

After completing the Primary Flying School at Brooks Field, Texas, in 1923 and

Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, the next year, he received his first assignment

with the Third Attack Group at Kelly Field and assumed command of the 90th Attack

Squadron. In Texas he married Gladys Rose, whom he had met as a cadet. They had two children. In 1927 he became an instructor at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at March Field,

California. From 1929 to 1931 Vandenberg was with the 6th Pursuit Squadron at Schofield

Barracks, Hawaii, where he served as squadron commander for most of that period. After two

years as an instructor at Randolph Field, Texas, he entered the Air Corps Tactical School at

Maxwell Field, Alabama. He graduated in 1935, was promoted to captain, and the following

year graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He

graduated from the Army War College in 1939 and served in the Plans Division of the Office

of the Chief of the Air Corps. In March 1940 he was promoted to major and assigned to the

staff of Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, with whom he helped develop strategic plans for Army

Air Corps deployment in war. He was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel in November

1941 and to temporary colonel in January 1942. Two months later he was named operations

and training officer of the Air Staff.

In June 1942 Vandenberg went to England, where he joined Lt. Col. Lauris Norstad to

plan the invasion of North Africa and to organize the required air forces. While in England he

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helped organize and was appointed chief of staff of the Twelfth Air Force under Maj. Gen.

James H. Doolittle. On February 18, Vandenberg became chief of staff of the Northwest

African Strategic Air Force, with which he flew on numerous missions over Tunisia, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and Pantelleria during the North African campaign. He was awarded both the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his services during this time.

In August 1943 he returned to Washington, D.C., and to Air Corps headquarters as deputy

chief of the Air Staff. The following month he became head of the Air Mission to Russia under

Ambassador Averell Harriman and returned to the United States in January 1944. In March

1944 he was promoted to temporary major general and ordered back to England as deputy

commander of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force under Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur W. Tedder and as commander of the U.S. air component. In August 1944, having already led in planning the tactical air support program for the European invasion, Vandenberg took from Lt.

Gen. Lewis H. Brereton the command of the Ninth Air Force—a huge unit consisting of more

than four thousand officers and men. The Ninth flew close tactical support missions in conjunction with ground forces, particularly those of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, and

flew escort missions with the strategic bombers of the Eighth Air Force. In March 1945 Vandenberg was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general. In May he returned to

Washington, D.C., and in July was named assistant chief of staff of operations of the Army Air

Forces. The following January he was appointed chief of the Intelligence Division of the General Staff and in June became director of the Central Intelligence Group, a predecessor of the

Central Intelligence Agency, which was formed in 1947. In September 1947 he became

deputy commander and chief of the air staff of the Army Air Forces.

When the Air Force attained its independence in September 1947, General Vandenberg

became vice chief of staff, and in April 1948 he succeeded Gen. Carl Spaatz as Chief of Staff of

the Air Force. He held that post through critical periods of the Berlin Airlift, 1948–1949, and

the Korean War, 1951–1953. He was a leading figure in the Air Force–Navy fight over carrierbased aviation, which was resolved in favor of the Air Force. The controversy over the Armed

Services Unification Bill found him in a leading role as a champion of unification. “Air power

can never win a war by itself,” he said. “The Air Force is one part of an air–land–sea team, on

which no one unit is more important than the other two.” Vandenberg got along very well with

the first secretary of the Air Force, W. Stuart Symington. The pair worked closely together and

their professional relationship continued after Symington left office in 1950.

At the outbreak of the Korean War, the Air Force barely was able to perform its atomic mission. Its funding had been cut by the bare-bones policies of President Harry S Truman and Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson, which prompted Vandenberg to consider his charge a “shoestring air force.” During his tenure as chief, Vandenberg pursued technological modernization for

the Air Force—rocket development, computer proliferation, thermonuclear experimentation, and

the transition to an all-jet inventory. He also picked competent individuals for crucial positions—

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Gen. Curtis E. LeMay for the Strategic Air Command, Gen. Lauris Norstad in Europe, Lt. Gen.

Otto P. Weyland in Korea, and Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner for the Berlin Airlift.

On April 30, 1952, Vandenberg began serving an extended term of fourteen months as Air

Force chief of staff. This term was granted by President Truman to enable him to round out

thirty years of service in the highest rank he attained. During his last year in office, he fought

hard for the 143-wing Air Force. Always conscious of the ever-growing Soviet threat, he

argued that anything less than a force of that size would be a “calculated risk” to the security

of the United States and the free world. Although he lost that immediate effort—the program

would be stretched out—he could be proud that the Air Force had doubled in size since the

beginning of his tenure. 

At General Vandenberg’s retirement ceremony in June 1953, Secretary of the Air Force

Harold E. Talbott, who presented the Distinguished Service Medal to Vandenberg, said he was

“a prime architect of today’s powerful air arm” and a “brilliant air strategist.” Soon after his

retirement, the cancer that had been diagnosed earlier began to take its toll, and he succumbed

to his illness on April 2, 1954. His funeral was held at the Washington Cathedral, and the

prominence of the man and the significance of his untimely loss could be seen in the list of

pallbearers—George Marshall, Robert Lovett, Stuart Symington, Carl Spaatz, Omar Bradley,

and Bernard Baruch. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, who served three years as Vandenberg’s vice

chief and would succeed him, said at the time of the funeral service that “only those who

worked closely with General Vandenberg were fully aware of the depth of his thinking, the

careful balance of his judgment and the soundness of his decisions.”

115

Gen. Nathan Farragut Twining

June 30, 1953–June 30, 1957

117 
Gen. Nathan Farragut Twining

June 30, 1953–June 30, 1957

Portrait by Charles Baskerville




NATHAN FARRAGUT TWINING was born on October 11, 1897, in Monroe, Wisconsin, one of eight children. In 1911 the family moved to Portland, Oregon, where

he and his brothers indulged their passionate interest in hunting and fishing. In the

spring of 1915, Twining joined the Oregon National Guard, presumably because “they had a

good rifle range and he liked to shoot.” He attained the rank of corporal as an infantryman

with that Guard unit on the Mexican border in 1916. In June 1917 he entered the accelerated

wartime West Point class and graduated in November 1918 as a second lieutenant, just days

too late for service in World War I.

In July 1919 he joined the U.S. forces in Germany as a military ground observer and

toured Belgian, French, and Italian battlefields. That September he entered the Infantry

School at Fort Benning, Georgia. After graduating in June 1920, he received an assignment to

the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning. In February 1922 he became aide to Brig. Gen. B.

A. Poore, serving with him at Camp Travis, Texas; Fort Logan, Colorado; and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. But Twining was not convinced that the infantry was for him, and after a ride in a

Jenny trainer piloted by an Air Service officer, he knew that he wanted to fly. After Twining’s

repeated efforts to transfer to the Air Service, Poore finally signed off and let his aide begin air

training. Twining entered Primary Fying School at Brooks Field, Texas, in August 1923. A

year later he graduated from Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, and then returned

to Brooks Field as an instructor. On November 16, 1926, he officially transferred to the Air

Service, and the following September he was reassigned to March Field, California, where he

served as a flying instructor. Twining later recalled those early years of virtually unrestricted

flying in Texas with exuberance: “There were no airfields then, and shooting [landings in]

those little cow pastures was something. When you needed gas you staked the airplane down

and went to town and got it.”

In February 1929 he joined the 18th Pursuit Group at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where

he served successively as adjutant, personnel officer, headquarters detachment commander,

and commanding officer of the 26th Attack Squadron. Lieutenant Twining was ordered to Fort

Crockett, Texas, in March 1932, and was assigned to the 3d Attack Group as a squadron commander. In August of that year he joined the 90th Attack Squadron and, a month later, the 60th

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Service Squadron at the same base. An auto accident and, later, his marriage to Maude McKeever and the responsibility of raising three children led him temporarily to abandon flying for

work in aircraft maintenance and engineering. Beginning in 1932, both his assignments and

the development of his military career became more specialized as he focused on such areas as

improving aircraft maintenance. He became engineering officer for the Central Zone of the

U.S. Army Air Mail Service in Chicago, Illinois, in February 1934, and in June returned to

Fort Crockett, where he became adjutant to the 3d Attack Group. In May of that year Twining

was handpicked by then Lt. Col. Henry “Hap” Arnold as a pilot on the 1934 Alaskan Flight,

but Arnold soon removed Twining because of a divergence of views over the ratio of pilots to

mechanics. Apparently that difference did not bias Arnold against Twining, however, because

some six years later Arnold, who was then the chief of staff of the Air Corps, assigned the

newly promoted Colonel Twining to be his assistant executive in the Office of the Chief of the

Air Corps.

In March 1935 Twining became assistant operations officer of the Third Wing at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where he was finally promoted to captain after seventeen years as a lieutenant. That August he entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, and

completed the course a year later. In August 1936 he entered the Command and General Staff

School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and graduated the following June. At his next assignment as Air Corps technical supervisor at San Antonio Air Depot, Duncan Field, Texas, in July

1937, Twining gained a solid understanding of logistics. Three years later he was reassigned to

the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps in Washington, D.C.; within three months he was chief

of the technical inspection section in that same office. He then joined the operations division

in December 1941. In February 1942 General Arnold brought Twining in as his assistant executive and three months later appointed him director of War Organization and Movements in

the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps, a position that directed the assembly of task forces,

prepared troop movement orders, and allocated aircraft and personnel. Twining’s persistent

pleas to Arnold to send him to war and out of the paper-shuffling business were finally

acknowledged in July 1942, when he was sent to the South Pacific as chief of staff to Maj.

Gen. Millard F. Harmon, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces in the South Pacific Area.

During World War II, Twining commanded three Air Forces—two in the Pacific and one

in the Mediterranean—and flew combat missions with all three. In January 1943 he took command of the Thirteenth Air Force, whose mission was to provide air cover for operations in the

Solomon Islands. About two weeks after he assumed command of the Thirteenth Air Force,

the heavy bomber on which he was flying a mission was forced down in the sea at night. The

plane sank in less than a minute. General Twining and fourteen others were left with two rafts,

each designed to carry six men. For provisions the group had one chocolate bar, a can of sardines, and a canteen only half full of water. During the six days they spent on the rafts, they

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beat off a shark attack with their paddles and survived on the rainwater they collected and the

two albatrosses they shot and ate raw. All fifteen men were suffering from starvation, fatigue,

and sunburn when Navy airplanes rescued them. Subsequently, on July 25, 1943, Twining was

appointed commander, Aircraft, Solomon Islands, and placed in tactical control of all Army,

Navy, Marine, and Allied Air Forces in the South Pacific, one of the first joint air commands

in U.S. history.

During the Bougainville campaign, Twining’s aircraft permanently knocked the Japanese

airfields out of operation while they cleared the skies of enemy aircraft. It was during that period that he became a staunch convert to the doctrine and tenets of strategic bombardment. Sent

stateside for some needed rest in December 1943, he was “kidnapped” by General Arnold

(according to Adm. William Frederick Halsey and General Harmon) and not sent back to the

Pacific, but rather to Italy, where he assumed command of the Fifteenth Air Force, providing

tactical support to then Lt. Gen. Mark Clark’s Fifth Army; covering landings in southern

France; and carrying out strategic bombing forays into Germany, Austria, and the Balkans,

including the famed raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. Two months later, in addition to

his other duties, he took command of the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Forces. After

some serious and unfortunate errors, especially at Cassino—where bombs were dropped on

friendly forces—he was able to develop his Fifteenth Air Force to become the near equal of the

Eighth Air Force in England.

Twining returned to the States in June 1945, and once again Arnold sent him on another

command assignment, this time replacing Gen. Curtis E. LeMay as head of the Twentieth Air

Force in the South Pacific theater. His B–29 Superfortresses pounded the Japanese home

islands and dropped the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In October 1945 he was

assigned to Continental Air Force Headquarters at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., and two

months later became commanding general of Air Materiel Command, with headquarters at

Wright Field, Ohio. On October 1, 1947, Twining was named commanding general of the

Alaskan Department, and on October 21 he became commander in chief of the Alaskan command, with headquarters at Fort Richardson. After a brief stint as acting deputy chief of staff

for personnel at Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in July 1950, he was appointed

Air Force vice chief of staff on October 10, 1950, with promotion to general.

In June 1953 Twining replaced Vandenberg as chief of staff of the Air Force. In that position he helped expand the nation’s worldwide network of air bases for strategic bombers and

played a major role in forming United States policy in Indochina. He also was instrumental in

developing nuclear air weapons and the supersonic missiles and jets designed to deliver them.

He was an ardent advocate of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and believed that SAC was

the best deterrent to Communist military power. He also gained a reputation for easing the

acrimonious controversies that characterized interservice relations in the immediate postwar

years. One of the most noteworthy events during his tenure as air chief was his visit to the

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USSR. At the invitation of the Soviet Union, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a delegation of technical experts headed by General Twining to inspect Soviet air facilities—the first

such visit by U.S. officers since the end of World War II.

In 1957 President Eisenhower named Twining chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS),

the first Air Force officer ever to hold the post. During the Quemoy and Matsu Islands crisis

off the coast of China in August 1958, Twining and the Joint Chiefs recommended the use of

whatever force was necessary, including atomic weapons, to keep the Communist Chinese

from gaining control of the islands. The Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958,

which gave the JCS chairman the previously lacking authority to assign tasks to the Joint

Chiefs of Staff, was passed during Twining’s tenure as chairman. He personally took a leading

role in both explaining and supporting Eisenhower’s proposals before Congress and working

out the implementation once the legislation was enacted.

General Twining served the Joint Chiefs of Staff until September 1960, when failing

health and a cancer operation cut short his stint as chairman. Following his retirement from

military service, he became vice chairman of the Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Publishing

Company. He died of cardiopulmonary arrest on March 29, 1982.

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Gen. Thomas Dresser White

July 1, 1957–June 30, 1961

123 
Gen. Thomas Dresser White

July 1, 1957–June 30, 1961

Portrait by Paul F. Trebilcock




THOMAS DRESSER WHITE was born on August 6, 1901, in Walker, Minnesota, the

son of an Episcopal bishop. One of his great-grandfathers, also a minister in the

church, had officiated at the marriage ceremony of Abraham Lincoln. Another greatgrandfather was the eloquent U.S. senator from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun. At an early

age White exhibited remarkable intellectual gifts, along with a desire for travel and adventure.

He attended St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, from 1914 to 1918, when

he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“Tom,” “Tommy,” or “T.D.,” as he was called by his classmates, edited the school magazine and later the yearbook, which predicted his future with amazing accuracy: “The echo of a

steamboat whistle never fails to awaken in him the wanderlust, and he is always [thinking] foreign service. The best we can wish for him is that on graduation he will have his chance as

attaché in some far capital.” He was to get this wish, and much more. Seven months before

turning nineteen, he graduated in the class of 1920, making him one of the youngest graduates

in the history of the academy.

Assigned to the infantry, Lieutenant White soon grew bored with the rather dull peacetime duties of a ground officer and became interested in airplanes. After serving three years in

the Panama Canal Zone, he transferred to the Air Service and won his wings in 1925, after

learning to fly at Brooks and Kelly Fields in San Antonio, Texas. The following year he was

assigned to the 99th Observation Squadron in Washington, D.C., where he also enrolled at

Georgetown University to study the Chinese language. In May 1927 he married Rebecca

Blaine Lipscomb, the daughter of a New York publisher. Their daughter later married “Billy”

Mitchell, Jr., son of the famous general. Shortly after his marriage, White was sent to Peking,

China, to continue his study of Chinese, and while there he compiled the English–Chinese

Vocabulary of Aeronautical Terms.

While in Peking, White convinced his superiors to allow him to observe the fighting

between Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists. He sent back so thorough a report that his

superiors subsequently allowed him to extend his stay on the Chinese border as long as he continued to submit such comprehensive reports. During his stay in China, he also began to study

the Russian language, a discipline that would serve him well after the United States granted

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diplomatic recognition to the USSR in 1933. In February 1934 William C. Bullitt, the first

U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, selected the thirty-three-year-old Air Corps first lieutenant and Russian linguist to serve as air attaché and pilot of the embassy airplane.

On one flight as White piloted Bullitt, the aircraft developed engine troubles. With no airfield in sight, White eased the plane down into a bog—nose over. Muddy but uninjured, Bullitt

wired Roosevelt: “We landed upside down, but came out right side up.” When not piloting the

embassy plane, White wrote excellent reports about the USSR, and his superiors in Washington commended him for his observations on the growth of Soviet air power.

A series of attaché assignments in Italy, Greece, and Brazil further developed White’s talents, not only as a first-rate intelligence officer, but also as an accomplished linguist. During

those tours, he became fluent in Chinese, Russian, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. In

March 1938 he married for the second time, to Constance Millicent Rowe, daughter of a

British Indian civil service officer. Promoted to captain in August 1935, he returned to the

United States in May 1938 to attend the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama,

and the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The schools

provided him the broad theoretical background necessary for higher command and kept him

abreast of U.S. air power and military doctrine.

Upon completing the Leavenworth course, he was assigned again to staff duties in the

office of the Chief of the Air Corps. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to major and sent to

Brazil as military attaché. There he continued his study of languages, and with his wife Constance discovered the wonders of rare tropical fish, becoming an ichthyologist. White’s catches and Constance’s watercolors of the fish helped scientists distinguish species and establish a

basic description for the designation of new species. In their honor, two previously unknown

species of tropical fish were named “Cynolebias Constanciae” and “Cynolebias Whitei.”

After World War II began, White was recalled to the United States in 1942 to serve as

assistant chief of staff for operations and then chief of staff of the Third Air Force at Tampa,

Florida, whereupon he was promoted to brigadier general. In January 1944 he was reassigned

to Army Air Forces Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he became assistant chief of

staff for intelligence. In that post he helped formulate plans for the D–Day invasion.

His request for combat duty was honored in September 1944, when he went to the Pacific

as deputy commander of the Thirteenth Air Force and took part in the New Guinea, Southern

Philippines, and Borneo campaigns. Always widening his linguistic abilities, he devoted his little spare time to the study of the Micronesian and Filipino dialects, as well as the Japanese language. In June 1945 Brigadier General White became commanding general of the Seventh Air

Force in the Marianas and led it in island-hopping to Okinawa, where it played an important

role in bringing about the Japanese surrender. At the end of the war, he took the Seventh to

Hawaii. Promoted to major general in 1946, when many other general officers were being

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reduced in rank because of congressional ceilings, he was called to Tokyo as chief of staff of the

Pacific Air Command. One year later, he assumed command of the Fifth Air Force in Japan.

White returned to the United States in 1948 to serve as director of United States Air Force

Legislation and Liaison. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1951, and for more than a

decade he held a succession of top-level posts in Headquarters USAF: Air Force member of the

Joint Strategic Survey Committee in 1950; director of plans in 1951; and deputy chief of staff

for operations in 1951. In 1953 Gen. Nathan F. Twining selected him as his vice chief of staff. 

As Twining’s vice chief, General White, now at four-star rank, was largely responsible for

domestic issues such as the air defense buildup. Beginning in 1954, the Air Force constructed

the most technically advanced air defense network the world had ever seen, centered on the

semiautomatic ground environment (SAGE) system, a computer-oriented command, control

and communications network. This system could identify hostile aircraft approaching the

United States and direct friendly fighters to intercept them. In addition, during his stint as vice

chief of the Air Force, he initiated serious efforts to deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles

(ICBMs). While advocating ICBM programs, White argued that missile systems would not

eliminate the requirement for manned aircraft.

In 1957 White replaced Twining as chief of staff of the Air Force. In that position his

major challenge was to weave a complex array of missiles and space and atomic weapons into

the nation’s deterrent screen. To accomplish that task, he called for a “mixed force” of strategic

bombers; intercontinental and medium-range ballistic missiles; tactical aircraft; installations

and reliable and secure communications; an advanced reconnaissance system; a modernized

cargo fleet; and advanced space systems. He believed that the Air Force could not devote its

resources overwhelmingly to one weapon system. Although he had been in the forefront in

encouraging research and development of the ICBM, he did not consider it a weapon that

would enable the Air Force to fulfill all of its defense requirements. On this point, subsequent

events proved him to be profoundly correct, and it may be in his “mixed force” concept that

White left his most important legacy as chief of staff.

In developing his ideas of future force requirements and military strategy, the general

said, “There is no dividing line between air and space; they are one vast operating arena, and

they must be considered as one medium: aerospace. . . . We must move steadily toward operations in space—not merely because it is there, challenging us, but because it is vital to our

nation’s security to do so.” Under White’s tenure, the Air Force made its first deep move into

space, launching satellites for reconnaissance, weather forecasting, and communications, and

as space probes.

When he retired in 1961, the National Geographic Society honored him by designating a

space award to be given annually in his name. The award would go “to that military member

or civil service employee of the United States Air Force who has made the most outstanding

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contribution to the nation’s progress in aerospace.” Among the award’s first recipients were Air

Force astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Gordon Cooper, and Edward White. The Air Force

Academy established the National Defense Award named after General White in 1962 to honor

the living U.S. citizen who contributed most significantly to the national defense and security of

the United States during the preceding year. In addition, the Natural Resources Award, which is

presented annually to the Air Force base displaying the greatest effort in conserving natural

resources, was named after General White. Upon the general’s retirement, President John F.

Kennedy cited him for discharging “with great distinction the tremendous responsibility of

assuring strong, effective deterrent forces in being while simultaneously integrating into the Air

Force the new military systems which are the products of modern technology.”

White kept busy in retirement. President Kennedy appointed him to the General Advisory

Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and President Lyndon B. Johnson

extended the appointment. White was a director of several companies, including Eastern Airlines, and in mid-1964 was elected board chairman of Electronic Teaching Laboratories in

Washington, D.C. He also frequently contributed articles to Newsweek magazine. Although

suffering from the initial stages of leukemia in 1965, he was called upon to chair a special

advisory committee appointed by Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert to investigate

the cadet honor system and the athletic program at the Air Force Academy. It was his final

mission for the Air Force and his country; he died on December 22, 1965. Eulogizing the general, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower described him as “a man of intense dedication . . . intelligent, thorough and flexible in his thinking.” Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, White’s successor as chief of staff, praised him as “a man of action, an erudite scholar and thinker and an

enlightened human being.”

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Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay

June 30, 1961–January 31, 1965

129 
Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay

June 30, 1961–January 31, 1965

Portrait by Sandor Klein




CURTIS EMERSON LeMAY was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 15, 1906.

He recalled being happiest as a child when prowling the countryside with a gun and

bowie knife. The son of an ironworker, LeMay worked in a foundry at night so he

could attend Ohio State University.

After receiving a reserve commission in the Army field artillery in 1928, he left school to

enter flight training at Kelly Field, Texas. When he received his pilot’s wings, he transferred to

the Air Corps and obtained a regular commission in January 1930. Two years later he received

his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Ohio State.

Lieutenant LeMay’s first tour of duty was with the 27th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge

Field, Michigan. He served in various assignments in fighter operations before he transferred

to bomber aircraft in 1937 as a member of the 2d Bomb Group at Langley Field, Virginia. In

1937 and 1938 he was the lead navigator on two mass flights of B–17 Flying Fortresses to

South America. The group received the Mackay Trophy in 1938 for that outstanding aerial

achievement, the first such mass flight in history. Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II,

LeMay pioneered air routes over the South Atlantic to Africa and over the North Atlantic to

England. He was promoted to major in 1941, to lieutenant colonel in January 1942, and to

colonel in March 1942.

After he was named commanding officer of the 305th Bombardment Group, LeMay

trained it in California and then led it and its B–17 Flying Fortress bombers to Europe and into

combat. One of his most famous acts of the war occurred when he ordered his men to stop taking evasive maneuvers while over the target. He doubted that such maneuvers did any good

and was sure they threw off bombing accuracy. With his cigar firmly in place, he personally

led the next raid, coming in straight and level through heavy antiaircraft fire to strike at the

submarine pens at St. Nazaire. The flight became legendary. LeMay pioneered battle formations of B–17s to provide better defensive power against enemy fighters. He took command of

the 3d Bombardment Division and led a famous shuttle mission in August 1943 during which

bombers took off from bases in England, struck deep into Germany against the Messerschmitt

plant at Regensburg, and landed in North Africa. Although promoted to brigadier general a

month later, he never lost the ability to identify with enlisted men. During World War II, he

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amended a series of seemingly endless Allied Command memos forbidding fights between

U.S. and British servicemen by noting that he endorsed the order and he wanted it known that

if his men did fight, they were to win.

In July 1944 LeMay was transferred to the Pacific to direct the B–29 heavy bombardment

operations of the XX Bomber Command in the China–Burma–India theater. He later commanded the XXI Bomber Command with headquarters on Guam and still later became chief

of staff of the Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific. On March 9, 1945, he shifted the tactics of

the bomber force from high-altitude precision attacks to low-altitude nighttime operations

using incendiary bombs. A formation of more than three hundred B–29s set Tokyo ablaze, and

other firebombing strikes followed. Preparations for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki took place under his command, but LeMay had predicted that the firebombing

would destroy every worthwhile target in Japan by November 1945 and that the atomic strikes

would not be necessary. At the conclusion of World War II, he returned to the United States

piloting a B–29 Superfortress on a nonstop, record-making flight from Hokkaido, Japan, to

Chicago, Illinois.

In December 1945 LeMay became deputy chief of air staff for research and development.

In October 1947 he was chosen to command the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, with headquarters

at Wiesbaden, Germany. He organized air operations for the famous Berlin Airlift—a remarkable exhibition of logistical air power that impressed the world and left the Soviets utterly

defeated in their attempt to starve West Berlin into submission. General LeMay was a morethan-occasional pilot during the airlift, claiming that he had to be in Berlin “for a conference”

and saying he might as well fly a much-needed transport rather than travel as a VIP passenger.

In 1946 LeMay was named commanding general of Strategic Air Command (SAC), and

over the nearly ten years that he held the position, he built the organization into a global striking force that was the most efficient and feared nuclear arm of the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed,

he made SAC into a proud elite force that kept waves of nuclear-armed bombers aloft twentyfour hours a day. He perfected aerial refueling and boasted a force that with nearly twenty

bases worldwide was ready to strike anywhere at any time. One of the many legendary stories

about General LeMay was that he once found a SAC sentry who had put down his weapon to

eat a sandwich. “This afternoon I found a man guarding a hangar with a ham sandwich. There

will be no more of that,” he raged in a memo. Yet he was known also for his concern for the

physical well-being and comfort of his men. He was as demanding of the brass as he was of

his pilots and men and was known as a general who would not order his men to do something

he would not do himself.

In July 1957 General LeMay returned to Washington as vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air

Force under Gen. Thomas D. White. LeMay became chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force in July

1961, and in that role he tangled with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara over plans to

cut back on manned bombers for ballistic missiles. McNamara had denied LeMay the B–70

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bomber—which the general wanted as the successor to the B–52—and forced him to accept

the F–111 fighter-bomber. General LeMay also disagreed with McNamara’s restraints on U.S.

air power in Vietnam, a sore point for a former combat pilot who believed in and had fought in

all-out war. After LeMay retired he announced that McNamara’s plans “may be signaling the

end of the country.”

Although he was a bomber advocate, LeMay supported an Air Force presence in space,

maintaining that “no nation can afford to allow an enemy one-sided exploitation of space, or

any other medium for communications and observation in wartime. If one of two opponents

possesses military capabilities relative to space, and the other does not, there can well be onesided military exploitation of space in wartime. . . .” He added that the military implications of

space were more dangerous and even more revolutionary than were those that accompanied

the evolution of the airplane. “For our own safety,” he said, “we must take the lead and remain

in the forefront of whatever developments may come.”

After retirement, LeMay served as board chairman of a Los Angeles electronics firm but

was fired for his active support of George Wallace’s bid to become the American Independent

Party’s candidate for president in 1968. LeMay later accepted Wallace’s invitation to become

his vice presidential running mate. General LeMay frequently expressed strong anticommunist

views, in keeping with a basic conservative temperament. “I don’t believe there are good Communists and bad Communists,” the general said. “I just think they are Communists and they all

have the same basic principles involved which I think are basically wrong.” This architect of

strategic air power died of a heart attack in a California military hospital on October 1, 1990.

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Gen. John Paul McConnell

February 1, 1965–July 31, 1969

135 
Gen. John Paul McConnell

February 1, 1965–July 31, 1969

Portrait by Woodi Ishmael




J

OHN PAUL McCONNELL was born on February 7, 1908, in Booneville, Arkansas, the

son of a doctor. He graduated magna cum laude from Henderson Brown College at

Arkadelphia, Arkansas, with a bachelor of science degree in 1927. He then coached high

school football and was an oil field roustabout before entering the U.S. Military Academy at

West Point. There he set an academy four-hundred-meter hurdle record and was first captain

of the corps of cadets for the class of 1932.

After taking flying training at Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas, he received his wings in

1933. Serving as a fighter pilot during his early years in the Army Air Corps, McConnell

gained broad experience through a variety of operational and administrative assignments,

including duty as assistant executive in the Office of the Chief of Army Air Forces in Washington. He subsequently served in key Air Force positions in Asia and in Europe.

In 1943 McConnell became chief of staff of the China–Burma–India Air Force Training

Command at Karachi, India, and remained in Asia for the rest of the war. While serving as a

senior air staff officer at Air Command Southeast Asia and deputy commander of the Third

Tactical Air Force in 1944, he participated in combat operations against the Japanese in

Burma. In 1946 he was named senior air adviser to the Chinese government and, at the same

time, commanded the Air Division, Nanking Headquarters Command. McConnell married

Sally Dean, whom he met in Ceylon where she served as a Women’s Army Corps officer on

the staff of Lord Louis Mountbatten. They had two sons.

McConnell returned to Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1947 to become

chief of the Reserve and National Guard Division and the next year was appointed chief of the

Air Force’s Civilian Components Group. Assigned to England in 1950, he served as deputy

commander and, later, as commander of the Third Air Force. He then took command of the 7th

Air Division of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), simultaneously commanding the Third Air

Force. This was followed by a four-year tour as director of plans at Headquarters SAC, Offutt

Air Force Base, Nebraska. In 1957 McConnell was named commander of SAC’s Second Air

Force at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and four years later returned to SAC headquarters to become vice commander in chief.

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In 1962 General McConnell was assigned to Europe as deputy commander in chief of the

United States European Command and was promoted to four-star rank. He was appointed vice

chief of staff of the United States Air Force in August 1964.

McConnell’s appointment as chief of staff of the Air Force on February 1, 1965, was considered by many inside and outside the Air Force as the beginning of a new era. His predecessor, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, possessed an international reputation as the last of the World War II

heroes and the premier architect of the Strategic Air Command—the most powerful military

organization in all of history. Although McConnell was a wartime flying general by the age

thirty-six (he had served in the China–Burma–India theater as director of plans for LeMay’s

SAC and had been deputy commander of the United States European Command in NATO), he

was seen as one of the new breed in Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara’s Pentagon—

an organization man highly regarded in for his planning ability, his interpersonal skills, his

intellect, and his trustworthiness. He was considered McNamara’s man, and his appointment

was expected to ease some of the tensions that had surfaced while the crusty and sometimes

plainspoken LeMay was in office. Many insiders speculated that McConnell’s role would be to

present the Air Force as an integrated whole, no longer dominated by SAC, with more emphasis on conventional warfare and counterinsurgency.

During his years as chief of staff, General McConnell confronted some of the most difficult challenges ever to face an officer in that post: he directed the expansion of tactical forces

for an expanding conflict in Southeast Asia; oversaw controversial weapons procurement

problems; and tried to map out the strategic future of the Air Force, its personnel, and materiel.

McConnell not only had to deal with a vast array of problems; he had to do it in the unsettled

political arena of the 1960s. He worked most of that time with a demanding defense secretary;

a colorful and forceful president, Lyndon B. Johnson; and an always-questioning Congress.

He also delicately balanced his responsibilities to his commander in chief with his responsibility as the chief spokesman for the Air Force.

McConnell’s personality could be as disarming and charming as that of any polished staff

officer or as earthy and blunt as his native Ozarks. He could disagree with his critics without

seeming abrasive. Little known outside the Air Force when he was named chief of staff, he

was sometimes called “the brain” within it. He had a “steel-trap” mind with a gift for staff

work and organizational leadership.

Although McConnell’s years as chief of staff were difficult, they could be considered

largely successful. The Air Force got new planes on the drawing boards and into service, and

planning advanced for new strategic weaponry. The general made known his thoughts on combat strategy—which included increasing the number of targets to reduce U.S. ground casualties—and always emphasized his belief in civilian control of the military.

Following retirement in August 1969, General McConnell accepted the position of executive consultant to the Civil Air Patrol, providing executive-level advice on Patrol affairs dealing

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with organization, administration, and overall policy. He was no stranger to that organization

because he and the late Senator Burnet Rhett Maybank (D.-S.C.) had written the original public

law passed by Congress in 1948 making the Civil Air Patrol an auxiliary of the Air Force. General McConnell also served on various corporate boards of directors, including the aerospace

board of Hayes International Corporation. On November 21, 1986, McConnell died of cancer

at the Carriage Hill Nursing Home in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Gen. John D. Ryan

August 1, 1969–July 31, 1973

141 
Gen. John D. Ryan

August 1, 1969–July 31, 1973

Portrait by Lloyd Bowers Embrey




J

OHN D. RYAN was born on December 10, 1915, in Cherokee, Iowa. He was the

youngest of five children, and his father was a railroad worker for Illinois Central. Ryan

graduated from Wilson High School in 1932 and two years later from Cherokee Junior

College, both in Cherokee. Following his junior college graduation, he entered the United

States Military Academy and graduated there in 1938. While at the academy he was known by

football experts as one of West Point’s outstanding players. He was always ready in the clinch.

He often recovered the fumble that turned the game around, caught the key pass that set up the

touchdown, or kicked the extra point that broke the tie. He was noted for playing extremely

well under pressure. He played hard and often went both ways—on offense and defense—and

was respected as a true team player. For his prowess on the gridiron he was selected in December 1962 as a member of the Sports Illustrated Silver Anniversary All-American Team.

Ryan attended flying school at Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas, and received his pilot’s

wings in 1939. He remained at Kelly Field as a flight instructor for two years. From January

1942 until August 1943 he directed training at Midland Army Air Field, Texas, and was instrumental in establishing an advanced bombardier training school. As a lieutenant colonel he next

became operations officer for the Second Air Force at Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a

colonel in February 1944 he transferred to Italy, where he commanded the 2d Bombardment

Group and later became operations officer for the 5th Bombardment Wing, Fifteenth Air

Force, which participated in the campaigns in southern France and the Northern Apennines,

the Rhineland, and Central Europe. Colonel Ryan flew fifty-eight missions in B–17 bombers

and was awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, and Purple Heart.

After returning to the United States in April 1945, Ryan became deputy air base commander at Midland Army Air Field. In September 1945 he was assigned to the Air Training Command at Fort Worth and Randolph Field, Texas, where he remained until April 1946, when he

assumed duties with the 58th Bombardment Wing. He then became Eighth Air Force director

of operations. For the next three years he commanded the 509th Bombardment Wing at Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico. Ryan was promoted to temporary brigadier general in September 1952, and between July 1951 and June 1956 commanded the 97th Bombardment Wing

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and the 810th Air Division, both at Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, and the 19th Air Division at

Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.

General Ryan became director of materiel for SAC in June 1956 and four years later

assumed command of SAC’s Sixteenth Air Force in Spain. In July 1961 he was named commander of the Second Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.

In August 1963 General Ryan was assigned to the Pentagon as inspector general for the

United States Air Force. A year later he was named vice commander in chief of SAC, and in

December 1964 he became its commander in chief. He was assigned as commander in chief,

Pacific Air Forces, in February 1967. Ryan was appointed vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air

Force in August 1968 and chief of staff in August 1969. When he took over as chief of staff, he

was the first chief who had become a general officer during his postwar career.

Like his predecessor General McConnell, Ryan served as chief of staff of the Air Force

during one of the country’s most troubled eras. The war in Southeast Asia demanded a large

and capable Air Force, and the constant strategic threat of the Soviet bloc required attention.

Ryan’s jobs included reconciling these threats with limited budgets and explaining Air Force

policy to a divided Congress.

General Ryan wanted Air Force personnel to support two of his basic and long-held

goals—to provide for the “security of this country and to help create a world environment in

which other free countries can survive and prosper.” He noted that in the period since those

goals had been established, significant political, economic, and social changes had taken place

on the international scene. Initially, he recognized the shift in international power balance—

the military strength of the United States and the Soviet Union had reached a level of parity.

Furthermore, members of traditional alliances were pursuing more independent policies, and

evidence of growing instability resulting from economic and social pressures was making

weaker nations more vulnerable to militant insurgency. He recognized the pressure in the United States to reduce military programs and allocate resources to domestic programs. To counteract these trends he sought better methods of performing Air Force missions by introducing

improved equipment such as the AMSA—the advanced manned strategic aircraft or the

bombers for strategic forces, the all-jet strategic airlift mission performance in the overseas

deployment and resupply of combat forces—and advanced satellite systems for tactical and

strategic reconnaissance, and by developing a tactical satellite communications system to keep

in touch more effectively with U.S. military forces around the world.

General Ryan made many difficult decisions during his tenure but perhaps none as difficult as those he made during the Lavelle affair. Ryan found it necessary for the commander of

the Seventh Air Force, Gen. John D. Lavelle, to resign because the Inspector General reported

that men under Lavelle’s command had falsified reports in Vietnam. Ryan recommended that

Lavelle be retired as a lieutenant general, but the Senate Armed Services Committee would

not advance Lavelle beyond major general on the retired list.

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Ryan also was involved in the continuing development of missile technology and the

increasingly complex challenge of arms control and the simultaneous need for new generations of interceptors, attack planes, and bombers. During his tenure as chief, he endured the

death of his eldest son, Capt. John D. Ryan, Jr., USAF, who was killed in 1970 when the F–4D

fighter-bomber he was flying crashed on takeoff in California. His second son, Michael E.

Ryan, would become Air Force chief of staff in November 1997.

General Ryan received honorary doctor of laws degrees from Creighton University in

Omaha, Nebraska, and from the University of Akron, Ohio. In retirement Ryan remained

involved with Air Force activities as a director of the Air Force Association. He died on October 27, 1983, at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

145

Gen. George Scratchley Brown

August 1, 1973–June 30, 1974

147 
Gen. George Scratchley Brown

August 1, 1973–June 30, 1974

Portrait by Maxine McCaffrey




GEORGE SCRATCHLEY BROWN was born in Montclair, New Jersey, on August

17, 1918. He was the son of a West Point graduate and career cavalry officer. He

graduated from high school in Leavenworth, Kansas, and, after attending the University of Missouri for a year, he received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Military

Academy in 1937. He graduated from West Point in 1941 and entered flight training at Pine

Bluff, Arkansas. He received his pilot’s wings at Kelly Field, Texas, in 1942.

Following flight training, he went to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where he became a

member of the initial cadre of the 93d Bombardment Group, flying B–24 Liberators. After a

brief stint flying antisubmarine patrol at Ft. Myers, Florida, he transferred in August 1942 with

the 93d Bombardment Group, the first B–24 group to join the Eighth Air Force in England.

Until April 1944 he served in various capacities with the 93d, including commander of the

329th Bombardment Squadron, group operations officer, and group executive officer. As

group executive officer, he took part in famous low-level bombing raids against oil refineries

at Ploesti, Romania, on August 1, 1943. The 93d was the second of five B–24 groups that raided Ploesti from a temporary base at Benghazi, Libya. Led by its commander, Lt. Col. Addison

E. Baker, the 93d flew directly into heavy defenses to hit three of the six targeted refineries.

The lead plane and ten others were shot down or crashed on the target. Brown, then a major,

took over lead of the battered 93d and led it back to Benghazi. For his actions on that mission,

he received the nation’s second highest military award, the Distinguished Service Cross.

His next appointment was as assistant operations officer, 2d Air Division, in May 1944.

The following May he assumed similar duties with Headquarters Air Training Command at

Fort Worth, Texas. In 1946 he joined Headquarters Air Defense Command at Mitchel Field,

New York, as assistant to air chief of staff, operations and later became assistant deputy of

operations.

In July 1950, during the Korean War, Brown assumed command of the 62d Troop Carrier

Group at McChord Air Force Base, Washington. This group operated between the West Coast

and Japan. In 1951 and the early months of 1952 he commanded the 56th Fighter Wing at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan, and in May 1952 joined Fifth Air Force headquarters at

Seoul, Korea, as director for operations.

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In July 1953 Colonel Brown assumed command of Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. He

entered the National War College in 1956 and, after completing the course in 1957, he served

as executive to the chief of staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force until 1959. During the next four

years, he held two other positions at the Pentagon: military assistant to the deputy secretary of

defense and military assistant to the secretary of defense.

Promoted to brigadier general in August 1959, Brown became commander of the Eastern

Transport Air Force, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, in August 1963. In September of

the next year he was selected to organize Joint Task Force II, a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) unit

formed at Sandia Base, New Mexico, to test the weapon systems of all the military services.

He served as assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C.,

from August 1, 1966, to August 1, 1968, when he assumed command of the Seventh Air Force

and became deputy commander of air operations, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. In September 1970 General Brown became commander of the Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. It was the mission of this command to provide

the weapon systems and meet the technological needs of the total Air Force mission.

On August 1, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Brown to be chief of staff of

the Air Force. As chief, General Brown worked to enhance the Air Force strategic bomber program and to replace the aging B–52s with B–1s, which could carry larger payloads and penetrate deeper into the USSR.

On July 1, 1974, President Nixon appointed General Brown chairman of the JCS, the first

Air Force officer since Gen. Nathan Twining to hold the position. As chairman, Brown served

three presidents during an era of limited budgets and constrained force structure. In 1974 he

provoked an international controversy by asserting that Jews “own the banks and the newspapers in this country.” After making these remarks at a gathering at Duke University Law

School, he was called to the White House by President Gerald R. Ford and rebuked. General

Brown issued an apology. Acknowledging that Brown had made a mistake, Ford opted to keep

Brown on as JCS chairman because of his excellent record as an officer.

Two years later General Brown got into trouble again by saying that Israel had become a

military burden to the United States and by making deprecatory remarks about Britain and

Iran. Of Britain he said, “It’s pathetic now; it just wants to make you cry. They’re no longer a

world power. All they have got are generals, admirals, and bands. They do things in great

style . . . on the protocol side. But it makes you sick to see their forces.” On Iran: “Gosh, the

(military) program the shah has coming. . . . It just makes you wonder whether he doesn’t

some day have visions of the Persian Empire.” Later General Brown said his remark about

Israel referred to a partial depletion of U.S. military equipment stocks to resupply Israel after

the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. He also praised the British for their gallantry and professionalism

and said he had no reason to believe that the shah of Iran planned to do anything other than

lead his country properly.

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As chairman, much of his time was consumed with Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

talks that focused on finding a formula by which the U.S. lead in missile reentry vehicles

would offset Soviet superiority in missile throw-weight. Brown led the Joint Chiefs in urging

U.S. air and naval deployments to South Vietnam following the U.S. pullout. But public and

congressional opposition to any further involvement in Vietnam precluded approval of any

military action. General Brown also participated in decision making over the U.S. response to

two confrontations in the Far East that were widely perceived as tests of U.S. will in the aftermath of the communist takeover of South Vietnam. These were the Mayaguez incident in May

1975 and the shooting of two U.S. officers and wounding of another by North Korean guards

in August 1976 in the demilitarized zone that divided the two Koreas. He also played a significant role in the success of the 1977 negotiations transferring the Panama Canal to Panama.

General Brown survived the furor that followed his sometimes controversial remarks and

continued as chairman until his retirement in June 1978. He had contracted prostate cancer

and was hospitalized intermittently until his death in December 1978. His military career

spanned a technological revolution in weaponry. He started his combat career by flying heavy

bombers in the European theater in World War II and retired as a four-star general when the

cruise missile rivaled the manned bomber.

At the time of General Brown’s death, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown maintained that

“this nation has lost a great patriot and an innovative chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He

was a pioneer as an Air Force officer. He was a sincere, straightforward, and dedicated man. He

was a friend.”

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Gen. David Charles Jones

July 1, 1974–June 20, 1978

153 
Gen. David Charles Jones

July 1, 1974–June 20, 1978

Portrait by Robert L. Scharr




DAVID CHARLES JONES was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, on July 9, 1921.

Growing up in Minot, North Dakota, he often rode his bicycle to a nearby airfield

and fantasized about becoming a combat pilot. Following graduation from the local

high school, he attended the University of North Dakota and Minot State College. In April

1942 he left college to join the U.S. Army Air Corps and received his commission and pilot’s

wings in February 1943.

After serving as a flying instructor in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, Lieutenant Jones

was assigned to the 3d Emergency Rescue Squadron of the Fifth Air Force in Japan in 1945.

He began as a unit pilot, flying Catalina flying boats, and rose to command the squadron. He

was promoted to captain in April 1946. From 1948 to 1949 Jones was a unit instructor and

then assistant operations and training officer with the 2236th Air Force Reserve Training Center, Godman Field, Kentucky. Also during this period, he attended the Air Tactical School at

Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida; the Atomic Energy Course at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi; and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Course at Sandia Base, New Mexico.

Jones was assigned to the 19th Bombardment Squadron at March Air Force Base, California, in January 1950 and promoted to major in February 1951. During his three-and-onehalf years with the 19th, he rose to aircraft commander, then operations officer, and finally

commander of the squadron. He flew more than three hundred hours on combat missions over

North Korea, when the squadron was one of the first bombardment units committed to the

Korean War. In May 1953 he transitioned from bombers to tankers, taking command of the

22d Air Refueling Squadron at March Air Force Base. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in June

1953, he remained at March but returned to bombers the following year as commander of the

33d Bombardment Squadron.

Jones next served at Headquarters Strategic Air Command (SAC), Offutt Air Force

Base, Nebraska, during SAC’s build-up period. He was assigned initially in September 1954

as an operations planner in the bomber mission branch and remained there until January

1955, when Gen. Curtis E. LeMay selected him as his aide. Promoted to colonel in April

1957, Jones became director of materiel and later deputy commander for maintenance of

SAC’s 93d Bombardment Wing at Castle Air Force Base, California. Following a stint at the

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National War College in 1960, Jones was assigned to the Air Staff’s operations directorate for

four years. As chief of the manned systems branch, he worked on the B–70 bomber project.

He then served as deputy chief and chief of the Strategic Division. After F–100 and F–4

training, Jones assumed command of the 33d Tactical Fighter Wing, Eglin Air Force Base,

Florida, at its activation in 1965 and bought it to operational status.

Jones then served in key staff assignments with U.S. Air Forces Europe (USAFE). In

October 1965 he became USAFE inspector general, responsible for inspecting units at more

than ninety installations in ten countries. He was promoted to brigadier general in December

1965. In January 1967 he became USAFE chief of staff and, in June, deputy chief of staff for

plans and operations. He received his second star in November 1967.

In February 1969 Jones was assigned to Headquarters Seventh Air Force, Tan Son Nhut

Airfield, Republic of Vietnam, as deputy chief of staff for operations and became vice commander in June. Promoted to lieutenant general, he returned to SAC in August 1969 as commander of the Second Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In

April 1971 General Jones returned to USAFE as vice commander in chief. He assumed command of USAFE and the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force in August and was promoted to general in September. In his North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) capacity as commander of

the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force, General Jones directed an international planning team that

integrated central region air forces into a more cohesive organization. Key to that effort was his

creation of a small operational and planning headquarters, Allied Air Force, Central Europe.

Capping a career that had included operational and command positions in bomber, tanker,

training, and tactical fighter units as well as headquarters staff positions, General Jones

became chief of staff of the Air Force in July 1974. A major theme throughout his tenure was

“readiness.” He concluded that in any future conflict the United States was unlikely to enjoy

the past luxury of long “acceleration lanes” in which “to mobilize, train, and deploy the cutting edge of our combat capability.” He noted that because our nonexpansionist foreign policy

tends to concede the initiative to an aggressor, “we have to remain perpetually ready for a

come-as-you-are conflict.” Therefore, to face the reality of a more ready and efficient if not

austere Air Force, General Jones pursued a policy of developing high-technology weapons

systems. In addition, he reorganized the Air Force command structure and substantially

reduced headquarters staffs. He supported modernization with such systems as the F–15 and

F–16, the A–10, and the EA–3A (AWACS). Much of the modernization program was focused

on the European area, where the United States developed initiatives in response to Department

of Defense and congressional interest for an increase in the capability of NATO.

After four years as chief of staff of the Air Force, General Jones became President Jimmy

Carter’s nominee to the ninth chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The only chairman who was not a college or service academy graduate, Jones presided over the JCS during a

period of increasing Soviet military power and the emergence of militant Islam as a threat to

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pro-Western regimes in the Persian Gulf region. During his tenure as chairman, defense funding increased in response to the Soviet threat and continuing JCS advocacy of strategic force

modernization despite progress on strategic arms control.

Jones accompanied President Carter to Vienna, Austria, in June 1979 for the final stage of

the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) II negotiations with the USSR. When the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan raised fears that Soviet forces there might move into neighboring Iran,

where an anti-Western militant Islamic regime had taken power in early 1979, President Carter

created a rapid deployment force (RDF) for Southwest Asia to counter any such attempt in the

region. Subsequently, at the direction of the secretary of defense, General Jones oversaw planning for the transformation of the RDF into a regional unified command. The planning for what

in 1983 became the U.S. Central Command was essentially completed during his chairmanship.

Jones also oversaw the planning for the rescue of the U.S. embassy personnel taken

hostage in November 1979 by followers of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini,

and he survived the criticism for that rescue mission’s failure. During his second term as chairman, Jones worked to make the chairman, rather than the corporate JCS, the principal military

adviser to the president and the secretary of defense, arguing that such a change of the National Security Act would improve the quality and timeliness of military advice and the combined

readiness and effectiveness of the nation’s combat forces. Jones continued his efforts toward

that goal after his retirement as chairman of the JCS and saw it come to fruition with the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act in 1986.

157

Gen. Lew Allen, Jr.

July 1, 1978–June 30, 1982

159 
Gen. Lew Allen, Jr.

July 1, 1978–June 30, 1982

Portrait by John G. Bonner




LEW ALLEN, JR. was born on September 30, 1925, in Miami, Florida. He graduated

from high school in Gainesville, Texas, in 1942 and entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, the following year. He graduated in 1946 with a bachelor of science degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. During his West Point summers, he took primary flying training at Chickasha, Oklahoma, where he flew the PT–17 and

the Stearman, and completed advanced training at Stewart Field. He was awarded pilot’s

wings at graduation from West Point.

When he completed multiengine flight training in November 1946, Lieutenant Allen was

assigned to Strategic Air Command’s (SAC’s) 7th Bombardment Group at Carswell Air Force

Base, Texas, where he flew B–29s and B–36s and served in various positions related to

nuclear weaponry. He was among the first class of qualified nuclear weaponeers in the Air

Force. Allen attended the Air Tactical Course at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, and returned

to Carswell as an instructor and assistant special weapons officer for the 7th Bombardment

Wing. In his four years at SAC, he witnessed its astounding dramatic change from a very poor

and unprofessional entity to a very disciplined and professional organization under the leadership of Gen. Curtis E. LeMay.

In September 1950 he entered the University of Illinois for graduate training in nuclear

physics and received a master of science degree in 1952. He earned a doctorate degree in

physics in 1954 after completing an experimental thesis on high-energy photonuclear reactions. Captain Allen was then assigned to the Atomic Energy Commission’s Scientific Laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, as a physicist in the test division. At this assignment he conducted experiments in several of the nuclear test series at Bikini and in Nevada. He was given

an unusual degree of responsibility and independence and actually was one of the last military

officers assigned to the laboratories strictly as a scientist. While at Los Alamos he gained a

reputation for competence in a multidisciplinary field and was involved in testing the vulnerability of nuclear weapons to other nuclear weapons.

From June 1957 to December 1961 Major Allen was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base,

New Mexico, as a science adviser to the physics division of the Air Force Special Weapons

Center. He focused his attention on the military effects of high-altitude nuclear explosions and

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participated in several weapons test series. He was the scientific director of a major experiment that used high-altitude rockets to measure the characteristics of electrons trapped in the

geomagnetic field after an exoatmospheric nuclear burst.

His tours at Los Alamos and Kirtland placed Allen in a working relationship with a number of prominent people in the nuclear weapons community. Among them was Harold Brown,

the director of the Livermore Laboratory, the counterpart to Los Alamos. Under President

John F. Kennedy, Brown became the director of defense research and engineering in the Office

of the Secretary of Defense and subsequently asked Allen to join his office. As a result, in

December 1961 Allen was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, space technology office, in Brown’s directorate, where he remained until 1965.

From 1965 to 1973 Allen was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, initially in Los Angeles as deputy director for advanced plans in the directorate of special projects. He moved to the Pentagon in June 1968 as deputy director of space systems and became

director twelve months later. Allen returned to Los Angeles in September 1970 as assistant to

the director of special projects and in April 1971 became director of special projects, with

additional duty as deputy commander for satellite programs, Space and Missile Systems Organization. He witnessed the demise of the Dyna-Soar program and became involved with the

Manned Orbital Laboratory program. He also participated in the Blue Gemini program, devising experiments for a version of the space vehicle that lacked a laboratory.

Allen served a twenty-eight-day stint as General Brown’s chief of staff for Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Thereafter, James Schlesinger—whom

Allen had known from the Office of Management and Budget, which often reviewed Allen’s

space programs—offered him an assignment as one of Schlesinger’s deputies at the Central

Intelligence Agency. General Brown agreed to let Allen go in March 1973, and Allen served

with Schlesinger until August. When Schlesinger was appointed as secretary of defense, he

named General Allen to be the director of the National Security Agency and chief of central

security service at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. 

In August 1977 Allen was named commander of Air Force Systems Command. Given his

background in research and development, that assignment was a very comfortable fit. At Systems Command he worked on acquisitions that stemmed from the upgrade of the tactical

forces following the conflict in Vietnam. Indeed, Allen oversaw the later stages of an intensive

effort to upgrade the USAF’s tactical forces through acquisition of the C–5, A–10, and F–16.

Allen left Systems Command in April 1978 to take over as vice chief of staff of the Air Force

and became chief of staff three months later. His appointment as chief was entirely unexpected

because he had followed an unusual career path: he never had an overseas or a combat assignment, and most of his jobs were in highly specialized activities rather than in the basic line of

the Air Force. Characteristically, Allen looked forward to the challenge.

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Among the dominant issues Allen dealt with during his first two years as chief were the

attitude, morale, and discipline of Air Force personnel. It was the era of the “Hollow Force”

Air Force, when gross underfunding across the range of USAF activities—from operations

and maintenance to morale, welfare, and recreation—caused adversities that reduced morale

of the entire Air Force. Indeed, budgetary retrenchment, which limited flying hours, caused

disgruntlement among pilots. Pilots claimed they were not receiving the training and experience to warrant the Air Force’s definition of them as fully proficient defenders. Working with

his commanders, Allen was able to secure additional funding to increase flying hours, especially for the Tactical Air Command, and to turn around the pilot retention issue that resulted

from the poor morale climate.

General Allen got along well with all three of the Air Force secretaries with whom he

worked—John C. Stetson, Hans M. Mark, and Verne Orr. To General Allen, Secretary Orr was

a “charming and vigorous gentleman who was characterized as much as anything else by an

immediate and total dedication to the Air Force.” As chief, Allen worked closely with the

Army on doctrinal issues, “attempting to improve the rationalization of the approaches of the

two services into a common doctrine.”

Throughout his tenure Allen supported improvements that would increase the national

combat capability, including survivability of strategic forces, enhanced combat readiness and

sustainability of general-purpose forces, and expanded airlift capacity. Essential to these goals

was having adequate numbers of experienced, motivated people to staff and maintain those

weapon systems. While stressing the rebuilding of the nuclear deterrent forces, he pursued the

improvement of general-purpose forces to counter the steadily expanding Soviet conventional

capabilities.

Like the other services in the early 1980s, the Air Force “rode the crest of President

Ronald Reagan’s wave” of support for defense spending. By the end of his tour as chief, General Allen could point to some significant progress in correcting long-standing deficiencies in

the forces and in improving defense capabilities. Speaking in support of continued attention to

national goals, Allen maintained that “we must stay the course” even though it would not be

easy. “We can and must afford the cost. We cannot afford the weakness and loss of credibility

that a failure to stand up to the Soviet challenge in this dangerous decade” would entail.

After retiring from the Air Force in June 1982, Allen became director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and

remained there until 1990. The next year he became chairman of the board of Draper Laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts.

163

Gen. Charles A. Gabriel

July 1, 1982–June 30, 1986

165 
Gen. Charles A. Gabriel

July 1, 1982–June 30, 1986

Portrait by Peter Egeli 




CHARLES A. GABRIEL was born on January 21, 1928, in Lincolnton, North Carolina. After graduating from high school, he attended Catawba College in Salisbury,

North Carolina, where he was an outstanding football quarterback for two years

before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated from the

academy in 1950 with a bachelor of science degree and a commission in the U.S. Air Force. In

1963 he earned a master of science degree in engineering management from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

After West Point, Lieutenant Gabriel entered pilot training at Goodfellow Air Force Base,

Texas, and in December 1951 completed advanced training at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama.

He was assigned to South Korea, where he flew one hundred combat missions in F–51s and

F–86s and was credited with shooting down two MiG–15s. From December 1952 to November 1955 he was assigned to the 86th Fighter Interceptor Wing, Landstuhl Air Base, Germany,

as a pilot and later as a squadron air operations officer. He then spent three years as an air officer commanding at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

In July 1959 Captain Gabriel transferred to Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, where he

served as adjutant for the 3550th Pilot Training Group and commander of the Headquarters

Squadron Section. Following graduation from the Naval War College in August 1962 and the

completion of his master’s degree in 1963, he was assigned as a staff officer in the Directorate

of Plans, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. In August 1966 he entered the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

One year later, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel took on the role of executive officer to the

chief of staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, in Mons, Belgium. He returned to

the United States for combat crew training in July 1970 and subsequently was assigned as

commander of the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Udorn Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, where he flew 152 combat missions in F–4s. He returned to the Air Staff in July 1972 as

deputy for operational forces and deputy director of operations.

General Gabriel served as deputy chief of staff for operations at Headquarters Tactical Air

Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, from February 1975 to August 1977. He then

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became deputy commander in chief, U.S. Forces Korea, and deputy commander in chief, United Nations Command, Seoul, South Korea.

In April 1979 Gabriel returned to Air Force Headquarters as deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and readiness. He served as commander in chief, United States Air Forces in

Europe, and commander of Allied Air Forces Central Europe at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, from August 1980 to June 1982. General Gabriel became chief of staff of the United

States Air Force in July 1982.

At the outset of his tenure as chief of staff, Gabriel believed that his top priority was to

take care of Air Force personnel and ensure that the service remained an “outstanding way of

life.” Four years later he could point to substantial pay raises and enhancements in benefits as

tangible results of his tenure. But he acknowledged that a wide gap remained between military

and private-sector wages, and he noted that future Air Force leadership would have to remain

vigilant in its efforts to bridge that chasm.

On May 22, 1984, General Gabriel and his Army counterpart, Gen. John A. Wickham, Jr.,

signed a landmark agreement on thirty-one joint initiatives that the Army and Air Force had

identified as essential to development and “fielding of the most affordable and effective

air–land combat forces.” The initiatives addressed a variety of joint concerns, including theater

air interdiction, battlefield air interdiction, manned tactical reconnaissance systems, intratheater airlift, air base ground defense, point air defense, surface-to-air missiles, and rear area

close air support. The agreement evolved from two years of working on budgets “to ensure

coordination and reduce overlap in the acquisition and development of systems.” Hailed as a

“revolutionary approach” to cooperation between the forces, the agreement formalized the

“participation of each service in the other’s budget process” and committed them to a “longterm, dynamic process” to exchange, review, and update initiatives.

At the time of his retirement two years later, General Gabriel could point to the substantial cost savings resulting from his emphasis on joint programs. He saw the Unified Space

Command as a positive step toward jointness that would ensure that all military space assets

were coordinated in support of national objectives. He pointed out that although generous

budgets allowed the building of a much stronger defense and a more confident posture for

deterrence, fiscal austerity would likely be the future reality. Gabriel did not predict the return

of the “Hollow Force” of the 1970s, but he cautioned that the plentiful defense budgets of

recent years would be difficult to sustain.

Following his retirement in 1986, Gabriel became a member of the board of directors of

several firms, including GEC Marconi Electronic Systems Corporation, E-Systems Inc., Electronic Systems Corporation, Riggs National Bank of Virginia, United Services Life Insurance

Corporation, and the Jessup Group Incorporated. He also served as chairman of the board of

directors for FLT International and JGW Associates, on the corporate advisory board of the

Martin Marietta Company, as vice chairman of the board of advisors for Citadel College, and

on the board of advisors to the Defense Intelligence College.

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Gen. Larry D. Welch

July 1, 1986–June 30, 1990

169 
Gen. Larry D. Welch

July 1, 1986–June 30, 1990

Portrait by Peter Egeli 




LARRY D. WELCH was born on June 9, 1934, in Guymon, Oklahoma, and graduated

from Liberal High School in Kansas in 1952. He enlisted in the Kansas National

Guard in October 1951 and served with the 161st Armored Field Artillery until he

enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. In November 1953 he entered the aviation cadet program and

received his pilot’s wings and a commission as a second lieutenant. He served initially as a

flight instructor until his assignment in July 1958 to Headquarters Air Training Command,

Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

In 1962 Captain Welch went to Europe to serve as chief of the combat operations center

for the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing and later as a pilot in the 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

He returned to the United States to work as pilot, flight commander, and operations officer for

the 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. As a major,

Welch went in March 1966 to the Republic of Vietnam, where he was operations officer for

the 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron stationed at Phan Rang Air Base and then chief of the operations and training division for the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing at Da Nang Air Base. While stationed in Vietnam he flew combat missions in F–4Cs over North and South Vietnam and Laos.

Returning stateside in February 1967, Welch attended the Armed Forces Staff College at

Norfolk, Virginia, and then was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., as

director of air superiority studies, fighter division, under the assistant chief of staff for studies

and analysis. During this period, several of his academic pursuits came to fruition: he received

a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Maryland in 1971 and a master of science

degree from George Washington University, in Washington D.C., the following year, and he

studied at the National War College in Washington, D.C., from August 1971 to July 1972.

In July 1972 he was assigned to Tactical Air Command. He served the command for two

years, first as deputy commander for operations and then as vice commander, 35th Tactical

Fighter Wing, at George Air Force Base, California. In September 1974 he became special

assistant to the commander, Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The following August he took command of the First Tactical Fighter Wing at Langley.

In August 1977, one month after receiving his first star, General Welch became inspector

general, Tactical Air Command, and in October of that year he became deputy chief of staff of

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plans. Remaining at Langley, Welch assumed the duties of deputy chief of staff of operations

at Tactical Air Command in March 1979. In June 1981, after nearly seven years at Langley, he

transferred to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, as commander of the Ninth Air Force and

component commander for the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force.

In November 1982 Welch went to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., as

deputy chief of staff for programs and resources, and in August 1984 he became vice chief of

staff of the U.S. Air Force. From August 1985 to June 1986 he served as commander in chief,

Strategic Air Command, and director of Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff at Offutt Air

Force Base, Nebraska. He became the Air Force chief of staff on July 1, 1986.

At the beginning of his tenure as chief, General Welch was concerned about the inability

of the U.S. strategic deterrent force to retaliate promptly against “hardened Soviet nuclear

forces” and command and control assets. He made the strategic force issues one of his top priorities. He saw the Peacekeeper ICBM as the only solution, with the deployment of one hundred of these missiles representing to him “the essential, rational foundation for an affordable

force to deal with Soviet offensive forces.” He saw the B–1B as a superb bomber that would

serve for future years, first as a penetrating bomber and later as a cruise missile carrier. Welch

believed the advanced technology bomber (ATB), or Stealth, would continue the bomber penetration role well into the next century. He supported a management philosophy that featured

decentralized authority and responsibility accomplished by placing one supervisor in full control of “one piece” of the Air Force mission. “Full control,” he maintained, extended “from

authority and resources to accountability.”

Like some of his predecessors, he considered motivating people to be another of his top

priorities. He noted that “whatever progress the Air Force [made] in combat readiness and

combat capability [was] derived from the fact that [the Air Force] has high-quality people.”

Recalling his experience with “joint initiatives” when he served as Gen. Charles A.

Gabriel’s vice chief of staff and deputy chief of staff for programs and resources, Welch held

that “there is absolutely no question that we will continue the ‘joint initiatives’ with the other

services.” He believed that it was natural to pursue joint initiatives, especially because they

had been very successful, “having saved both the Air Force and the Army a lot of money.”

Two years later, when the USSR professed a more open attitude toward the West, as

expressed by Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika—or openness and

restructuring—Welch urged that the United States remain strong in order to keep pressure for

such change on the Kremlin. He added that it was the strength of the free world that brought the

Soviets to the arms negotiation table: “It is the success of our system of alliances and the strategy of deterrence that leads the Soviets to conclude they cannot afford to build the military

forces needed to impose their will on the free world.” Welch saw that the federal deficit was

becoming a major national concern and that “a smaller defense budget is seen by some as a

major means of reducing that deficit.” In response to that theory, Welch declared that “neither

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facts nor logic lead to a conclusion that the deficit is caused by increases in defense spending or

is likely to be cured by the decreases in defense spending.” Near the end of this tenure he saw

little relief for his successor, maintaining that the Soviet phasedown brought to a head all the

clichés about air power and the need to reexamine budgets accompanied by congressional pressure to spend the so-called “peace dividend.” On June 30, 1990, General Welch—longtime

fighter pilot, Vietnam combat veteran, former commander in chief of SAC, and defender of Air

Force roles and missions in the face of severe fiscal restraints—retired.

After leaving the Air Force, Welch became president and chief executive officer of the

Institute for Defense Analysis in Washington, D.C., a federally chartered research center providing both operations and technical analysis and management and information systems

design and development to the Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies.

He also served as director of the Aerospace Education Foundation and of the Air Force Academy Foundation. In addition, he chaired the Joint Committee on Nuclear Weapons Surety and

the President’s Security Policy Advisory Board, and he was a member of the Commission to

Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States and of the Defense Intelligence

Agency Science and Technology Advisory Board.

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Gen. Michael J. Dugan

July 1, 1990–September 17, 1990

175 
Gen. Michael J. Dugan

July 1, 1990–September 17, 1990

Portrait by George Pollard




MICHAEL J. DUGAN was born on February 22, 1937, in Albany, New York. He

received a high school diploma from Saint Peter’s Academy in Saratoga Springs,

New York, and then entered the U.S. Military Academy. He graduated in 1958

with a bachelor of science degree. He then completed the Air Force primary, basic, and

advanced flying training schools. After a four-year stint with the 79th Tactical Fighter

Squadron in England, where he flew F–100s, and a two-year stateside tour at Eglin Air Force

Base in Florida as an A–1 pilot, he went to Pleiku Air Base in the Republic of Vietnam in January 1967 as an A–1E pilot for the 1st Commando Squadron.

From November 1967 to November 1972 Dugan was stationed at the Air Force Academy,

serving in several assignments including air officer commanding. In 1972 he earned a master

of business administration degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder and attended

the Air Command and Staff College. The following year he studied at the Air War College at

Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

From June 1973 to July 1977 Colonel Dugan was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air

Force, Washington, D.C., first as an action officer and branch chief in the office of the deputy

chief of staff, plans and operations, and then as executive to the vice chief of staff. He next

served at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, as vice commander and later commander

of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing. Dugan subsequently became commander of the 23d Tactical Fighter Wing, England Air Force Base, Louisiana, and commander of the 832d Air Division at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.

In May 1982 he moved to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, where he served successively as Tactical Air Command’s assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, inspector general,

and deputy chief of staff for operations. He was assigned to the office of the deputy chief of

staff for plans and operations at Air Force Headquarters and worked as director of operations

starting in June 1986 and as assistant deputy chief of staff beginning in January 1987. Seven

months later he became Air Force deputy chief of staff for programs and resources and held

that position until he became deputy chief of staff for plans and operations in March 1988. The

following April Dugan went to Europe as commander in chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and

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commander, Allied Air Forces Central Europe, at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany. In July

1990 he replaced General Welch as chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force.

General Dugan’s primary goal was to eliminate boundaries, and to that end he was intent

on integrating functions, opening communications, and solving problems. Outgoing and personable, Dugan was especially interested in facilitating communications and “spreading the

word” both inside and outside of the Air Force. One of his initiatives was the “Latest Word”

message, in which he used three monthly messages to field personnel to provide correct information in advance of the media, hopefully to eliminate fear, anxiety, or uncertainty with

respect to possible manpower cutbacks and the threat of war.

In an effort to improve communications with the media, Dugan provided them with an

“On Target” program that listed the key Headquarters U.S. Air Force officials who were competent to discuss all Air Force issues. His effort to be more communicative with the media and

the public prematurely ended his tenure as chief of staff of the Air Force. In the midst of the

Operation Desert Shield deployment, he flew to Saudi Arabia on an inspection and took several members of the Air Staff and three reporters on his aircraft. He granted interviews to the

reporters during the trip. Subsequently, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney and Joint Chiefs

of Staff Chairman Gen. Colin C. Powell objected to some of his comments, reported in the

media, on the status of U.S. forces and future operations in the Persian Gulf. Cheney relieved

Dugan as chief of staff effective September 17, 1990, although he remained on active duty as a

special assistant to Secretary of the Air Force Donald B. Rice until January 1991. At the time

of his departure, Dugan penned the following message: “To the men and women of the Air

Force—Your mission—providing air power and space power to the nation—is essential and

enduring. I bid you a fond farewell with my head high, my Mach up, and my flags flying.

Good luck, good hunting, and Godspeed to the greatest Air Force in the world.”

After his retirement from the Air Force, Dugan lectured for several years on strategic

studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1992 he became president of

the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He has also served occasionally as an expert on military matters for the national media.

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Gen. Merrill A. McPeak

October 30, 1990–October 25, 1994

179 
Gen. Merrill A. McPeak

October 30, 1990–October 25, 1994

Portrait by Pamela Firestone Bowman




MERRILL A. McPEAK was born on January 9, 1936, in Santa Rosa, California.

After graduating from Grants Pass Union High School in Oregon, he earned a

bachelor of arts degree in economics from San Diego State College in 1957. He

was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program in college and entered the Air Force in November 1957, completing pilot training at Hondo Air

Base, Texas, and Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. He received his pilot’s wings in November

1957 and then completed F–100 combat crew training at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and

Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

His first operational assignment was flying F–104 Starfighters with the 436th Tactical

Fighter Squadron, George Air Force Base, California. He subsequently transferred to the 79th

Tactical Fighter Squadron, 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Station, Woodbridge,

England, where he flew F–100 Super Sabres. From May 1964 until August 1965 he was a

member of the Third Air Force Tactical Evaluation Team, exercising and evaluating pilots and

operations units in the United Kingdom.

In September 1965 McPeak returned to Luke Air Force Base as a gunnery instructor and

later served as wing weapons officer for the F–104G program. That assignment involved training pilots in West Germany’s Luftwaffe. From December 1966 to December 1968 McPeak

flew the solo and lead solo positions with the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the

Thunderbirds. He performed in nearly two hundred official air shows in the United States and

abroad.

In December 1968 Major McPeak went to the Republic of Vietnam, serving first as an

F–100 tactical fighter pilot with the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, Phu Cat Air Base, and then as

operations officer and later commander of the “Misty” high-speed forward air controller unit.

His unit subsequently was assigned to the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Tuy Hoa Air Base,

where he served as chief of the wing standardization and evaluation branch. He flew 269 combat missions during his tour of duty in Vietnam. 

Returning stateside in January 1970, McPeak attended the Armed Forces Staff College and

graduated in July of that year. He then spent three years as an air operations staff officer in the

directorate of plans and policy, Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. He completed

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the National War College program in June 1974 and concurrently earned a master’s degree in

international relations at George Washington University. He next was assigned as assistant

deputy commander for operations of the First Tactical Fighter Wing, MacDill Air Force Base,

Florida.

As a colonel he was a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City

from July 1975 to June 1976. He then commanded the 513th Combat Support Group, Royal Air

Force Station in Mildenhall, England, and in July 1977 he became vice commander of the 406th

Tactical Fighter Training Wing, Zaragoza Air Base, Spain. From July 1978 to February 1980

Colonel McPeak was assistant chief of staff of current operations, Allied Air Forces Central

Europe, at the Central Region Air Operations Center, Boerfink, West Germany. He then assumed

command of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Station Upper Heyford, England. In

July 1981, shortly after being assigned as chief of staff at Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe

at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, McPeak was promoted to brigadier general.

In October 1982 he became deputy chief of staff of plans at Headquarters Tactical Air

Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. When he was promoted to lieutenant general in

May 1985, he set out for Washington, D.C., as deputy chief of staff of programs and resources

at Headquarters U.S. Air Force. In June 1987 he assumed command of the Twelfth Air Force

and U.S. Southern Command Air Forces at Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas. During the summer of 1988, he was promoted to general and assumed command of the Pacific Air Forces

headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Two years later he was back in Washington,

having been selected to replace Gen. Michael J. Dugan as chief of staff of the United States

Air Force on October 30, 1990.

General McPeak took over as chief during the Operation Desert Shield force buildup in

Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf that preceded the Operation Desert Storm offensive against

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. As the Gulf War drew to a successful close, McPeak surmised

that not only did the coalition have a technological advantage, but also the winning forces

were better organized than were Saddam Hussein’s forces: “We had better people and a better

organization.”

Because of the severe drawdown inspired by the end of the Cold War, McPeak oversaw

the dismantling of several stalwart Air Force commands, including the Strategic Air Command

and Systems Command. Those long-standing commands were consolidated into new commands, the Air Combat Command and Air Force Materiel Command. Aware of the support for

downsizing both in Congress and in the administration of President Bill Clinton, McPeak set

out to rebuild the Air Force from top to bottom and, in so doing, changed it in fundamental

ways. He spoke often of how international events and domestic pressures would reshape the

military services: “The Air Force must adapt or go the way of the dinosaurs.”

It was his desire to make operations the centerpiece of the Air Force’s organization, so he

sought to strengthen its role. He introduced a different wing-level organizational concept, the

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composite wing. Although not entirely new, the composite wing idea included two or more

aircraft types essential to the wing’s mission.

More than any chief before him, McPeak was determined to preserve the heritage of the

Air Force. During organization downsizing, he introduced a systematic method for retaining

historic units on the active list. In the area of training he made an effort to reduce the number

of specialties so that people were more broadly trained and thus more flexibly usable. He

believed that as the Air Force grew smaller, its training standards ought to be raised. Indeed,

raising training standards became his creed in his purposeful pursuit of the quality Air Force.

McPeak also stressed equipage. Rather than focusing on the types of equipment the Air Force

ought to possess, he focused on a long-range plan for modernization. Finally, he stressed

readiness, and he surmised that there the Air Force was in fairly good shape.

During his tenure, McPeak wore an unprecedented “two hats” for a short time: while

chief, he acted as air secretary for three weeks. When he retired in October 1994 he felt fortunate to have worked on the “virtual Air Force—an imaginary Air Force.” And he was quick to

add that he could do this because he had great commanders, “great Air Force people.” Following his Air Force career, McPeak became a business executive and consultant to various aerospace firms.

183

Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman

October 26, 1994–September 1, 1997

185 
Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman

October 26, 1994–September 1, 1997

Portrait by George Pollard




RONALD R. FOGLEMAN was born on January 27, 1942, in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Juniata Joint High School, Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, in

1959. Four years later he graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the U.S.

Air Force Academy and a commission as a second lieutenant. He completed pilot training in

September 1964 at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and stayed on for three more years as a

flight training instructor and examiner. After a six-month stint in combat crew training in

F–100s at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, he joined the 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron in

June 1968 as a fighter pilot stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam. On September 12,

Captain Fogleman was shot down by multiple hits from small arms fire. He ejected over hostile territory and hid on the ground from an enemy that was as close as twenty yards. He was

picked up by a Cobra helicopter and rode on the outside until reaching the safety of a Special

Forces camp. The next day he went out again on one of the 240 combat missions he flew while

stationed in Vietnam.

He returned stateside in March 1969 to attend Duke University, where he earned a master

of arts degree in military and political science in 1970. He next went to the Air Force Academy

in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as an associate professor of history. He then shipped to Thailand, where he served as an F–4 pilot, instructor pilot, and commander of the Laredo forward

air controller flight, completing an additional seventy-five combat missions. In August 1974 he

was reassigned to the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado as chief of rated assignments.

After completing Army War College in 1976, Lieutenant Colonel Fogleman was assigned

to the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing at Bitburg Air Base, West Germany, as assistant deputy commander for operations. During that stint, his unit became the first operational F–15 aircraft

wing stationed outside the continental United States. In February 1978 he took on the duties of

deputy commander for operations for the 32d Tactical Fighter Squadron at Camp New Amsterdam, Holland. While at those European posts, Fogleman maintained mission-ready status

with an additional duty as the United States Air Forces in Europe F–15 aircraft demonstration

pilot, performing at many international air shows.

His next assignment was as chief, tactical forces division, directorate of programs, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., where he remained until he was transferred to Hill

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Air Force Base, Utah, as vice commander, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing. Then Colonel Fogleman served as director of fighter operations at Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Langley

Air Force Base. In March 1983 he took command of the 56th Tactical Training Wing at

MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. In August 1984 he became commander of the 836th Air

Division at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

Fogleman was promoted to brigadier general in October 1985, and five months later he

went to the Pentagon as deputy director of programs and evaluation, Office of the Deputy

Chief of Staff, Programs and Resources. Two years later he became director of that same organization, as well as chairman of the Air Staff Board, Headquarters at the Pentagon. As a lieutenant general in July 1990, he headed to the Pacific region as commander of the Seventh Air

Force, deputy commander in chief, United Nations Command; deputy commander, U.S.

Forces Korea; and commander, Republic of Korea, U.S. Air Component Command, Combined

Forces Command, Osan Air Base, Korea. In August 1992 he became commander in chief of

U.S. Transportation Command and commander of Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force

Base, Illinois, where he was promoted to four-star status. Finally, he returned to the Pentagon

in October 1994 as chief of staff of the United States Air Force.

During his tenure as chief of staff, General Fogleman was considered by many to be a nononsense consensus builder who would have the Air Force work more cooperatively with the

other military branches. Indeed, during his first days as chief of staff, Fogleman made known

his belief that “Goldwater-Nichols had fundamentally changed the American way of war.” He

urged Air Force personnel to be proud of their “heritage” and “core competencies,” but to

remember that they served as “a team within a team.” He demanded that the very best people

in the Air Force serve on joint staffs so unified commands would “have people there who do

understand air power.” During his tenure as chief, Fogleman added to the definition of global

presence “to include not only . . . air, land, and sea forces, but... space forces and information-based capabilities.”

One of his first initiatives as chief was to restore the traditional rank insignia to the new Air

Force uniform, which had been changed by his predecessor, Gen. Merrill A. McPeak. Throughout his tenure, Fogleman supported a global engagement long-range plan, and he announced

and upheld a core-values campaign. He also launched an accountability campaign when writing

career-ending disciplinary letters for seven officers who escaped prosecution in the April 1994

shooting down of two Army Black Hawk helicopters in Iraq. Subsequently, he fired three wing

leaders after the April 1996 CT–43 crash in Croatia that killed thirty-five people, including U.S.

Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown. In September of that year he opposed a Pentagoncommissioned report that blamed the Air Force commander in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Brig.

Gen. Terryl Schwalier, for the vulnerability of Khobar Towers to terrorist bombing.

It was the Schwalier case that some believe induced Fogleman to leave office before completing his tenure. In a closing message to his troops he acknowledged that he might be out of

188
“step with the times and some of the thinking of the establishment.” He added, “if I were to

continue to serve as chief of staff of the Air Force and speak out, I could be seen as a divisive

force and not a team player. I do not want the Air Force to suffer for my judgment and convictions. In my view this would happen if I continue as your chief.” He also had been losing key

resources and the budget battle. General Fogleman apparently did not view those losses as

political, but instead as losses for the Air Force he was charged with shepherding. Thus, on

July 28, 1997, Fogleman announced his official retirement effective September 1.

189

Gen. Michael E. Ryan

November 6, 1997–the present

191 
Gen. Michael E. Ryan

November 6, 1997–the present




MICHAEL E. RYAN was born on December 24, 1941, in San Antonio, Texas. He

graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree.

After finishing pilot training at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama, in October 1966,

he was assigned to the 16th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where

he flew F–4s. In October 1967 he joined the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Udorn Royal

Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. He flew on 138 combat missions, including 100 over North

Vietnam. In August 1968 he transferred to the 7th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Holloman Air

Force Base, New Mexico, where he again flew F–4s. After completing Squadron Officer

School in 1969 and graduating from the Fighter Weapons Instructor Course at Nellis Air Force

Base, Nevada, in January 1971, Captain Ryan served as an exchange officer for Mirage III

fighters with the 2d Operational Conversion Unit, Royal Australian Air Force.

In July 1973 he returned stateside, assigned as an F–4 pilot with the 311th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and from September 1974 to August

1975 he was wing weapons officer with the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, Kunsan Air Base, South

Korea. After graduating with distinction from the Air Command and Staff College, Ryan

earned a master’s degree in business administration from Auburn University. Promoted to

major in June 1976, he headed to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, as staff officer in the

Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Headquarters Tactical Air Command.

Newly promoted to lieutenant colonel in April 1979, Ryan assumed command of the 61st

Tactical Fighter Squadron, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, and was responsible for overseeing the unit’s transition from F–4s to F–16s. He later was assistant deputy commander for

operations, 56th Tactical Fighter Wing, at MacDill.

In August 1981 Colonel Ryan was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington,

D.C., as chief of the Checkmate Group. Located in the basement of the Pentagon, the Checkmate Group was a separate Air Force planning cell studying counterstrategies to Soviet initiatives. Ryan later was named deputy assistant director of joint and national security council

matters at the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations. After graduating

from the National War College in June 1984, he became commander of the 432d Tactical

Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base, Japan, where he reestablished U.S. fighter operations after a

193
twelve-year absence. He became executive to the chief of staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force,

in June 1986. After receiving his first star in May 1988, he was assigned as deputy chief of

staff, plans, Tactical Air Command Headquarters, until January 1990 when he became deputy

chief of staff, operations.

Promoted to major general in January 1991, he returned to Washington to become vice

director of strategic plans and policy at the joint staff. Two years later, Lieutenant General

Ryan became assistant to the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. In September 1994 he went to

Europe as commander, Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]), Naples, Italy; and as commander, Sixteenth Air Force (U.S. Air Force in Europe

[USAFE]), Aviano Air Base, Italy. In those command positions, Ryan directed the NATO air

combat operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which directly contributed to the Dayton Peace

Accords. In April 1996 he received his fourth star and became commander of USAFE and of

Allied Air Forces Central Europe, Ramstein Air Base, West Germany. General Ryan served in

this capacity until he became chief of staff of the United States Air Force in November 1997.

With that appointment he became the first officer in U.S. history to assume his father’s former

post as the most senior officer of a military service.

Ryan faced a major challenge. Despite a 33 percent reduction of force structure and personnel and a loss of two-thirds of the USAF’s foreign basing, the service confronted requirements of the National Command Authority to intervene in numerous overseas deployments.

The resultant high operation tempo damaged the long-term sustainability of the service. To

remedy the situation, Ryan implemented the aerospace Air Expeditionary Force (AEF), which

was specifically designed for rapid global deployment.

The new expeditionary aerospace force that embraced the entire USAF was projected to

include about ten AEFs that would be on call or deployed for up to ninety days, every fifteen

months, with two AEFs on call at all times. His mid-1998 plan called for creating five thousand positions to support deployed forces and home bases by switching authorizations from

specialties less likely to deploy.

Although overall readiness of the Air Force had remained steady over the previous eight

years, Ryan believed that there had been a 9 percent decline in major weapon systems. He noted

that the average U.S. Air Force aircraft was twenty years old in 1999, and that the older a piece

of equipment was, the more difficult it was to procure parts for it. That was his rationale for pursuing force modernization with the F–22, the C–17, and the Joint Strike Fighter programs.

General Ryan believed that the United States had the greatest air force and superb people

who do all “we ask them to do.” He held that the concept of an expeditionary aerospace force

would allow the continuance of “exceptional aerospace forces to accomplish our global mission and to better care for our folks as we do so.”

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APPENDIXES

Chief, Bureau of Aircraft Production

John D. Ryan May–August 1918

Director of Air Service

John D. Ryan August–December 23, 1918

Assistant Secretary of War for Air

F. Trubee Davison 1926–1932

Robert A. Lovett April 10, 1941–January 31, 1946

W. Stuart Symington January 31, 1946–September 18, 1947

SECRETARIES DATES OF OFFICE

W. Stuart Symington September 18, 1947–April 24, 1950

Thomas K. Finletter April 24, 1950–January 20, 1953

Harold E. Talbott February 4, 1953–August 13, 1955

Donald A. Quarles August 15, 1955–April 30, 1957

James H. Douglas, Jr. May 1, 1957–December 10, 1959

Dudley C. Sharp December 11, 1959–January 20, 1961

Eugene M. Zuckert January 24, 1961–September 30, 1965

Harold Brown October 1, 1965–February 14, 1969 

Robert C. Seamans, Jr. February 15, 1969–May 14, 1973

John L. McLucas (Acting) May 15, 1973–July 18, 1973

John L. McLucas July 18, 1973–November 23, 1975

James W. Plummer (Acting) November 24, 1975–January 1, 1976

Thomas C. Reed January 2, 1976–April 6, 1977

John C. Stetson April 6, 1977–May 18, 1979

Hans M. Mark (Acting) May 18, 1979–July 26, 1979

Hans M. Mark July 26, 1979–February 9, 1981

Verne Orr February 9, 1981–November 30, 1985

Russell A. Rourke December 8, 1985–April 7, 1986

Edward C. Aldridge, Jr. (Acting) April 8, 1986–June 8, 1986

Edward C. Aldridge, Jr. June 9, 1986–December 16, 1988

197

APPENDIX I

The Secretaries of the United States Air Force 

and Their Antecedents
James F. McGovern (Acting) December 16, 1988–April 29, 1989

John J. Welch, Jr. (Acting) April 29, 1989–May 21, 1989

Donald B. Rice May 22, 1989–January 20, 1993

Michael B. Donely (Acting) January 20, 1993–July 13, 1993

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak (Acting) July 14, 1993–August 5, 1993

Sheila E. Widnall August 6, 1993–October 31, 1997

F. Whitten Peters (Acting) November 13, 1997–August 3, 1999

F. Whitten Peters August 3, 1999–the present

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Creator of Balloon Section in the Signal Corps

Maj. Gen. Adolphus Greely 1887–1906

Commander of the Signal Corps at the creation of the Aeronautical Division in August 1907; 

accepted the first Army plane,August 1909

Brig. Gen. James Allen 1906–1913

Chief of Signal Corps when Aviation Section of the Air Service was actualized

Brig. Gen. George Scriven 1913–1917

Chief Signal Officer who was the first U.S. wartime air chief; had top authority for World War I

mobilization of air power

Maj. Gen. George O. Squier 1917–1918

Director of Military Aeronautics

Maj. Gen. William L. Kenly May 1918

Director (later Chief) of Air Service

Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher 1918–1921

Commander of the Air Service

Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick 1921–1926

Chief of the Air Corps

Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick July 1926–December 1927

Maj. Gen. James E. Fechet December 1927–December 1931

Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois December 1931–December 1935

Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover December 1935–September 1938

Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold September 1938–June 1941

Chief (later Commanding General),Army Air Forces

Maj. Gen. (later Gen.) Henry H. Arnold June 1941–February 1946

Gen. Carl A. Spaatz February 1946–September 1947

199

APPENDIX II

The Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force 

and Their Antecedents
CHIEFS OF STAFF DATES OF OFFICE

Gen. Carl A. Spaatz September 26, 1947–April 29, 1948

Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg April 30, 1948–June 29, 1953

Gen. Nathan F. Twining June 30, 1953–June 30, 1957

Gen. Thomas D. White July 1, 1957–June 30, 161

Gen. Curtis E. LeMay June 30, 1961–January 31, 1965

Gen. John P. McConnell February 1, 1965–July 31, 1969

Gen. John D. Ryan August 1, 1969–July 31, 1973

Gen. George S. Brown August 1, 1973–June 30, 1974

Gen. David C. Jones July 1, 1974–June 20, 1978

Gen. Lew Allen, Jr. July 1, 1978–June 30, 1982

Gen. Charles A. Gabriel July 1, 1982–June 30, 1986

Gen. Larry D. Welch July 1, 1986–June 30, 1990

Gen. Michael J. Dugan July 1, 1990–September 17, 1990

Gen. John M. Loh (Acting) September 18, 1990–October 29, 1990

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak October 30, 1990–October 25, 1994

Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman October 26, 1994–September 1, 1997

Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart (Acting) September 2, 1997–October 5, 1997

Gen. Michael E. Ryan October 6, 1997–the present

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SECRETARY OF CHAIRMAN OF THE

PRESIDENT DEFENSE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

Harry S Truman James V. Forrestal General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, USA

April 12, 1945– September 17, 1947– August 16, 1949–

January 20, 1953 March 27, 1949

Louis A. Johnson

March 28, 1949–

September 19, 1950

George C. Marshall

September 21, 1950–

September 12, 1951

Robert A. Lovett

September 17, 1951–

January 20, 1953

Dwight D. Eisenhower Charles E. Wilson General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, USA

January 20, 1953– January 28, 1953– –August 15, 1953

January 20, 1961 October 8, 1957 Adm. Arthur W. Radford, USN

Neil H. McElroy August 15, 1953–August 15, 1957

October 9, 1957– Gen. Nathan F. Twining, USAF

December 1, 1959 August 15, 1957–September 30, 1960

Thomas S. Gates, Jr. Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, USA

December 2, 1959– October 1, 1960–

January 20, 1961

John F. Kennedy Robert S. McNamara Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, USA

January 20, 1961– January 21, 1961– –September 30, 1962

November 22, 1963 Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, USA

October 1, 1962–

Lyndon B. Johnson Robert S. McNamara Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, USA

November 22, 1963– –February 29, 1968 –July 1, 1964

January 20, 1969 Clark M. Clifford Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, USA

March 1, 1968– July 3, 1964–

January 20, 1969

201

APPENDIX III

Chronological Listing of Presidents of the United States,

Secretaries of Defense, and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
SECRETARY OF CHAIRMAN OF THE

PRESIDENT DEFENSE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

Richard M. Nixon Melvin R. Laird Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, USA

January 20, 1969– January 22, 1969– –July 2, 1970

August 9, 1974 January 29, 1973 Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, USN

Elliot L. Richardson July 2, 1970–July 1, 1974

January 30, 1973– Gen. George S. Brown, USAF

May 24, 1973 July 1, 1974–

James R. Schlesinger

July 2, 1973–

Gerald R. Ford James R. Schlesinger Gen. George S. Brown, USAF

August 9, 1974– –November 19, 1975

January 20, 1977 Donald H. Rumsfeld

November 20, 1975–

January 20, 1977

Jimmy Carter Harold Brown Gen. George S. Brown, USAF

January 20, 1977– January 21, 1977– –June 20, 1978

January 20, 1981 January 20, 1981 Gen. David C. Jones, USAF

June 21, 1978–

Ronald W. Reagan Caspar W. Weinberger Gen. David C. Jones, USAF

January 20, 1981– January 21, 1981– –June 18, 1982

January 20, 1989 November 23, 1987 Gen. John W. Vessey, Jr., USA

Frank C. Carlucci June 18, 1982–September 30, 1985

November 23, 1987– Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr., USN

January 20, 1989 October 1, 1985–

George H. W. Bush Richard B. Cheney Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr., USN

January 20, 1989– March 21, 1989– –September 30, 1989

January 20, 1993 January 20, 1993 Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA

October 1, 1989–

William J. Clinton Les Aspin Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA

January 20, 1993– January 20, 1993 –September 30, 1993

February 3, 1994 Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, USA

William J. Perry October 25, 1993–September 30, 1997

February 3, 1994– Gen. Henry H. Shelton, USA

January 24, 1997 October 1, 1997–

William S. Cohen

January 24, 1997–

202
CARL SPAATZ

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 12, 1914

First Lieutenant July 1, 1916

Captain May 15, 1917

Major July 1, 1920

Captain (postwar reduction) December 18, 1922

Major February 1, 1923

Lieutenant Colonel September 18, 1923

Colonel November 7, 1939 October 10, 1942

Brigadier General October 2, 1940 May 31, 1944

Major General February 6, 1942 (AUS) June 22, 1946

Lieutenant General March 13, 1943

General March 29, 1945

General United States Air Force June 28, 1948

Principal Assignments Dates

25th Infantry, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii June 1914–September 1915

Signal Corps Aviation School, San Diego, California September 1915–June 1916

1st and 3d Aero Squadrons, New Mexico; Houston, Texas June 1916–July 1917

Instructor, Signal Corps, Fort Sam Houston, Texas July 1917–September 1917

31st Aero Squadron, AEF France; and Commanding September 1917–December 1918

Officer, 3d Aviation Instruction Center, France

Commanding Officer, Taliaferro Field, Texas December 1918–May 1919

Operations Officer, Air Service, Western Department, San Francisco, May 1919–June 1920

California

VIII Corps Area, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; and later Commanding June 1920–June 1922

Officer, 1st (Pursuit), Kelly Field, Texas; Commanding Officer, 

Ellington Field, Texas 

Post Commander, Selfridge Field, Michigan June 1922–September 1924

203

APPENDIX IV

Promotions, Assignments, and Decorations 

of the Air Force Chiefs of Staff
Student Officer, Air Service Tactical School, Langley Field, Virginia September 1924–June 1925

Administrative and executive duties in connection with training and June 1925–June 1928

operations of the Air Corps, Washington, D.C.

Executive, Training, and Operations Division, Office of the Chief of June 1928–April 1929

the Air Corps, Washington, D.C. 

Commanding Officer, 7th Bombardment Group, Air Corps; Post April 1929–June 1930

Operations Officer, Summary Court Officer, and Investigating 

Officer for all cases of desertion, Rockwell Field, Coronado, 

California 

Commanding Officer, Rockwell Air Depot; and later 7th June 1930–June 1931

Bombardment Group, Air Corps, Rockwell Field, Coronado, 

California 

Group Commander, Rockwell Field, Coronado, California June 1931–October 1931

Post Commander, March Field, California; and Commanding October 1931–June 1933

Officer, 1st Bombardment Wing, Air Corps 

Chief, Training and Operations Division (detached service, June 1933–August 1935

Headquarters Army Air Corps Military Operations); Office, Chief 

of the Air Corps, Washington, D.C. 

Student, Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, August 1935–June 1936

Kansas

Executive and Inspector, 2d Wing General Headquarters Air Force, June 1936–March 1937

Langley Field, Virginia

Executive, 2d Wing; and later Military Pilot, Langley Field, Virginia March 1937–January 1939

(detached service, Assistant Executive, Office of the Chief of the 

Air Corps, Washington D.C., November 1938–January 1939)

Chief, Plans Section, Executive Division; and later Assistant Chief January 1939–January 1942

of the Air Corps and Chief, Plans Division Office, Chief of the 

Air Corps, Washington, D.C. 

Commanding General, Air Force Combat Command, Bolling Field, 

Headquarters Army Air Forces, Washington, D.C. January 1942–May 1942

Commanding General, Eighth Air Force May 1942–December 1942

Commanding General, Northwest African Air Forces (with 

additional duty, Commanding General, Twelfth Air Force); and December 1942–December 1943

later Commanding General, United States Army Air Forces, 

North African Theater of Operation 

Commanding General, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe December 1943–October 1945

and Pacific Ocean Area

Commanding General, Army Air Forces; and Chief of Staff of the February 1946–April 1948

United States Air Force,Washington, D.C.

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Cross, WWI

Distinguished Service Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Flying Cross

204
Legion of Merit

Air Medal

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star

European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with six Bronze Service Stars

HOYT S. VANDENBERG

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 12, 1923

First Lieutenant August 19, 1928

Captain August 1, 1935

Major March 11, 1940 July 1, 1940

Lieutenant Colonel November 15, 1941 June 12, 1946

Colonel January 27, 1942

Brigadier General December 3, 1942 June 22, 1946

Major General March 13, 1944 August 1, 1947

(w/dor December 3, 1942) 

Lieutenant General March 17, 1945

General October 1, 1947

Principal Assignments Dates

Transportation Officer, 3d Attack Group, Kelly Field, Texas October 1924–December 1924

Transportation and Supply Officer, 3d Attack Group, Kelly Field, January 1925–December 1925

Texas

Commanding Officer, 90th Attack Squadron January 1926–December 1926

Instructor at the Primary Flying School, March Field, California January 1927–November 1929

Commanding Officer, 6th Pursuit Squadron, Schofield Barracks, November 1929–May 1931

Hawaii

Assistant Stage Commander, Randolph Field, Texas March 1931–August 1934

Student, Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama August 1934–June 1935

Student, Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, August 1935–June 1936

Kansas

Instructor, Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama July 1936–August 1938

Student at the Army War College, Washington, D.C. September 1938–June 1939

Assistant to the Chief, Air War Plans Division Office, Chief of the July 1939–June 1941

Air Corps

Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, for A-3, Headquarters Army July 1941–August 1942

Air Forces

Assigned to Plans Secretary, Headquarters European Theater of August 1942–September 1943

Operations, USA, England (planning North African invasion and

organizing Twelfth Air Force)

205
Chief of Staff of the Twelfth Air Force, England and North Africa September 1942–February 1943

Chief of Staff, North African Strategic Air Force February 1943–August 1943

Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Headquarters Army Air Forces August 1943–March 1944

Senior Army Air Forces Member of the U.S. Air Mission to the USSR September 1943–January 1944

Deputy Commander in Chief, Allied Expeditionary Air Force March 1944–August 1944

Commanding General, Ninth Air Force August 1944–May 1945

Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Operations, Commitments, and June 1945–January 1946

Requirements, Headquarters Army Air Forces

Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Central Intelligence Group, War January 1946–May 1946

Department General Staff; and Army Member of Joint Intelligence 

Committee and Combined Intelligence Committee, Office of the 

Joint Chiefs of Staff

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Secretary May 1946–May 1947

of War

Acting Deputy Commander and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, June 1947–August 1947

Headquarters Army Air Forces

Deputy Commander and Chief of the Air Staff, Headquarters September 1947–September 1947

Army Air Forces

Vice Chief of Staff, Headquarters United States Air Force, October 1947–April 1948

Washington, D.C.

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. April 1948–April 1952

Reappointed for fourteen-month term April 1952–June 1953

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Legion of Merit

Silver Star

Distinguished Flying Cross

Bronze Star

Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters

From Great Britain: Knight Companion, British Order of the Bath

From France: Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre with Palm

NATHAN FARRAGUT TWINING

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant November 1, 1918

First Lieutenant January 1, 1920 November 20, 1923

Captain April 20, 1935 September 1, 1935

Major October 7, 1938 July 1, 1940

Lieutenant Colonel July 22, 1941 November 12, 1942

206
Colonel February 1, 1942

Brigadier General June 17, 1942 July 10, 1946

Major General February 5, 1943 February 19, 1948

Lieutenant General June 5, 1945

General October 10, 1950

Principal Assignments Dates

Duty, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York November 1918–July 1919

Tour of Observation, France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany August 1919–September 1919

Student, Basic Course, Infantry School; then Commanding Officer, September 1919–February 1922

“C” and “B” Companies, 29th Infantry, Camp Benning, Georgia

Aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. B. A. Poore, Camp Travis, Texas; March 1922–August 1923

Fort Logan, Colorado; and later Fort Sam Houston, Texas

Student, Air Service Primary and later Advanced Flying, Brooks September 1923–September 1924

and Kelly Fields, Texas 

Instructor, Air Corps Primary Flying School, Brooks Field, Texas; October 1924–February 1930

and later March Field, California 

Adjutant and Commanding Officer, 18th Pursuit Group; and later March 1930–August 1932

Commanding Officer, 26th Attack Squadron, Schofield Barracks, 

Hawaii

Pilot and Operations Officer, 8th Attack Squadron; then Pilot and September 1932–February 1934

Commanding Officer, 90th Attack Squadron; then Pilot and Mess 

Officer, 60th Services Squadron, Fort Crockett, Texas

Engineering Officer, Central Zone, Chicago, Illinois (Air Mail) March 1934–June 1934

Post and Group Adjutant and later Commanding Officer, 3d Attack July 1934–February 1935

Group, 3d Attack Wing, Headquarters Detachment; then Assistant 

Operations Officer, 3d Wing, Barksdale Field, Louisiana

Student, Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama; March 1935–June 1937

Student, Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, 

Kansas

Air Corps Technical Supervisor, San Antonio Air Depot, Duncan July 1937–July 1940

Field, Texas

Assistant Chief and later Chief, Technical Inspection Section, August 1940–July 1942

Office of the Chief of the Air Corps; then Assistant 

Executive Officer, Chief of Staff of the Army Air Force, 

Washington, D.C.

Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Forces; then Commanding General, August 1942–December 1943

Thirteenth Air Force, South Pacific

Commanding General, Fifteenth Air Force, Mediterranean Theater January 1944–May 1945

Temporary Duty with Headquarters Army Air Force (Liaison and June 1945–July 1945

Planning, Headquarters U.S. Army Strategic Air Force), 

Washington, D.C.

Commanding General, Twentieth Air Force in the Pacific August 1945–December 1945

Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Ohio January 1946–October 1947

207
Commander in Chief, Alaskan Command October 1947–July 1950

Acting Deputy Chief of Staff (Personnel); then Vice Chief of Staff; August 1950–June 1953

then temporarily assumed duties of Chief of Staff; then resumed 

duties as Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, 

Washington, D.C. 

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. June 1953–June 1957

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C. August 1957–September 1960

Principal Decorations

Army Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Navy Distinguished Service Medal

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Flying Cross

Bronze Star

Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Commendation Ribbon

From France: Legion of Honor–Degree of Commander, Croix de Guerre with two Palms

From Great Britain: Knight of the British Empire

THOMAS DRESSER WHITE

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant July 2, 1920

First Lieutenant July 2, 1920 August 24, 1925

Captain August 23, 1935

Major May 20, 1939 July 2, 1943

Lieutenant Colonel July 22, 1941 December 11, 1941

Colonel July 4, 1942

Brigadier General November 9, 1942

Major General July 18, 1946 February 19, 1948

Lieutenant General July 28, 1951

General June 30, 1953

Principal Assignments Dates

Cadet, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York June 1918–July 1920

Student, Infantry School, Camp Benning, Georgia September 1920–June 1921

Served in various capacities with the 14th Infantry at Fort Davis, September 1921–August 1924

Gatun, and other stations in the Canal Zone

Student Officer at the Air Service Primary Flying School, and the August 1924–September 1925

Air Service Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas

208
Assigned to Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., in various capacities September 1925–May 1927

including Engineering Officer and Supply Officer, 99th 

Observation Squadron

Student, Chinese language, Peiping (later Peking, Beijing), August 1927–May 1931

China

Assistant Chief, Section II, Plans Division, Office of the Chief of June 1931–June 1932

the Air Corps, Washington, D.C.

Assistant Operations Officer; Air Corps Detachment Mess Officer; June 1932–January 1934

Police and Prison Officer; and later Commanding Officer, 

Air Corps Detachment, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.

Assistant Attaché and Assistant Military Attaché for Air, American February 1934–March 1935

Embassy, Moscow, USSR

Assistant Military Attaché and Assistant Military Attaché for Air; April 1935–May 1937

Finance Officer; and later Supply Officer, American Embassy, 

Rome, Italy

Student, Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama June 1937–August 1938

Student, Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, September 1938–June 1939

Kansas

Chief, Intelligence Section, Information Division, Office of the June 1939–June 1940

Chief of the Air Corps, War Department, Washington, D.C.

In charge of and later Chief, Aviation Section, United States July 1940–March 1942

Military Mission to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Assistant and later Chief of Staff, Third Air Force, Tampa, Florida April 1942–December 1943

Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Headquarters Army Air January 1944–June 1944

Forces, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Commander, Thirteenth Air Force, Southwest Pacific Area July 1944–June 1945

Commanding General, Seventh Air Force; and later Chief of Staff, July 1945–December 1946

Pacific Air Command, Pacific Area

Chief of Staff, Far East Air Forces January 1947–January 1948

Commanding General, Fifth Air Force, Far East Command January 1948–September 1948

Director of Legislation and Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the October 1948–April 1950

Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Air Force Member, Joint Strategic Survey Committee, Central April 1950–November 1950

Control Group, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 

Washington, D.C.

Special Assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Headquarters November 1950–February 1951

and Headquarters Squadron, USAF, Washington, D.C.

Director of Plans, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, February 1951–July 1951

Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron USAF, Washington, D.C.

Acting and later Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Headquarters July 1951–June 1953

USAF, Washington, D.C.

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. June 1953–June 1957

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1957–June 1961

209
Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Air Medal with Oak Leak Cluster

World War I Victory Medal

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with six Bronze Stars

From Great Britain: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

CURTIS EMERSON LEMAY

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant (Air Reserve) October 12, 1929

Second Lieutenant (Air Corps) January 6, 1930

First Lieutenant June 1, 1935 March 12, 1935

Captain January 6, 1940

Major March 21, 1941

Lieutenant Colonel February 1, 1942 January 5, 1942

Colonel September 13, 1943 March 1, 1942

Brigadier General September 28, 1943 May 2, 1946

Major General March 2, 1944 March 19, 1948

Lieutenant General October 1, 1947

General October 29, 1951

Principal Assignments Dates

Plans and Operations Officer, 1st Pursuit Group, Selfridge Field, October 1929–September 1934

Michigan

Operations and Communications Officer, 18th Pursuit Group, September 1934–December 1936

Wheeler Field, Hawaii

Operations Officer, 49th Bomb Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia January 1937–January 1941

Squadron Officer, 7th Bomb Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia January 1941–June 1941

Pilot and Operations Officer, Ferry Command, North Atlantic, June 1941–October 1941

Washington, D.C.

Group Operations Officer, 34th Bomb Group, Westover Field, October 1941–April 1942

Massachusetts

Group Executive Officer, 306th Bomb Group, Wendover Field, Utah April 1942–June 1942

Group Executive Officer, 306th Bomb Group, Edwards Field, July 1942–May 1943

Muroc, California (then to England)

Commanding Officer, 4th Bomb Wing, England July 1943–September 1943

Commanding General, 3d Bomb Division, England September 1943–June 1944

Commanding General, 20th Bomber Command, India August 1944–January 1945

210
Commanding General, 21st Bomber Command, Harmon Field, January 1945–July 1945

Guam, and the Marianas

Commanding General, Twentieth Air Force, Harmon Field, Guam, July 1945–August 1945

and the Marianas

Chief of Staff, Strategic Air Forces, Pacific, Harmon Field, August 1945–November 1945

Guam, and the Marianas

Deputy Chief of the Air Staff for Research and Development, December 1945–October 1947

Headquarters Army Air Forces

Commander in Chief, Headquarters United States Air Forces in October 1947–October 1948

Europe, Germany

Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force October 1948–June 1957

Base, Nebraska

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1957–June 1961

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1961–January 1965

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Cross

Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Silver Star

Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster

American Defense Service Medal

American Campaign Medal

European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three Service Stars

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with four Service Stars

World War II Victory Medal

Army of Occupation Medal with the Berlin Airlift Emblem

From Belgium: Croix de Guerre with Palm

From France: Legion of Honor–Degree of Commander, Croix de Guerre with Palm

From Great Britain: Distinguished Flying Cross

From Sweden: Commander of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword

From USSR: Order of Patriotic War–1st Degree

JOHN PAUL MCCONNELL

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 10, 1932 June 10, 1932

First Lieutenant April 20, 1935 August 1, 1935

Captain September 9, 1940 June 10, 1942

211
Major July 15, 1941

Lieutenant Colonel January 23, 1942

Colonel December 22, 1942 April 2, 1948

Brigadier General August 24, 1944 April 7, 1954

Major General December 22, 1950 March 10, 1958

Lieutenant General June 30, 1959

General October 1, 1962

Principal Assignments Dates

Cadet, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York September 1928–June 1932

Flying Schools, Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas July 1932–October 1933

79th Pursuit Squadron, Barksdale Field, Louisiana November 1933–June 1937

50th Observation Squadron, Luke Field, Hawaii; and Post and June 1937–June 1939

Group Adjutant, Fifth Bomb Group, Hickam Field, Hawaii

Assistant Engineering Officer, 91st School Squadron; and then June 1939–July 1940

Assistant Post Adjutant, Maxwell Field, Alabama

Adjutant, Southeast Air Corps Training Center; and Aide to July 1940–January 1942

Brig. Gen. W. R. Weaver

Assistant Executive to Acting Chief, Office of the Chief of the January 1942–May 1942

Army Air Forces, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff, Headquarters Army Air May 1942–September 1943

Forces Command (Technical Training), Knollwood Field, 

North Carolina

Deputy Chief of Staff, Headquarters Army Air Forces Training September 1943–November 1943

Command, Fort Worth, Texas

Chief of Staff, China–Burma–India Air Force Training Command November 1943–February 1944

(Provisional), Karachi, India

Senior Air Staff Officer and Deputy Commander, 3d Tactical Air February 1944–September 1944

Force, Comilla, India

Senior Air Staff Officer, Southeast Asia Air Command, Kandy, September 1944–June 1945

Ceylon

Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of Operations, Plans and Intelligence, June 1945–April 1946

Eastern Air Command, Chungking, China

Commander, Air Division, Nanking Headquarters, Command and April 1946–June 1947

Senior Adviser to Chinese Government

Chief, Reserve and National Guard Division, Headquarters Army June 1947–May 1948

Air Forces, Washington, D.C.

Chief, Civilian Components Group, Headquarters United States May 1948–December 1948

Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Special Assistant to Chief of Staff for Reserve Forces, December 1948–July 1950

Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff, Headquarters Third Air July 1950–May 1951

Division and Third Air Force, England (United States Air Forces

Europe)

212
Commander, 7th Air Division, England (Strategic Air Command) May 1951–February 1952

Commander, Third Air Force and 7th Air Division, England February 1952–May 1952

(United States Air Forces Europe and Strategic Air Command)

Commander, 7th Air Division, England (Strategic Air Command) May 1952–March 1953

Deputy Director and Director of Plans, Headquarters Strategic Air April 1953–November 1957

Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

Commander, Second Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, November 1957–August 1961

Louisiana (Strategic Air Command)

Vice Commander of Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, August 1961–September 1962

Nebraska

Deputy Commander in Chief, United States European Command, September 1962–August 1964

Camp de Loges, France

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. August 1964–January 1965

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. February 1965–July 1969

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal

Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Flying Cross

Bronze Star

Air Medal

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medals with four Service Stars

From Great Britain: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

From China: Chinese Air Force Pilot’s Wings

From Republic of Vietnam: Republic of Vietnam Air Force Cross, 1st Order

From Chile: Great Star of Military Merit

From Thailand: Royal Thai Air Force Command Pilot Wings

From Japan: First Class of the Order of the Rising Sun with Grand Cordon

From Republic of Korea: Order of Service Merit, First Class 

From Brazil: Order of Aeronautical Merit, Grade of Grand Official

From France: Legion of Honor–Degree of Commander

JOHN DALE RYAN

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 14, 1938

First Lieutenant October 1, 1940

Captain October 15, 1941

Major March 29, 1942

Lieutenant Colonel July 23, 1942 July 2, 1948

Colonel August 27, 1944 July 23, 1952

213
Brigadier General September 24, 1952 May 16, 1960

Major General October 24, 1956

Lieutenant General July 1, 1961

General December 1, 1964

Principal Assignments Dates

Student, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York September 1934–June 1938

Student, Primary and Advanced Flying Schools, Randolph and June 1938–August 1939

Kelly Fields, Texas

Flight Instructor, Advanced Flying School, Kelly Field, Texas August 1939–January 1942

Advanced Bombing School; Commanding Officer, 1st Training January 1942–August 1943

Group; and later Director of Training, Midland Army Air Forces, 

Texas

Operations Officer, Headquarters, Second Air Force, Colorado August 1943–January 1944

Springs, Colorado

Commander, 2d Bombardment Group; and later Operations Officer, February 1944–April 1945

5th Bombardment Wing, Fifteenth Air Force, Italy

Deputy Base Commander, Midland Army Air Forces, Texas June 1945–August 1945

Assignments with Air Transport Command, Randolph Field and September 1945–March 1946

Fort Worth, Texas

Assigned to 58th Bombardment Wing as participant in Bikini Atoll April 1946–September 1946

atomic weapons test

Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans, 58th Bombardment Wing; and September 1946–July 1948

later Operations Officer, Eighth Air Force, Carswell Air Force 

Base, Texas

Commander, 509th Bombardment Wing, Walker Air Force Base, August 1948–July 1951

New Mexico

Commander, 97th Bombardment Wing, Biggs Air Force Base, Texas July 1951–June 1952

Commander, 810th Air Division, Biggs Air Force Base, Texas June 1952–August 1953

Commander, 19th Air Division, Carswell Air Force Base, Texas September 1953–June 1956

Director of Materiel, Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt June 1956–June 1960

Air Force Base, Nebraska

Commander, Sixteenth Air Force, Torrejon Air Base, Spain June 1960–July 1961

Commander, Second Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana July 1961–August 1963

Inspector General, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. August 1963–July 1964

Vice Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air August 1964–November 1964

Force Base, Nebraska

Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force December 1964–January 1967

Base, Nebraska

Commander in Chief, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, February 1967–July 1968

Hawaii

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. August 1968–July 1969

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. August 1969–July 1973

214
Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal (Air Force design) with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Service Medal (Army design)

Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster

Legion of Merit

Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster

Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters

Purple Heart

European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

Vietnam Service Medal

From France: Croix de Guerre with Palm

From China: Chinese Order of the Cloud and Banner, 1st Class with Grand Cordon, and 2d Class

From Republic of Korea: National Security Merit First Class

From Republic of Vietnam: Vietnamese National Order of Vietnam/Commander, Gallantry Cross with Palm 

From Greece: Grand Cross, Royal Order of Phoenix

From Spain: Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit

From Republic of the Philippines: Golden Wings of the Philippine Air Force

From Chile: Military Star of the Armed Forces, Class of Great Star for Military Merit

From France: Legion of Honor–Degree of Commander

From Brazil: Order of Aeronautical Merit–Degree of Grand Official

GEORGE SCRATCHLEY BROWN

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 11, 1941

First Lieutenant June 18, 1942 June 12, 1944

Captain October 20, 1942

Major February 13, 1943 September 3, 1948

Lieutenant Colonel August 27, 1943 April 12, 1951

Colonel October 1, 1944 April 24, 1956

Brigadier General August 1, 1959 January 30, 1962

Major General April 1, 1963 February 27, 1964

Lieutenant General August 1, 1966

General August 1, 1968

Principal Assignments Dates

Cadet, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York July 1937–June 1941

Student, Primary and Advanced Flying Schools, Pine Bluff, June 1941–March 1942

Arkansas, and Kelly Field, Texas

215
Pilot, B–24, Transition Training, 344th Bomb Squadron, March 1942–April 1942

Barksdale Field, Louisiana

Pilot, B–24; Flight Commander; and later Commander, 329th April 1942–July 1943

Bomber Squadron, 93d Bombardment Group, Barksdale Field, 

Louisiana; Ft. Myers Army Air Base, Florida; Grenier Field, New 

Hampshire; England; and later Libya

Air Executive Officer, 93d Bombardment Group, Libya; and later August 1943–April 1944

England

Assistant Operations Officer, 2d Bomb Division, England May 1944–May 1945

Assistant to Air Chief of Staff, Operations, Headquarters Army May 1945–November 1946

Air Forces Training Command, Fort Worth, Texas; and 

later Barksdale Field, Louisiana

Assistant to Air Chief of Staff, Operations; and later Assistant December 1946–May 1948

Deputy of Operations, Air Defense Command, Mitchel Field, 

New York

Assistant Deputy of Operations, Air Defense Command; and later May 1948–June 1950

Continental Air Command, Mitchel Air Force Base, New York

Commander, 62d Troop Carrier Group, McChord Air Force Base, July 1950–July 1951

Washington, D.C.

Commander, 56th Fighter Interceptor Wing, Air Defense Command, July 1951–February 1952

Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan

Commander, 4798th Defense Wing, Selfridge Air Force Base, February 1952–April 1952

Michigan

Assistant Director and later Director of Operations, Fifth Air Force, May 1952–June 1953

Korea

Commander, 3525th Pilot Training Wing, Williams Air Force Base, July 1953–July 1956

Arizona

Student, National War College, Washington, D.C. August 1956–June 1957

Executive to the Chief of Staff, Headquarters United States Air July 1957–June 1959

Force, Washington D.C.

Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, June 1959–December 1959

Washington, D.C.

Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Washington, D.C. December 1959–August 1963

Commander, Eastern Transport Air Force, McGuire Air Force Base, August 1963–September 1964

New Jersey

Commander, Joint Task Force-II, Sandia Base, New Mexico September 1964–May 1966

Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, August 1966–July 1968

Washington, D.C.

Commander, Seventh Air Force; and Deputy Commander for Air August 1968–August 1970

Operations, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam

Commander, Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, September 1970–July 1973

Maryland

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. August 1973–June 1974

Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C. July 1974–June 1978

216
Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Cross

Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Silver Star

Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster

Bronze Star

Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Joint Service Commendation Medal

Presidential Unit Citation

European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with eight Service Stars

Korean Service Medal with two Service Stars

Vietnam Service Medal with two Service Stars

From Great Britain: Distinguished Flying Cross

From France: Croix de Guerre with Palm

From Republic of Korea: Presidential Unit Citation

DAVID CHARLES JONES

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant February 6, 1943 February 6, 1943

First Lieutenant February 28, 1944 February 6, 1946

Captain April 11, 1946 October 25, 1948

Major February 5, 1951 January 23, 1952

Lieutenant Colonel June 1, 1953 July 1, 1959

Colonel April 23, 1957 December 22, 1960

Brigadier General December 1, 1965 February 10, 1966

Major General November 1, 1967 January 24, 1969

Lieutenant General August 1, 1969

General September 1, 1971

Principal Assignments Dates

Aviation Cadet, Roswell, New Mexico April 1942–February 1943

Advanced Flying Instructor, Roswell, New Mexico; Yuma, Arizona; February 1943–August 1945

Pecos, Texas; and Hobbs, New Mexico

Pilot; Operations and Training Officer; and Commander, 3d August 1945–May 1948

Emergency Rescue Squadron, Fifth Air Force, Japan

Unit Instructor, 2235th Air Force Rescue Training Center, Godman May 1948–January 1949

Field, Kentucky

Student, Air Tactical School, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida January 1949–April 1949

217
Student, Atomic Energy Course, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi April 1949–August 1949

Assistant Operations and Training Officer, Godman Field, Kentucky August 1949–October 1949

Student, Special Weapons Course, Sandia Base, New Mexico October 1949–January 1950

Pilot and Operations Officer; Commander, 19th Bombardment January 1950–May 1953

Squadron, March Air Force Base, California

Commander, 22d Refueling Squadron, March Air Force Base, May 1953–June 1954

California

Commander, 33d Bombardment Squadron, March Air Force Base, June 1954–September 1954

California

Operations Planner, Bomber Mission Branch, Headquarters September 1954–December 1954

Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

Aide to the Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, January 1955–July 1957

Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

Director of Materiel; Deputy Commander for Maintenance, July 1957–July 1959

93d Bombardment Wing, Castle Air Force Base, California

Student, National War College, Washington, D.C. August 1959–June 1960

Chief, Manned Systems Branch; Deputy Chief, then Chief, Strategic July 1960–July 1964

Division; Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Headquarters United

States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Student, USAF Operations Training Courses, Luke and August 1964–February 1965

Davis-Monthan Air Force Bases, Arizona

Commander, 33d Tactical Fighter Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, March 1965–October 1965

Florida

Inspector General, Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans October 1965–January 1969

and Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Forces Europe, Wiesbaden 

Air Base, West Germany

Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Headquarters Seventh Air Force; February 1969–July 1969

and Vice Commander, Seventh Air Force, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, 

Republic of Vietnam

Commander, Second Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana August 1969–April 1971

Vice Commander in Chief, U.S. Air Forces Europe, Wiesbaden Air April 1971–August 1971

Base, West Germany

Commander in Chief, U.S. Air Forces Europe, Wiesbaden Air Base, September 1971–June 1974

West Germany (Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, after March 

1973); and Commander, Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force, 

Ramstein Air Base, West Germany

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1974–June 1978

Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C. June 1978–June 1982

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Service Medal (Air Force) with Oak Leaf Cluster

Legion of Merit

Distinguished Flying Cross

218
Bronze Star

Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

American Campaign Medal

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

Army of Occupation Medal (Japan) 

National Defense Service Medal with one Bronze Service Star

Korean Service Medal with two Bronze Service Stars

Vietnam Service Medal with three Bronze Service Stars

Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with eight Oak Leaf Clusters

From Republic of Vietnam: National Order, 5th Class; Air Force Distinguished Service Order, 1st Class

From Federal Republic of Germany: Grand Cross, 2d Class of the Order of Merit

From Republic of Korea: National Order of Security Merit (Tongil)

From France: Legion of Honor–Degree of Commander

From Venezuela: Air Force Cross, 1st Class, Legion of Merit Inter-American Aerial Brotherhood–

Degree of Officer

From Italy: Knight of the Grand Cross

From Japan: First Class Order of the Rising Sun

LEW ALLEN, JR.

Promotions Effective Dates

Temporary Permanent

Second Lieutenant June 4, 1946

First Lieutenant December 24, 1947 June 4, 1949

Captain September 9, 1951 June 4, 1953

Major April 17, 1957 June 4, 1960

Lieutenant Colonel July 15, 1962 June 4, 1967

Colonel September 1, 1965 August 1, 1969

Brigadier General November 1, 1969 February 26, 1971

Major General May 1, 1972 April 2, 1973

Lieutenant General August 15, 1973

General August 1, 1977

Principal Assignments Dates

Cadet, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York July 1943–June 1946

Student, Officer and Advanced Pilot Training, 2518th Army Air June 1946–November 1946

Forces Base Unit, Enid, Oklahoma

Pilot; Squadron Operations Officer; and Special Weapons Officer, November 1946–August 1950

26th Bombardment Squadron and 7th Bombardment Wing, 

Carswell Air Force Base, Texas

219
Student, University of Illinois, Urbana September 1950–March 1954

Physicist, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico March 1954–June 1957

Project Officer, Efficiency Division; Deputy Chief, Physics Division; June 1957–December 1961

Scientific Adviser and Nuclear Research Officer, Air Force 

Special Weapons Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

Staff Assistant and Staff Officer, Space Technology Office, December 1961–June 1965

Directorate of Research and Engineering, Office of the Secretary 

of Defense, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Director, Advanced Plans, Directorate of Special Projects, June 1965–June 1968

Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Los Angeles, California

Deputy Director; and later Director, Office of Space Systems, June 1968–September 1970

Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Assistant to the Director of Special Projects, Office of the Secretary September 1970–April 1971

of the Air Force, Los Angeles, California

Director of Special Projects, with additional duty as Deputy April 1971–February 1973

Commander, Satellite Programs, Space and Missile Systems 

Organization, Los Angeles, California

Chief of Staff, Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, Andrews February 1973–March 1973

Air Force Base, Maryland

Deputy to the Director of Central Intelligence for the Intelligence March 1973–August 1973

Community, Washington, D.C.

Director, National Security Agency; and Chief, Central Security August 1973–August 1977

Service, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland

Commander, Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, August 1977–March 1978

Maryland

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. April 1978–June 1978

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1978–June 1982

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Service Medal (Air Force)

Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Joint Service Commendation Medal

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon

Air Force Organizational Excellence Award Ribbon

National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal

American Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

From Republic of Korea: Order of National Security Merit

From Greece: Knight Commanders High Cross of the Order of Phoenix

From Brazil: Order of Aeronautical Merit

From Morocco: Grand Ribbon of the Ouissam Alaouite

From Spain: Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit with White Symbol

From Japan: Order of the Rising Sun First Class

220
From Portugal: Medal of Military Merit

From Italy: Cavalier of the Grand Cross

CHARLES A. GABRIEL

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant June 1950

First Lieutenant March 26, 1952

Captain May 14, 1954

Major September 1, 1961

Lieutenant Colonel September 1, 1965

Colonel July 1, 1968

Brigadier General November 1, 1972

Major General September 1, 1974

Lieutenant General August 1, 1977

General August 1, 1980

Principal Assignments Dates

Basic and Advanced Pilot Training, Goodfellow Air Force Base, June 1950–September 1951

Texas; and Craig Air Force Base, Alabama

F–51 and F–86 Pilot, 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing and 51st September 1951–December 1952

Fighter-Interceptor Wing, South Korea

Flight Commander; Operations Officer; and Group Gunnery Officer, January 1953–January 1956

86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, Landstuhl Air Base, Germany

Air Officer Commanding, Cadet Wing, U.S. Air Force Academy, January 1956–June 1959

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Group Adjutant and Commander, Headquarters Squadron Section, July 1959–July 1961

3550th Pilot Training Group, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia

Student, Naval War College, Command and Staff Course, August 1961–August 1962

Newport, Rhode Island

Student, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. August 1962–August 1963

Staff Officer, Directorate of Plans, Headquarters United States Air August 1963–August 1966

Force, Washington, D.C.

Student, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. September 1966–July 1967

McNair, Washington, D.C.

Special Assistant and Executive Officer to Chief of Staff, Supreme July 1967–June 1970

Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Mons, Belgium

Student, F–4 Flying Training, 4535th Combat Crew Training July 1970–March 1971

Squadron, George Air Force Base, California

Vice Commander; and later Commander, 432d Tactical April 1971–July 1972

Reconnaissance Wing, Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand

221
Deputy Director for Operational Forces; and Deputy Director of July 1972–February 1975

Operations, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and 

Operations, Headquarters United States Air Force,Washington, D.C.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Tactical Air Command, February 1975–September 1977

Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces Korea, and Deputy Commander in September 1977–April 1979

Chief, United Nations Command, Seoul, South Korea

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans and Readiness, April 1979–July 1980

Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Commander in Chief, United States Air Forces in Europe, and July 1980–June 1982

Commander, Allied Air Forces Central Europe, Ramstein Air 

Base, West Germany

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1982–July 1986

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal

Air Force Distinguished Service Medal

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Medal with fourteen Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Force Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Presidential Unit Citation Emblem

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon

World War II Victory Medal

Army of Occupation Medal (Japan) 

National Defense Service Medal with one Service Star

Korea Service Medal with two Service Stars

Vietnam Service Medal with four Service Stars

Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with eight Oak Leaf Clusters

From Federal Republic of Germany: Grand Cross, Second Class of the Order of Merit

From Republic of Korea: Order of National Security Merit (Gugseon Medal)

From Ecuador: Star of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, Grade of the Great Star of Military Merit

From Colombia: Air Force Cross

From Brazil: Order of Aeronautical Merit, Grade of Grand Officer

From Venezuela: Air Force Cross, First Class

From Pakistan: Medal for Distinction

From France: Legion of Honor 

From Republic of Korea: Presidential Unit Citation

From Republic of Vietnam: Gallantry Cross with Palm; Campaign Medal

United Nations Service Medal

222
LARRY D. WELCH

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant April 29, 1955

First Lieutenant October 29, 1956

Captain January 1, 1960

Major July 15, 1964

Lieutenant Colonel November 1, 1968

Colonel June 1, 1971

Brigadier General July 1, 1977

Major General September 15, 1979

Lieutenant General July 1, 1981

General August 1, 1984

Principal Assignments Dates

Enlisted in the Kansas National Guard October 1951–August 1953

Student, Pilot Training, Williams Air Force Base, Arizona; and November 1953–August 1955

later Advanced Pilot Training, Craig Air Force Base, Alabama

Flight Instructor, Williams Air Force Base, Arizona; Laughlin Air August 1955–July 1958

Force Base, Texas; and Craig Air Force Base, Alabama

Team Member, Single-Engine Standardization and Evaluation Team, July 1958–July 1962

Headquarters Air Training Command

Chief, Combat Operations Center, 366th Tactical Fighter Wing; and July 1962–September 1963

later Pilot, 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Chaumont Air Base, 

France

Pilot; Flight Commander; and Operations Officer, 389th Tactical September 1963–March 1966

Fighter Squadron, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico

Operations Officer, 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Phan Rang March 1966–October 1966

Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Chief, Operations and Training Division, 366th Tactical Fighter October 1966–February 1967

Wing, Da Nang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Student, Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia February 1967–July 1967

Director, Air Superiority Studies, Fighter Division, Office of the July 1967–August 1971

Assistant Chief of Staff for Studies and Analysis; later Chief, 

Fighter Division, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Studies 

and Analysis, Headquarters United States Air Force, 

Washington, D.C.

Student, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, August 1971–July 1972

Washington, D.C.

Deputy Commander for Operations; and later Vice Commander, July 1972–September 1974

35th Tactical Fighter Wing, George Air Force Base, California

Special Assistant to the Commander, Tactical Air Command, September 1974–July 1975

Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

223
Commander, First Tactical Fighter Wing, Langley Air Force Base, August 1975–August 1977

Virginia

Inspector General, Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base, August 1977–October 1977

Virginia

Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Tactical Air Command, Langley Air October 1977–March 1979

Force Base, Virginia

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Tactical Air Command, March 1979–May 1981

Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

Commander, Ninth Air Force, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina June 1981–November 1982

Deputy Chief of Staff, Programs and Resources, Headquarters November 1982–July 1984

United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1984–August 1985

Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command; and Director, Joint August 1985–June 1986

Strategic Target Planning Staff, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1986–June 1990

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Flying Cross

Meritorious Service Medal

Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Force Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Joint Meritorious Unit Award

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with “V” Device and two Oak Leaf Clusters

Good Conduct Medal

National Defense Service Medal with one Service Star

Vietnam Service Medal with two Service Stars

Air Force Overseas Ribbon–Short with Oak Leaf Cluster

Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with seven Oak Leaf Clusters

Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon

From Republic of Vietnam: Gallantry Cross with Palm; Campaign Medal

From Republic of Korea: Order of National Security (Gugseon Medal)

MICHAEL J. DUGAN

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant June 4, 1958

First Lieutenant December 4, 1959

Captain December 4, 1962

224
Major June 20, 1967

Lieutenant Colonel August 1, 1971

Colonel April 1, 1974

Brigadier General July 1, 1981

Major General August 1, 1984

Lieutenant General July 1, 1987

General May 1, 1989

Principal Assignments Dates

Student, Primary Pilot Training, 3301st Pilot Training Group, June 1958–March 1959

Moore Air Force Base, Texas

Student, Basic Pilot Training, 3640th Pilot Training Wing, Laredo March 1959–September 1959

Air Force Base, Texas

Student, Advanced Flying School, F–100, 4510th Combat Crew September 1959–May 1960

Training Group, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona

Student, U.S. Air Force Operational Training Course, F–100, 4520th May 1960–September 1960

Combat Crew Training Group, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

F–100 Pilot, 79th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Royal Air Force September 1960–August 1964

Station, Woodbridge, England

A–1 Pilot, 603d Air Commando Squadron, 4410th Combat Crew August 1964–December 1966

Training Squadron, 4410th Combat Crew Training Wing, 

Eglin Auxiliary Field #9, Florida

A–1E Pilot, First Air Commando Squadron, Pleiku Air Base, January 1967–November 1967

Republic of Vietnam

Special Projects Officer and Instructor, Military Training Division, November 1967–June 1969

U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Air Officer, Commanding, Cadet Squadron 17, U.S. Air Force June 1969–June 1971

Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Air Officer, Commanding, Cadet Squadron 4, U.S. Air Force June 1971–November 1972

Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Student, Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama November 1972–June 1973

Assistant Chief, Objectives Assessment Branch, Headquarters June 1973–May 1974

United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Chief, Doctrine Implementation Branch, Headquarters United States May 1974–September 1975

Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Executive Officer to the Vice Chief of Staff, Headquarters United September 1975–July 1977

States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Vice Commander, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, Davis-Monthan Air July 1977–January 1979

Force Base, Arizona

Commander, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, Davis-Monthan Air Force February 1979–May 1980

Base, Arizona

Commander, 23d Tactical Fighter Wing, England Air Force Base, May 1980–March 1981

Louisiana

225
Commander, 832d Air Division, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona March 1981–May 1982

Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff of Operations, Headquarters May 1982–April 1983

Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

Inspector General, Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Langley April 1983–August 1984

Air Force Base, Virginia

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters Tactical Air September 1984–June 1986

Command, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

Director of Operations; Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, June 1986–January 1987

Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, Headquarters January 1987–June 1987

United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Programs and Resources, Headquarters July 1987–February 1988

United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, Headquarters United March 1988–April 1989

States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Commander and Chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and Commander, April 1989–July 1990

Allied Air Forces, Central Europe, Ramstein Air Base, 

West Germany

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. July 1990–September 1990

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal

Silver Star

Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Flying Cross

Purple Heart

Air Medal

Air Force Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Presidential Unit Citation

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

Air Force Organizational Excellence Award with Oak Leaf Cluster

Combat Readiness Medal

National Defense Service Medal with one Service Star

Vietnam Service Medal with three Service Stars

Air Force Longevity Service Medal Award Ribbon with seven Oak Leaf Clusters

Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon

Air Force Training Ribbon

From Republic of Vietnam: Gallantry Cross with Palm; Campaign Medal

226
MERRILL A. McPEAK

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant June 19, 1957

First Lieutenant May 30, 1959

Captain October 1, 1962

Major May 20, 1968

Lieutenant Colonel November 1, 1972

Colonel April 1, 1974

Brigadier General July 1, 1981

Major General October 1, 1983

Lieutenant General May 22, 1985

General August 1, 1988

Principal Assignments Dates

Student, Officer Preflight Training, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas November 1957–January 1958

Student, Pilot Training, Hondo Air Force Base, Texas; and Vance January 1958–January 1959

Air Force Base, Oklahoma

Student, F–100 Combat Crew Training, Luke Air Force Base, February 1959–December 1959

Arizona; and Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

F–104C Fighter Pilot, 436th Tactical Fighter Squadron, George December 1959–August 1961

Air Force Base, California

F–100D Fighter Pilot, 79th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Royal Air August 1961–May 1964

Force Station, Woodbridge, England

Fighter Staff Officer, Tactical Evaluation Division, Headquarters May 1964–August 1965

Third Air Force, South Ruislip Air Station, England

F–104G Instructor Pilot, 4443d Combat Crew Training Squadron; September 1965–December 1966

later, F–104G Weapons Officer, 4510th Combat Crew Training 

Wing, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona

Demonstration Pilot, U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron December 1966–December 1968

(“Thunderbirds”), Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

F–100D Fighter Pilot, 612th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Phu Cat December 1968–January 1969

Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Operations Officer; later Commander, Operation Commando Sabre January 1969–August 1969

(“Misty” Fast FACs), Phu Cat Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Chief, Standardization/Evaluation Division, 31st Tactical Fighter August 1969–December 1969

Wing, Tuy Hoa Air Base, Republic of Vietnam

Student, Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia January 1970–July 1970

Air Operation Staff Officer, Mideast Division, Directorate of August 1970–August 1973

Plans and Policy, Headquarters United States Air Force, 

Washington, D.C.

Student, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, August 1973–June 1974

Washington, D.C.

227
Assistant Deputy Commander for Operations, 1st Tactical Fighter June 1974–April 1975

Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

Student, French language training (en route for duty as Air Attaché April 1975–June 1975

to Republic of Cambodia), Foreign Service Institute, 

Washington, D.C.

Military Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York City July 1975–June 1976

Commander, 513th Combat Support Group, Royal Air Force Station, July 1976–July 1977

Mildenhall, England

Vice Commander, 406th Tactical Fighter Training Wing, Zaragoza July 1977–July 1978

Air Base, Spain

Assistant Chief of Staff, Current Operations, Allied Air Forces July 1978–February 1980

Central Europe, Boerfink, West Germany

Commander, 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Station, February 1980–June 1981

Upper Heyford, England

Chief of Staff, Headquarters United States Air Forces Europe, June 1981–October 1982

Ramstein Air Base, West Germany

Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans, Headquarters Tactical Air Command, October 1982–May 1985

Langley Air Force Base, Virginia

Deputy Chief of Staff, Programs and Resources, Headquarters May 1985–June 1987

United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Commander, Twelfth Air Force; and Commander, U.S. Southern June 1987–July 1988

Command Air Forces, Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas

Commander in Chief, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, July 1988–October 1990

Hawaii

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. October 1990–October 1994

Principal Decorations

Distinguished Service Medal

Silver Star

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster

Meritorious Service Medal

Air Medal with thirteen Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Force Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

Combat Readiness Medal

National Defense Service Medal

Vietnam Service Medal with four Service Stars

Air Force Overseas Ribbon

Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with five Oak Leaf Clusters

Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon

From Republic of Vietnam: Gallantry Cross with Palm, Campaign Medal

228
RONALD R. FOGLEMAN

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant June 5, 1963

First Lieutenant December 5, 1964

Captain March 10, 1967

Major March 1, 1971

Lieutenant Colonel May 1, 1975

Colonel January 1, 1980

Brigadier General October 1, 1985

Major General February 1, 1988

Lieutenant General July 1, 1990

General September 1, 1992

Principal Assignments Dates

Pilot Training, 3576th Student Squadron, Vance Air Force Base, June 1963–September 1964

Oklahoma

T–37 Flight Training Instructor, 3575th Pilot Training Squadron, September 1964–May 1967

Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma

Flight Examiner, 3575th Pilot Training Wing, Vance Air Force Base, May 1967–December 1967

Oklahoma

F–100 Combat Crew Training, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona December 1967–June 1968

F–100 Fighter Pilot, 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Bien Hoa June 1968–December 1968

Air Base, South Vietnam

Operation Commando Sabre F–100 Forward Air Controller, 37th December 1968–April 1969

Tactical Fighter Wing, South Vietnam

F–100 Fighter Pilot, 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Bien Hoa Air April 1969–September 1969

Base, South Vietnam

Student of History (in preparation for assignment as U.S. Air Force September 1969–December 1970

Academy Instructor), Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson 

Air Force Base, Ohio

History Instructor, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, December 1970–April 1973

Colorado

F–4D/E Flight Commander, 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron, April 1973–August 1974

Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand

Chief, Rated Officer Career Planning Section, Headquarters Air August 1974–July 1975

Reserve Personnel Center, Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado

Student Officer, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, July 1975–August 1976

Pennsylvania

Assistant Deputy Commander of Operations; and later, Chief of the August 1976–February 1978

Standardization and Evaluation Division, 36th Tactical Fighter 

Wing, Bitburg Air Base, West Germany

229
Deputy Commander for Operations, 32d Tactical Fighter Squadron, March 1978–June 1979

Camp New Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Chief, Tactical Forces Division, Directorate of Programs, June 1979–August 1981

Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Vice Commander, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, Hill Air Force Base, August 1981–June 1982

Utah

Director of Fighter Operations, Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, June 1982–March 1983

Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base, 

Virginia

Commander, 56th Tactical Training Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, March 1983–August 1984

Florida

Commander, 836th Air Division, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, August 1984–March 1986

Arizona

Deputy Director, Programs and Evaluation, Office of the Deputy March 1986–January 1988

Chief of Staff, Programs and Resources; Chairman, Programs 

Review Committee, Headquarters United States Air Force, 

Washington, D.C.

Director, Programs and Evaluation; and Chairman, Air Staff Board, January 1988–June 1990

Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Commander, Seventh Air Force; Deputy Commander in Chief, July 1990–August 1992

United Nations Command; Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces 

Korea; and Commander, Republic of Korea/U.S. Air Component 

Command, Combined Forces Command, Osan Air Base, Korea

CINCUSTRANSCOM; Commander, Air Mobility Command, August 1992–October 1994

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. October 1994–August 1997

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Force Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Army Distinguished Service Medal

Navy Distinguished Service Medal

Silver Star

Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster

Purple Heart

Meritorious Service Medal

Air Medal with seventeen Oak Leaf Clusters

Aerial Achievement Medal

Air Force Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Vietnam Service Medal with three Service Stars

From Republic of Korea: Order of National Security Merit, Kooksun

From Republic of Vietnam: Gallantry Cross with Palm

From Venezuela: Air Force Cross, First Class

230
From Thailand: Knight Grand Cross, First Class, of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand

From Japan: Grand Cordon, First Class, of the Rising Sun

From Sweden: Royal Order, First Class, of the Polar Star

Legion of Merit, System of Cooperation Among American Air Forces

From France: Legion of Honor, with the rank of Commander

MICHAEL E. RYAN

Promotions Effective Dates

Second Lieutenant June 9, 1965

First Lieutenant December 9, 1966

Captain June 13, 1968

Major June 1, 1976

Lieutenant Colonel April 1, 1979

Colonel July 1, 1981

Brigadier General May 1, 1988

Major General January 1, 1991

Lieutenant General May 10, 1993

General April 4, 1996

Principal Assignments Dates

Student, Undergraduate Pilot Training, 3225th Student Squadron, June 1965–September 1966

Air Training Command, Craig Air Force Base, Alabama

F–4 Pilot, 16th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, September 1966–October 1967

Florida

F–4 Pilot and Aircraft Commander, 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, October 1967–August 1968

Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand

F–4 Aircraft Commander, 7th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Holloman August 1968–January 1971

Air Force Base, New Mexico

Exchange Officer instructing in Mirage III Fighters, 2d Operational January 1971–July 1973

Conversion Unit, Royal Australian Air Force Base, Williamtown, 

Australia

Instructor Pilot and Flight Commander, 311th Tactical Fighter July 1973–September 1974

Training Squadron, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona

Wing Weapons Officer, 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (F–4s), Kunsan September 1974–August 1975

Air Base, South Korea

Student, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, August 1975–July 1976

Alabama

Staff Officer, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, July 1976–April 1979

Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Langley Air Force Base, 

Virginia

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Commander, 61st Tactical Fighter Squadron; then Assistant Deputy 

Commander for Operations (F–16s), 56th Tactical Fighter Wing, 

MacDill Air Force Base, Florida April 1979–August 1981

Chief, Checkmate Group; then Deputy Assistant Director for August 1981–August 1983

Joint and National Security Matters, Office of the Deputy Chief 

of Staff for Plans and Operations, Headquarters United States

Air Force, Washington, D.C.

Student, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, August 1983–June 1984

Washington, D.C.

Commander, 432d Tactical Fighter Wing, Misawa Air Base, Japan June 1984–June 1986

Executive to the Chief of Staff, Headquarters United States Air June 1986–June 1988

Force, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans; then Deputy Chief of Staff, June 1988–July 1991

Operations, Headquarters Tactical Air Command, Langley Air 

Force Base, Virginia

Vice Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, Joint Staff, July 1991–May 1993

Washington, D.C.

Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C. May 1993–September 1994

Commander, Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (NATO), Naples, September 1994–April 1996

Italy; and Commander, Sixteenth Air Force (United States Air 

Forces Europe), Aviano Air Base, Italy

Commander, United States Air Forces Europe; and Commander, April 1996–October 1997

Allied Air Forces Central Europe, Ramstein Air Base, West 

Germany

Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. October 1997–the present

Principal Decorations

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Distinguished Service Medal

Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Distinguished Flying Cross

Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters

Air Medal with eleven Oak Leaf Clusters

232
Charles Baskerville (1896–1994) was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and later lived in

Chapel Hill, where his father was a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina. The family moved to New York when his father established the chemistry department

of the City University of New York. Baskerville graduated from Cornell University and

then studied at the Art Students League in New York and at L’Academie Julien in Paris.

His professional career was twice interrupted by the world wars, in which he served as an

officer. As a lieutenant colonel in World War II, he served as official portrait painter for

the U.S. Army Air Forces and was decorated with the Legion of Merit by Gen. Henry H.

Arnold. While in the service, Colonel Baskerville painted seventy-two portraits of heroes

and commanding generals. The artist once told a friend, “Of all the work I have done in

my life, those portraits are what I am proudest of.” This collection, noted for its diversity

of characters and depictions of men recently in combat, was exhibited by the Army to

honor those who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war,

Baskerville became a renowned portrait painter and muralist. Those who sat for him

included Jawaharlal Nehru, Bernard Baruch, William S. Paley, the duchess of Windsor,

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Richard Rogers, Helen Hayes,

and the king of Nepal. His mural projects included a commission for the conference room

of the Joint Committee on Military Affairs of the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Baskerville died on November 20, 1994, at age ninety-eight.

Francis Henry Beaugureau (1920–) was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied at the Mizen

Academy and the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a member of the American Watercolor

Society and the Philadelphia Watercolor Club. His works appear as part of the U.S. Air

Force art collection and at the Department of the Army, the Frye Art Museum in Seattle,

and the Phoenix Art Center. In addition to those collections, Beaugureau has exhibited his

work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the American Watercolor Society, the Arizona State Fair, and the University of Arizona.

Bruno Beran (1888–1979) had a long and distinguished career as a portrait and landscape

artist. He was born before the turn of the twentieth century in Brunn, Bohemia, in what

was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Considered a child prodigy both as a painter and a

violinist, Beran was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Fine Art in Vienna at age fifteen.

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APPENDIX V

Biographies of the Portrait Artists
He then transferred to the Royal Academy in Munich. There his work won several prizes

and, at age nineteen, he began his career as an independent artist when Impressionism was

in vogue. He moved to Paris to become a pupil of Claude Monet, and there he exhibited his

works at the Salon des Independants and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts.

World War I forced Beran’s return to Austria, and there he founded and became president

of the Society for Artists of the Sudetenland. For nearly a decade he enhanced his reputation as a portrait painter. In 1930 he moved to Barcelona, where he remained until the

beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and then returned to Paris to reestablish his

reputation there. To escape Nazi persecution, Beran made a hasty escape following the

German invasion of France, traveling through Spain and Portugal to Montreal, Canada,

and eventually to the United States, where he became an American citizen. In 1945, at age

fifty-seven, he settled in New York City and concentrated increasingly on portraiture. Over

the next several decades he moved between New York and Washington, D.C., painting such

notables as Justice William O. Douglas; Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans.

John G. Bonner (1925–) was born in Gainsville, Texas, on January 8, 1925. After receiving a

bachelor of arts degree from Southern Methodist University, he studied for another three

years at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. During World War

II, Bonner served as a naval sonar officer aboard a destroyer. He has lived and worked as

a portrait and commercial artist in the Washington, D.C., area for more than forty years.

Bonner has had many commissions and received several merit awards from the Washington Art Directors’ exhibitions. Slides of his portraits are on file with the National Portrait

Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Pamela Firestone Bowman graduated from York Academy of Arts in 1970 and quickly established a thriving career. Bowman has developed her portrait painting skills primarily on her

own, with occasional classes at the Art Students League in New York. Her portraits are personalized and sensitive renderings of museum quality. Prior to portrait painting, Bowman

restored fine frames and worked as an “impainter” restoring old master paintings. Learning the delicate discipline of “impainting” contributed to her appreciation of the Renaissance painters, and it has influenced her own careful and beautifully luminous approach to

color. Her process of “underglazing” requires great skill and tremendous patience, as it

requires the artist to build up the flesh tone with very thin layers of paint that need to dry

before each new application. Her patience is well rewarded, however, by the rich skin tones

that have the depth and look of real skin. Bowman’s subjects have included Air Force Chief

of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak; James Beggs, former National Aeronautics and Space

Administration administrator; Kenneth Rogers, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and Sylvia Lawry, founder of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Lynn Buckham studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and the American Academy of Art

in Chicago. He produced illustration design for the Charles E. Cooper Studio in New York

City; the Saturday Evening Post; and other magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, 

234
Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and McCalls. He went to London and continued his illustration work until he turned to portraiture. That change of focus led him to

commitments that demanded commuting from London to the United States. In 1975

Buckham returned to the United States and devoted himself solely to portraiture. His

work featured such prominent figures as the Earl of Lichfield, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, and Justice Vincent Haneman of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Buckham’s method of painting involved extensive photography of the subject, an

approach that allowed for a more natural pose. His works were noted not only for his ability to capture a likeness but also for the freshness and spark of life his brush imparted.

Gardner Cox (1907–1988) spent his youth painting at the seaside art communities of Rockport and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard in 1924 and studied at the Art

Students League and then the Museum School from 1928 to 1930 before taking architecture at MIT from 1929 to 1931 and joining his father’s architectural firm, Putnam and

Cox. In 1936 he made painting his full-time vocation, exhibiting in Boston at the Institute

of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Botolph Club, and the Margaret Brown

Gallery; in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie

Institute; and Washington, D.C., at the Corcoran Gallery. He taught at the Museum

School in Boston and was elected chairman of the department of painting in 1954. In

1951 Cox won the Norman Wait Harris bronze medal at the 60th American Exhibition at

the Art Institute of Chicago. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in

1955 and associate in the National Academy of Design in 1956, he also was elected to the

National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1958. He was an artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome in 1961 and was elected trustee in 1963. Cox became known for

his portraits of famous and powerful people, including former Secretary of State Dean

Rusk; poet Robert Frost; and the late Harvard University president, James B. Conant. He

painted more than 300 portraits, including four secretaries of state and seven Supreme

Court justices. Cox’s portraits hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.,

in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Peter Egeli (1934–) was born into a family of artists. His father, the Norwegian-American

portrait painter Bjorn Egeli, and his mother, Lois Baldwin, taught him the basics of drawing and painting and instilled in him a love and appreciation of great art. In his teens he

studied painting at the Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C., and then did a threeyear tour in the United States Marine Corps. Once out of the service, Egeli enrolled at the

Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, where his principal instructor was Jacques

Maroger. After graduating he attended the Art Students League in New York and later

George Washington University in Washington, D.C. From 1960 to 1967 Egeli taught

drawing and painting at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Since then Egeli has devoted his

full time to his career as a portrait and marine artist. He is a charter member and has

served as president of the American Society of Marine Artists. He has had numerous solo

and group exhibitions and has received many awards, including the Franklin Mint Gold

Medal and the Schaefer Art Award.

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Lloyd Bowers Embrey (1913–1979), noted Washington, D.C., portrait painter, exhibited

widely during his forty-three-year career as an artist. He is represented in numerous collections in the United States and abroad, including those of the Riggs Bank in Stockholm

and the U.S. House of Representatives. His work extended well beyond the confines of oil

portraiture; his sculpture of President John F. Kennedy, for example, is displayed in New

York City’s Harvard Club, and his bronze bust of Nikita Khrushchev, sculpted to commemorate the visit of the Soviet premier to the United States, is in the Kremlin. In addition to his portrait of Secretary of the Air Force Dudley Sharp, he painted two of the

Army’s chiefs of staff, J. Lawton Collins and Earle G. Wheeler.

Charles J. Fox is the pseudonym of Leo Fox, a New York City entrepreneur who for many

years has commissioned portraits of leading figures in government, business, society, and

the professions. The portraits, signed “C. J. Fox,” have been executed by New York artist

Irving Resnikoff during a forty-year association with Fox. In addition to Secretary of the

Air Force Eugene Zuckert’s portrait, the Fox enterprise claims three portraits of secretaries of the Army—Wilber Marion Brucker, Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr., and Stephen Ailes.

Germain Green Glidden (1913–1999), portraitist, muralist, and cartoonist, was a fine arts

major at Harvard University; attended the Art Students League in New York City; and studied life drawing, painting, and the old masters under Alexander Abels and sculpture under

Mahonri Mackintosh Young. In addition to his portrait of Secretary of the Air Force Donald

A. Quarles, his several hundred portraits include those of Presidents Ronald Reagan and

George Bush and Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, Jr. Glidden maintained a studio in Norwalk, Connecticut, and was founder, president, and chairman of the National Art Museum

of Sport, which is housed at the University of Indiana–Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Woodi Ishmael was born in 1914 in Lewis County, Kentucky; was educated in the public

schools in Portsmouth, Ohio; and graduated from the Cleveland School of Art. During his

career, he illustrated more than thirty-five fiction and nonfiction books. He illustrated for

the Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, American, Woman’s Home Companion, and

National Geographic magazines. His weekly column, “The Power of Faith,” appeared in

175 U.S. and Canadian newspapers. Ishmael was commissioned to do paintings in Panama, Guam, Germany, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, and Mexico. For a time he maintained a studio at Troy State University, Troy, Alabama. Many of his works are in private

collections; others are housed at the Pentagon, the White House, the Air Force Academy,

and the Air Force Museum. He painted fifty-four portraits of the Air Medal of Honor winners. Ishmael had been the artist-in-residence on several cruises of the SS United States

and the HMS Queen Elizabeth 2. He was the only courtroom artist at the murder trial of

Jack Ruby. In addition to painting several Air Force chiefs of staff, Ishmael also painted

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Henry Decker.

Alfred H. Jonniaux was born in Brussels, Belgium, at the turn of the twentieth century. He

began his art career in London in 1919 and maintained studios there and in Paris. He

236
became known for portraits of notable European personalities and for character studies of

London and Paris “types.” He fled the Nazi occupation of France and established studios

in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. His works have been exhibited at the Royal Academy and in shows at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London, at the Salon des

Artistes Francais in Paris, and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Besides his portrait of Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington, he painted portraits of King

Leopold II and Queen Astrid of Belgium; Prince Christopher of Greece; Princess Isabelle

of France; and U.S. officials such as James F. Byrnes, Edward R. Stettinius, Kenneth

Royal, and Clinton Anderson.

Everett Raymond Kinstler (1926–) is a native New Yorker who began his career at age sixteen

drawing comic strips and who produced hundreds of magazine illustrations and book covers.

He studied at the Art Students League with Frank DuMond and taught at the League from

1969 through 1974. Kinstler ultimately made the transition to portraitist and soon established

himself as one of the nation’s foremost portrait painters. He has completed more than five

hundred portraits of a variety of subjects, including movie actors, authors, astronauts, university presidents, and cabinet officers. His portraits of public officials, both civil and military,

hang in several government departments in the nation’s capital. Kinstler is a member of various art societies and has received a number of awards. In 1993 the National Portrait Gallery

in Washington, D.C., acquired fifty of his original works for its permanent collection.

Sandor Klein’s thorough training in portraiture included study at the National Academy of

Design in New York City, the L’Academie Julien in Paris, and other art institutions in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. His honors include a Pulitzer Prize and a 1932 fellowship to

the American Academy in Rome, Italy. Some of his more prominent subjects were the

Schenck and Stream families of the motion picture industry, Agnes Moorhead, Rhonda

Fleming, and others. Klein maintained studios in New York City and Los Angeles.

Maxine McCaffrey was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended the Kansas City Art Institute, Denver University, Chouinard Art Institute and the Art Center School in Los Angeles,

and the Art Students League in New York. She created illustrations for many periodicals,

such as Family Circle Magazine, Coronet, Star Weekly, Esquire, American Weekly, and various European magazines. She also provided design advertising for Dell Publications, Walt

Disney Studios, Universal International, Western Air Lines, Max Factor, Mattel Toys, and

Capitol Records. McCaffrey became affiliated with the Air Force Art Program in 1961 and

donated more than sixty paintings to the Air Force art collection. She was awarded the Gill

Robb Wilson Award at the 1975 Air Force Association convention for a group of dramatic

paintings she contributed to the Air Force Art Program. Those paintings documented on

canvas, as no other artist had done, the saga of service members missing in action and of

prisoners of war in the Vietnam War. McCaffrey died on July 3, 1979.

Albert K. Murray (1907–1992) painted many of the official portraits of leading naval figures

and served as director of the Navy’s combat air collection. After winning the Bronze Star

237
during World War II, he was assigned to paint official Navy portraits. His portrait of Fleet

Admiral Chester Nimitz, USN, signing documents aboard the battleship USS Missouri

during the Japanese surrender ceremony hangs in the Pentagon. Murray’s work is included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, and the

National Museum of American Art. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.,

has also exhibited his works.

Samuel Edmund Oppenheim (1901–1992) was born in Russia and came to New York with

his family in 1906. He studied painting with Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and with George Bridgman at the Art Students League in New York. He lived in

the summers on Cape Cod and in the winters in New York City, where he taught at the Art

Students League. His early work focused on portraits. His work reminds viewers of the

small studies of people painted in the last century by James McNeil Whistler and John

Singer Sargent. His paintings of men, women, and children are sensitive, with fluid brush

strokes, and distinguished in their rendering of character. In addition to portraiture, his

paintings of still life, landscape, flowers, and the figure are included in many private collections throughout the country. Oppenheim’s paintings have been exhibited at the

National Academy of Design, the Audubon Artists, Allied Artists, the Hudson Valley Art

Association, and the Grand Central Art Galleries.

George Pollard grew up on a small farm near Waldo, Wisconsin. As a young boy he liked to

draw, and at sixteen he won an art contest advertised in a magazine that enabled him to

enroll in the Art Instruction Schools. Pollard credits his parents for their encouragement

and effort in paying his tuition and fees during the cash-starved Depression era. “Whatever has happened to me since has been the result of their sacrifice and love,” he says. Pollard studied for a year at the Old Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and followed that

with a year at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He then went to Chicago to serve as an

apprentice to Frederick Mizen, renowned artist and instructor. World War II interrupted

his training, and Pollard enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1941. He spent the next three

years in combat and as a staff artist in the Pacific theater. As a combat artist, he worked

with willow charcoal sticks to sketch his portrait subjects. He has painted subjects from

both the public and private sectors, including six U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court

justices, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman.

Robert L. Scharr (1932–) was born in Pasadena, California, on March 9, 1932. He was educated at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and worked as a freelance illustrator for

more than fifteen years. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles and

has been president of the California Art Club. His works have been exhibited at the Art

Directors Club, Illustration West, and in various one-man shows.

Thomas Edgar Stephens, who died in January 1966, studied at Cardiff School of Fine Arts,

the Heatherly School in London, and L’Academie Julien in Paris. He was a member of the

Salmagundi Club, the National Arts Club, the University Club in Washington, D.C., and

238
the Savage Club of London. His works appear at the White House; the National Gallery

of Art; the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Treasury and Senate; the Pentagon; Walter Reed

Hospital; West Point; the Eisenhower Library; the Legion of Honor Gallery in Paris; and

at Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard Universities. Among his subjects were Secretary of

State George C. Marshall and Air Force Chief of Staff Carl Andrew Spaatz.

Paul F. Trebilcock was born in Chicago in 1902. He studied at the University of Illinois and

the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in Europe. He exhibited his works at the Art Student League in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, and his paintings won numerous prizes and awards. His works include portraits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt,

various university presidents, and Gen. Thomas D. White.

George A.Weymouth (1936–) was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Encouraged to paint by his

artist mother, he sold his first paintings at age eight. He is known for his fine portraits,

done in egg tempera, as well as for his landscapes, especially those of the Brandywine

Valley. Weymouth is chairman of the board of trustees of the Brandywine Conservancy,

an environmental and cultural organization that he founded in 1967. He is also chair of

the Conservancy’s Museum Committee for its Brandywine River Museum, a century-old

gristmill converted to an art museum on the banks of the Brandywine River. Weymouth

was one of the artists selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to

paint Cape Kennedy during the moon shots. His paintings were later exhibited at the

National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. President Richard M. Nixon

appointed him to the Commission of Fine Arts on which he served from 1972 to 1977. In

1974 he also served on the Visual Arts Panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and

in 1981 received the University of Delaware’s Merit Award for community service. In

1990 Weymouth received the National Arts Club’s annual award.

239

BOOKS

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“Air Force Gen. John Ryan Dies at 67.” Washington Post, October 29, 1983, p. B4.

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“Aldridge Says He’ll Quit, Join Defense Firm.” Air Force Times, November 21, 1988, p. 8.

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December 22, 1976, p. 25.

“Caltech Names U.S. Aide President.” New York Times, December 15, 1968, p. 66.

“Doing More with Less.” Air Force Times, July 18, 1977, p. 34.

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Section IV, p. 30. 

“Dugan’s Retirement Pay.” Washington Post, October 31, 1990, p. A17. 

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1, 21.

“Ex-Air Force General John McConnell Dies.” Washington Post, November 23, 1986, p. B7a.

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“Flamboyant General Curtis LeMay, 83, Dies.” Washington Post, October 2, 1990, p. B6.

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pp. 1, 28.

“Gen. Curtis LeMay, an Architect of Strategic Air Power, Dies at 83.” New York Times, October

2, 1990, p. B6.

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“Gen. Fogleman Appointed Head of Air Force.” Washington Post, August 27, 1994, p. A23.

243
“Gen. George Brown Dies; Headed Joint Chiefs.” Washington Post, December 6, 1978, p. A20.

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p. B6.

“Gen. Nathan Twining Dies at 84; Joint Chief Chairman in the 1950’s.” New York Times,

March 30, 1982, p. 22.

“Gen. Ryan, Ex-Chief of Staff, Dies.” Air Force Times, November 7, 1983, p. 12.

“Gen. Vandenberg Dies at 55; Air Force Chief Retired Last June.” New York Times, April 3,

1954, pp. 1, 15.

“Harold Talbott Dies in Florida; Ex-Air Force Secretary was 68.” New York Times, March 3,

1957, pp. 1, 84.

“James H. Douglas Jr., Dead at 88; Served President and the Military.” New York Times, February 28, 1988, p. 36.

“Jones Is Pushing Improvement Ideas.” Air Force Times, July 25, 1977, pp. 1, 37.

“Jury Clears Reed in Amax Case.” New York Times, December 17, 1985, pp. D1–2.

“Laird Chooses 3 to Head Services; Keeps Army Chief.” New York Times, January 7, 1969, pp.

1, 16.

“Leaders Push for Raises, Bonuses in Testimony.” Air Force Times, March 21, 1988, p. 8.

“A Limited Accord on Arms Is Urged.” New York Times, March 2, 1969, p. 32.

“McPeak in ROA Hall of Fame.” Air Force Times, July 20, 1993, p. 2.

“Nathan Twining, Retired Air Force General, Dies.” Washington Post, March 30, 1982, p. C6.

“President’s Aide at Talbott Rites.” New York Times, March 5, 1957, p. 30.

“Quarles Dies in Sleep at 64; McElroy May Now Stay On.” New York Times, May 9, 1959, pp.

1, 21.

Ryan, Michael. “The Promise of the Expeditionary Force.” Air Force Times (August 31, 1998).

“Thomas K. Finletter, 86, Is Dead: Former Secretary of the Air Force.” New York Times, April

25, 1980, p. B8.

“Thomas White, 64, Ex-Air Chief, Dies.” New York Times, December 23, 1965, p. 27; see also

December 29, 1965, p. 29.

“2 Charges Cut in Reed Case.” New York Times, January 26, 1985, p. 33.

PERIODICALS

“Air Force Chief Speaks.” Army Navy Air Force Journal and Register 100 (February 9, 1963):

15. 

Allen, Gen. Lew, Jr. “The Air Force Is Strong and Ready.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy

Letter For Commanders (March 1981): 2–7.

———. “Readiness Modernization, Motivation.” Air Force Magazine 62 (May 1979): 60–62.

———. “Reporting on a Year of Change.” Air Force Magazine 64 (September 1981): 74–75.

———. “Time to Strengthen Our Defenses.” Air Force Magazine 65 (May 1982): 79–80.

Arnold, Lt. Col. Terry A. “Air Force Spoken Here.” Airman 24 (May 1980): 27–31.

244
Brown, Harold. “The Air War in Vietnam.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders, No. 1 (1967): 2–7.

Canan, James W. “Air Force Leaders Look Ahead.” Airman 75 (November 1992): 72–73.

———. “A Powerful Force for Peace.” Air Force Magazine 70 (November 1987): 94–97.

———. “A Strategy That Works.” Air Force Magazine 71 (November 1988): 102–107.

Day, Bonner. “Secretaries Mark, Chayes, Hermann Nominated for Top USAF Posts.” Air

Force Magazine 62 (August 1979): 34–35. 

Doherty, Stephen M. “George A. Weymouth.” American Artist (January 1987): 32–37, 91.

Eaker, Ira C. “Gen. Carl A. Spaatz: June 28, 1891–July 14, 1974.” Air Force Magazine 57

(September 1974): 43–53.

Fuchs, Ron. “Saying Goodbye.” Airman 29 (November 1985): 8–11.

Gabriel, Charles A. “The Going Gets Tougher.” Air Force Magazine 69 (May 1986): 72–73.

———. “Recovering from the 1970s.” Air Force Magazine 66 (September 1983): 126–129.

———. “Toward a Safer World.” Air Force Magazine 67 (November 1984): 120–125.

———. “U.S. Tactical Air Forces.” Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders. March 15, 1984.

“General McConnell to Help Guide CAP.” Air Force and Space Digest 53 (October 1970): 

76.

“Interview: A Conversation with the Secretary of the Air Force Donald B. Rice.” Airman 35

(March 1991): 12–13.

Jones, David C. “An Air Force Outlook,” Supplement to the Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders, No. 6 (1978): 2–9.

———. “USAF’s 30th Anniversary Change and Constancy,” Air Force Magazine 60 (September 1977): 44.

Mark, Hans M. “The Future of the Strategic Deterrent.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy

Letter for Commanders, No. 10 (1979): 2–7.

———. “The Major Priorities.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders,

No. 7 (1979): 11–16.

———. “Thinking of New Horizons.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders, No. 11 (1979): 2–7.

McLucas, John L. “Requiem for a Bureaucrat.” Aviation Week 106 (April 25, 1977): 23. 

Parrish, Noel F. “Vandenberg: Rebuilding the ‘Shoestring Air Force.’” Air Force Magazine 64

(August 1981): 88–93. 

Philpott, Tom. “A Chip off the Old Block.” Retired Officer Magazine, June 1998, pp. 55–60.

Rice, Donald B. “Check Twelve.” Air Force Magazine 76 (March 1976): 22–27.

———. “Rice on Restructuring.” Airman 36 (January 1992): 6–7.

Rourke, Russell A. “Five Challenges.” Air Force Magazine 68 (May 1986): 70–71.

Ryan, Gen. John D. “The Air Force’s Mission.” Air Force and Space Digest 52 (August 1969):

67–70.

245
Schaffel, Kenneth. “A Warrior–Scholar.” Airman 31 (February 1987): 25–28. 

Seamans, Robert C., Jr. “Air Force Posture Statement.” Supplement to the Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders, Special Edition (May 1969): 2–14.

“Secretary of the Air Force John C. Stetson Resigns.” Air Force Magazine 62 (June 1979): 32.

“Sharp Is Appointed Successor to Lewis.” Aviation Week 63 (July 25, 1955): 4.

“Short Subjects—Robert C. Seamans, Jr., to Become Air Force Secretary.” Supplement to the

Air Force Policy Letter for Commanders, No. 2 (1969): 9.

“The Sly Fox: The Painter Was an Illusion.” Time, March 13, 1978, 21.

Stetson, John C. “AFA: A Unifying Element: 75th Anniversary of Powered Flight.” Air Force

Magazine 61 (September 1978): 63.

———. “Broadening the Strategy Planning Process.” Air Force Magazine 62 (May 1979): 58–59.

———. “The Demand for Resources—A Cause for Conflict.” Supplement to the Air Force

Policy Letter for Commanders, No. 1 (1978): 2–7.

———. “Planning in a World of Change.” Air Force Magazine 61 (May 1978): 48–50.

———. “Planning for the Year 2000.” Air Force Magazine 61 (November 1978): 50–51.

———. “USAF’s 30th Anniversary AFA’s Pivotal Role.” Air Force Magazine 60 (September

1977): 43.

———. “USA’s Major Challenges.” Air Force Magazine 60 (May 1977): 46–47.

“Talbott: Praised and Criticized.” Aviation Week 63 (August 22, 1955).

Townsend, Gene E. “A Leader for Our Time.” Airman 25 (August 1981): 2–8.

———. “Tomorrow’s Leader Today.” Airman 27 (March 1983): 2–12.

Ulsamer, Edgar. “Aldridge on the Issues.” Air Force Magazine 69 (July 1986): 84–89.

———. “Commitments to Keep.” Air Force Magazine 68 (August 1985): 78–86.

———. “The Long and Short of Combat Capability.” Air Force Magazine 69 (August 1986):

53–58.

———. “Tomorrow’s Readiness Counts, Too.” Air Force Magazine 69 (October 1986): 52–55.

Watson, George M. “Man in the Middle: Eugene Zuckert as Secretary of the Air Force.” Air

Power History 36 (Summer 1989): 20–30.

———. “Stuart Symington—The First Secretary of the Air Force, 18 September 1947–24

April 1950.” Aerospace Historian 34 (September 1987): 187–190.

White, Thomas D. “From LeMay to McConnell—A Change to the New Breed.” Newsweek,

January 4, 1965.

“Whit Peters on the Issues.” Air Force Magazine 82 (October 1999): 46–48.

Witze, Claude. “Gen. John D. Ryan New Chief of Staff Takes Over.” Air Force and Space

Digest 52 (August 1969): 42–45.

246
REFERENCE WORKS

“Allen, Lew, Jr.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 1. New Providence,

N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993. 

“Brown, Harold.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 1. New Providence,

N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Dugan, Michael J.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 1. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Dugan, Michael J.” In Who’s Who in America, 1998. 52d edition, Volume 1. New Providence,

N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1997.

“Finletter, Thomas Knight.” In Who Was Who in America with World Notables, 1977–1981.

Volume VII. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1981.

“Fogleman, Ronald Robert.” In Who’s Who in America, 1998. 52d edition, Volume 1. New

Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1994.

“Gabriel, Charles Alvin.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 1. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Jonniaux, Alfred.” In Who’s Who in America, 1972–1973. 37th edition, Volume 1. Chicago:

Marquis Who’s Who, 1972. 

“McPeak, Merrill Anthony.” In Who’s Who in America, 1998. 52d edition, Volume 2. New

Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1994.

“Quarles, Donald A.” In Who Was Who in America, 1951–1960. Volume 3. Chicago: A. N.

Marquis Company, 1960. 

“Quarles, Donald A.” In Who Was Who in America, 1956–1957. Volume 29. Chicago: Marquis

Who’s Who, 1957. 

“Reed, Thomas Care.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 2. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Rice, Donald Blessing.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 2. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Seamans, Robert Channing, Jr.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 2.

New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Sharp, Dudley Crawford.” In Who’s Who in America, 1972–1973. 37th edition, Volume 2.

Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1972.

“Stetson, John Charles.” In Who’s Who in America, 1994. 48th edition, Volume 2. New Providence, N.J.: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993.

“Symington, Stuart.” In Who Was Who in America with World Notables, 1985–1989. Volume

9. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1989.

“Talbott, Harold George.” In Who’s Who in America, 1956–1957. Volume 29. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1957.

Webster’s American Military Biographies. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam Co., 1978.

247
Who’s Who in American Art, 1980. Edited by Jacques Cattell Press. New York: R. R. Bowker

Company, 1980.

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

Gen. Lew Allen, Jr., by Dr. James C. Hasdorff, January 8–10, 1986, in Pasadena, California.

United States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-1694.

Dr. Harold Brown, by Dorothy Pierce, January 17, 1969, in Pasadena, California. Lyndon

Baines Johnson Library Oral History Collection, Accession No. 74-186.

Dr. Harold Brown, by Dr. Tom Belden, Jacob Van Staaveren, and Hugh Ahmann, August

29–30, 1972, in Pasadena, California. United States Air Force Oral History Program,

Parts I, II, K105.5-126A, No. 619.

Dr. John L. McLucas, by George M. Watson, Jr., April 10 and May 7, 1996, in Alexandria, Virginia. United States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-2157.

Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, by George M. Watson, Jr., and Maj. Robert White, November 28,

December 15 and 19, 1994, end of tour interview at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

United States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-2138.

Verne Orr, by George M. Watson, Jr., April 7–9, 1986, in Pasadena, California. 

Secretary of the Air Force Thomas C. Reed, by Lt. Col. Vaughn H. Gallacher and Hugh N.

Ahmann, February 23, 1977, in Washington, D.C. United States Air Force Oral History

Program, K239.0512-944.

Gen. John D. Ryan, by James C. Hasdorff, May 15–17, 1979, at Maxwell AFB and Bolling

AFB. United States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-1123.

Honorable Dudley C. Sharp, by James C. Hasdorff, June 6–7, 1979, in Houston, Texas. United

States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-1128.

Honorable Eugene M. Zuckert, by George M. Watson, Jr., April 27, 1982, in Washington, D.C.

United States Air Force Oral History Program, K239.0512-1348.

DISSERTATION

McCarley, J. Britt. “General Nathan Farragut Twining: The Making of a Disciple of American

Air Power, 1897 to 1953.” Ph.D. diss., Temple University, 1989.

ELECTRONIC SOURCES

“Corporate Overview: Edward C. ‘Pete’Aldridge, Jr.” Accessed via Web search on November

20, 1997. 

“Dr. Donald B. Rice.” http://www.af.mil/news/biographies/rice_db.html, accessed July 20, 2000.

“Dr. Harold Brown.” http://www.af.mil/news/biographies/brown_h.html, accessed July 20,

2000.

“Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr.” http://www.af.mil/news/biographies/seamans_rc.html, accessed

July 20, 2000.

“Edward C. Aldridge, Jr.” http://www.af.mil/news/biographies/aldridge_ec.html, accessed

July 20, 2000.

248
OTHER SOURCES

Air Force News Service, General White Dies at 64, Release No. 12-31-65-917.

Air Force Posture Statement 1999, as stated by General Michael E. Ryan, USAF Chief of

Staff, and F. Whitten Peters, Acting Secretary of the Air Force.

Department of the Air Force, Official Death Announcement of General John D. Ryan, October

28, 1983.

Department of Defense Biography of Hans Mark, July 1998.

Pentagon Telecommunication Center Message, December 6, 1978, Air Force News Service

Releases: General Brown, Former JCS Chairman, Dies.

Staff Digest, General Michael J. Dugan’s Farewell Message, September 18, 1990.

United States Air Force Biography of Dr. Donald B. Rice, as of July 1990.

United States Air Force Biography of General Charles A. Gabriel, as of July 1984.

United States Air Force Biography of General David C. Jones, as of November 1979.

United States Air Force Biography of General George S. Brown, as of August 1971.

United States Air Force Biography of General John D. Ryan, as of April 1, 1973.

United States Air Force Biography of General Larry D. Welch, as of May 1989.

United States Air Force Biography of General Merrill A. McPeak, as of September 1992.

Unites States Air Force Biography of General Michael E. Ryan, as of October 1998.

United States Air Force Biography of General Michael J. Dugan, as of January 1990.

United States Air Force Biography of General Ronald R. Fogleman, as of August 1997.

United States Air Force Biography of Russell A. Rourke, as of February 1986.

Unpublished paper on General Thomas D. White, written by Gen. Lyman L. Lemintzer sometime after the death of Gen. White. Document is on file in biographical reference section,

Air Force History Support Office Library, Washington, D.C.

249

Bold numbers indicate an illustration.

A–1: 177

A–10: 61, 66, 156, 162

AAF. See Army Air Forces

AAF Combat Command: 2, 3, 108

AAF Statistical Control School: 41

Academies. See Air Force Academy; West

Point attendees

ADC (Air Defense Command): 4, 20, 149

Advanced manned strategic aircraft

(AMSA): 144

Advanced Research Projects Agency

(ARPA): 33, 59

Advanced technology bomber (ATB): 172

AEC (Atomic Energy Commission): 29, 42,

161

AEF (Air Expeditionary Force): 7, 100, 194

Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps: 1

Aeronautical Systems Division: 95

Aerospace Corporation: 55, 88

Aerospace Education Foundation: 173

Africa: 3, 108, 114

Aiming at Targets (Seamans): 55

Air Combat Command: 7, 92, 182

Air Command and Staff College: 177, 193

Air Command Southeast Asia: 137

Air Coordinating Committee: 37

Air Corps: 2–3

Air Corps Tactical School: 2, 107–8, 113,

120, 126

Aircraft, United States. See also Aviation

industry

A–1: 177

A–10: 61, 66, 156, 162

AWACS (E–3A): 54, 61, 156

A-X: 54

B–1B: 5, 6, 48, 54, 78, 88, 150, 172

B–2: 6, 92

B–17: 2, 131, 143

B–24: 3, 149

B–29: 3, 121, 132, 161

B–36: 14, 161

B–52: 6, 30, 48, 74, 133, 150

B–70: 43, 132–33, 156

C–5: 5, 6, 54, 61, 162

C–17: 88, 92, 96, 194

C–47: 3, 5

C–119: 5

C–123: 5

C–130: 5

C–141: 5

CT–43: 188

F–4: 167, 171, 187, 193

F–5: 54, 61

F–15: 5, 54, 61, 66, 156, 187

F–16: 5, 60, 61, 66, 156, 162, 193

F–22: 96, 100, 194

F–51: 167

F–86: 167

F–100: 177, 181, 187

F–102: 30

251

INDEX
Aircraft, United States, continued

F–104: 30, 181

F–111: 6, 43, 54, 61, 133

F–117: 6

fighter aircraft programs: 66

Gulf War role: 6

inventory in 1930s: 2

P–47: 3

P–51: 3

post-Korean War growth in wings: 20

production promotion, 1940s: 3

PT–17: 161

U–2: 34

Vietnam War role: 5

WW I role: 1–2

WWII role: 3–4

Air Defense Command (ADC): 4, 20, 149

Air Division, Nanking Headquarters Command: 137

Air Divisions

2nd: 149

7th: 137

19th: 144

810th: 144

832d: 177

836th: 188

Air Expeditionary Force (AEF): 7, 100, 194

Air Force. See United States Air Force

Air Force Academy

attendees: 187, 193

Board of Visitors: 95

completion of: 34

Foundation: 88, 173

Gabriel’s command of: 167

Spaatz burial place: 109

work of White: 128

Air Force Association: 88, 109, 145

Air Force Historical Foundation: 109

Air Force Logistics Command: 7

Air Force Materiel Command: 7, 182

Air Force Organization Act, 1951: 20

Air Force Reorganization Acts (1953, 1958):

4, 20

Air Force Reserves: 5, 42

Air Force Scientific Advisory Board: 47

Air Force Space Command: 6, 78, 168

Air Force Special Weapons Center: 161

Air Force Systems Command

Allen’s command of: 162

Brown’s command of: 150

dismantling of: 7, 182

Schriever’s command of: 4

Air Materiel Command: 7, 121, 182

Air Mobility Command: 7, 92, 188

Air National Guard: 20

Air Navigation Development Board: 29

Air Reserve: 20

Air Reserve Personnel Center: 187

Air Service. See Army Air Service

Air Staff Board: 188

Air Tactical School, Tyndall AFB: 155, 161

Air Training Command: 143, 149

Air Transport Command: 33

Air War College: 177

Alaskan Department: 121

Aldridge, Edward C., Jr.

biographical background: 87, 88

career highlights: 88

portrait: 86

Alien Property Custodian: 19

Allen, Lew, Jr.

accomplishments during term: 163

biographical background: 161, 163

comments on Orr: 163

military career highlights: 161–62

portrait: 160

promotions, assignments, decorations:

219–21

Allied Air Forces Central Europe: 168, 178,

182, 194

Allied Air Forces Southern Europe: 194

Allied Expeditionary Air Force: 114

American Aviation School: 107

American Battle Monuments Commission:

109

American Expeditionary Forces: 107

252
American Institute of Aeronautics and

Astronautics: 95

Ames Research Center: 73–74

AMSA (advanced manned strategic aircraft): 144

Andrews, Frank M.: 2

Armed Forces Special Weapons Course,

Sandia Base: 155

Armed Forces Staff College: 171, 181

Army, U.S. See United States Army

Army Air Corps Act (1926): 2

Army Air Forces (AAF)

aircraft industry relations during WWII: 3

aircraft inventory expansion: 3

Combat Command: 2, 3, 108

establishment: 2–3

personnel and aircraft during WWII: 3

post-WWII austerity: 4

seventy-group goal: 4, 14

Statistical Control School: 41

strategic bombing campaign in WWII:

3, 108

Army Air Service

establishment: 1

independent air force advocates: 2

role during WWI: 2

Army War College: 113, 187

Arnold, Henry H.: 2–3, 109, 113, 120, 121

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects

Agency): 33, 59

Asia: 137. See also Vietnam War

Assignments of chiefs. See Promotions,

assignments, decorations of chiefs

Astronautics Coordinating Board: 53–54

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC): 29, 42,

161

Atomic Energy Course, Keesler AFB: 155

Aviation industry. See also Aircraft, United

States

Air Force support of: 15

DeHaviland fighter production: 25

need for support of: 19

pre-WWI production: 1

support from Spaatz: 109

WWII production: 3

Aviation Section, Signal Corps: 1

AWACS (E–3A): 54, 61, 156

A-X: 54

B–1B: 5, 6, 48, 54, 78, 88, 150, 172

B–2: 6, 92

B–17 (Flying Fortress): 2, 131, 143

B–24 (Liberator): 3, 149

B–29 (Superfortress): 3, 121, 132, 161

B–36: 14, 161

B–52: 6, 30, 48, 74, 133, 150

B–70: 43, 132–33, 156

Baker, Addison E.: 149

Baker, Newton D.: 1

Ballistic Missile Defense Organization: 74

Baruch, Bernard: 115

Baskerville, Charles

biographical background: 233

Nathan Twining portrait: 118

Beaugureau, Francis Henry

biographical background: 233

Hoyt Vandenberg portrait: 112

Beran, Bruno

biographical background: 233–34

Robert Seamans portrait: 52

Berlin Airlift: 4, 6, 92, 114, 132

Blue Gemini program: 162

Blue Ribbon (Packard) Commission: 88

Bombing tactics

Air Corps doctrine: 2

bombs dropped in Vietnam: 5

campaign in Vietnam: 43

campaign in WWII: 3

strategic bombers: 48, 121, 144, 150

Bonner, John G.

Lew Allen portrait: 160

biographical background: 234

Boston Museum of Science: 95

Bowman, Pamela Firestone

biographical background: 234

Merrill McPeak portrait: 180

253
Boxcars (C–119): 5

Bradley, Omar: 115

Brennan, William J., Jr.: 99

Brereton, Lewis H.: 114

Brown, George S.: 5

accomplishments during term: 150–51

biographical background: 149, 151

military career highlights: 149–50

portrait: 148

promotions, assignments, decorations:

215–17

Brown, Harold

accomplishments during term: 48

biographical background: 47, 48, 49

comments on George Brown: 151

policies as Secretary of Defense: 48–49

portrait: 46

work with Allen: 162

work with McLucas: 59

Brown, Ronald: 100, 188

Buckham, Lynn

biographical background: 234–35

Hans Mark portrait: 72

Budget and funding

accomplishments of Seamans: 54

austerity in 1970s: 69

conflicts between leaders: 14

cost control program, 1950: 42

deficit spending in 1980s: 84, 172

drawdown during early 1990s: 96

drawdown during late 1990s: 100

fighter aircraft programs: 66

“Hollow Force”: 6, 92, 163, 168

joint budget with Army and Navy: 42

Korean War: 4, 15, 26, 114

personnel effected by. See Personnel

issues

post-Cold War: 7, 182

post-Korean War objectives: 20

post-Packard Commission: 88

post-Vietnam retrenchment: 5–6, 163

post-WWII austerity: 4

programs under Gabriel: 168

Reagan era expansion: 6, 78

Soviet Union threat and: 157

Symington’s struggles with: 14–15

Vietnam War buildup: 47–48, 60

Bullitt, William C.: 126

Bush, George: 6, 91, 96

C–5 (Galaxy): 5, 6, 54, 61, 162

C–17: 88, 92, 96, 194

C–47 (Skytrain): 3, 5

C–119 (Boxcars): 5

C–123 (Providers): 5

C–130 (Hercules): 5

C–141 (Starlifters): 5

California Institute of Technology (Caltech):

48, 163

Carter, Jimmy: 49

selection of Harold Brown: 48

selection of Jones: 156, 157

selection of Rice: 92

selection of Stetson: 69

Center for Strategic and International 

Studies: 49

Central Air Forces, U.S. (CENTAF): 6

Central Intelligence Agency: 162

Central Intelligence Group: 114

Central Zone, U.S. Army Mail Service: 

120

Chairmen of Joint Chiefs of Staff: 201–2.

See also Joint Chiefs of Staff

Challenger accident: 87, 88

Charyk, Joseph: 59

Checkmate Group: 193

Cheney, Richard: 178

Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force. See also

individual chiefs

dates of office: 199–200

first chief of staff: 109

promotions, assignments, decorations:

203–32

China: 92, 122, 125, 137

China–Burma–India Air Force Training

Command: 137

Chronological listings

Air Force Chiefs of Staff: 199–200

254
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen: 201–2

Presidents of the United States: 201–2

Secretaries of Defense: 201–2

Secretaries of the Air Force: 197–98

Civil Air Patrol: 109, 138

Clark, Mark: 121

Clinton, Bill: 7, 96, 100, 182

Cohen, William: 100

Cold War: 4, 7, 15, 99, 182

Collier Trophy: 108, 109

Columbia University Medal of Excellence:

47

Command and General Staff School, USA:

108, 113, 120, 126

Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile

Threat: 173

Committee for the Collier Trophy Award:

109

Committee on Electronics of the Joint Research and Development Board, DOD: 29

Committee on Streamlining and Codifying

Acquisition Law, DOD: 100

Composite wing: 7, 183

COMSAT: 61

Conference on Discontinuance of Nuclear

Weapons Tests: 47

Consolidated Space Operations Center: 78

Continental Air Force Headquarters: 121

Council on Foreign Relations: 182

Cox, Gardner

biographical background: 235

Harold Talbott portrait: 24

Croatia: 188

CT–43: 188

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): 74

Davison, F. Trubee: 2, 3

Dayton Peace Accords: 194

Dayton-Wright Company: 25

Decorations of chiefs. See Promotions,

assignments, decorations of chiefs

Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA): 74

Defense Intelligence College: 168

Defense Research and Engineering: 74

Defense Science Board: 60, 66, 73, 100

DeHaviland fighter: 25

Department of the Air Force. See United

States Air Force

Depot problems in Air Force: 100

Distinguished Flying Cross

John Ryan: 143

Carl Spaatz: 108

Hoyt Vandenberg: 114

Distinguished Public Service Award: 88

Distinguished Public Service Medal

Hans Mark: 74

Russell Rourke: 83

Distinguished Service Cross

George Brown: 149

Carl Spaatz: 107

Distinguished Service Medal

James Douglas: 34

Carl Spaatz: 108

Hoyt Vandenberg: 115

Doolittle, James H.: 114

Douglas, James H., Jr.

accomplishments during term: 4, 34

biographical background: 33, 34, 37

management style: 34

portrait: 32

Douglas, William O.: 41

Douglas Aircraft Company: 69, 87

Draper Laboratory, Mass.: 163

Dugan, Michael J.

biographical background: 177, 178

military career highlights: 177–78

portrait: 176

promotions, assignments, decorations:

224–26

Dyna-Soar program: 162

E–3A (AWACS): 54, 61, 156

Eaker, Ira C.: 109

Eastern Airlines: 128

Eastern Transport Air Force: 150

Edwards, Idwal H.: 42

255
Egeli, Peter

biographical background: 235

Charles Gabriel portrait: 166

Larry Welch portrait: 170

18th Pursuit Group: 119

Eighth Air Force: 3, 108, 114, 143

810th Air Division: 144

836th Air Division: 188

832d Air Division: 177

86th Fighter Interceptor Wing: 167

8th Tactical Fighter Wing: 193

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

comment on Spaatz: 108

comments on Quarles: 30

comments on White: 128

counsel from Douglas: 34

resignation of Talbott: 26

selection of Quarles: 29

selection of Sharp: 37, 38

selection of Twining: 122

Embrey, Lloyd Bowers

biographical background: 236

John Ryan portrait: 142

Dudley Sharp portrait: 36

Emerson Electric: 13

Energy Research and Development Administration: 55

England. See Great Britain

Environmental Quality Laboratory, Caltech:

48

“Essential equivalence”: 48

Exceptional Civilian Service Award: 74, 

88

Expeditionary Air Force. See Air Expeditionary Force

F–4: 167, 171, 187, 193

F–5: 54, 61

F–15: 5, 54, 61, 66, 156, 187

F–16: 5, 60, 61, 66, 156, 162, 193

F–22: 96, 100, 194

F–51: 167

F–86: 167

F–100: 177, 181, 187

F–102: 30

F–104 (Starfighters): 30, 181

F–111: 6, 43, 54, 61, 133

F–117: 6

Far East Air Forces: 3

Federal Aviation Administration: 61

Ferguson, James: 59

Field, Glore & Company: 33

Fifteenth Air Force: 3, 121, 143

Fifth Air Force: 127, 149

5th Bombardment Wing: 143

58th Bombardment Wing: 143

56th Tactical Fighter Wing: 149, 188, 193

Fighter Weapons Instructor Course, Nellis

AFB: 193

Finletter, Thomas K.

accomplishments during term: 4, 21

biographical background: 19, 21

government career: 19–20

objectives for AF: 20

portrait: 18

seventy-group goal: 20

Finletter Report: 19

1st Aero Squadron: 1

1st Bombardment Wing: 108

1st Pursuit Group: 107

First Tactical Fighter Wing: 171, 182

509th Bombardment Wing: 143

513th Combat Support Group: 182

510th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 187

Flinn, Kelly: 100

“Fly before buy” policy: 54

Flying Fortress (B–17): 2, 131, 143

Fogleman, Ronald R.

accomplishments during term: 188–89

biographical background: 187

“Global Engagement” support: 7

military career highlights: 187–88

portrait: 186

promotions, assignments, decorations:

229–31

Fokker aircraft: 107

Foote Brothers Gear and Machine Company:

69

256
Ford, Gerald R.

rebuke of George Brown: 150

selection of Reed: 66

selection of Rice: 92

work with Rourke: 83

Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins

University: 49

Forrestal, James: 14, 20, 42

Foulois, Benjamin D.: 2

436th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 181

406th Tactical Fighter Training Wing: 182

432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing: 167

432d Tactical Fighter Wing: 193

Fourteenth Air Force: 3

Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force: 156

Fox, Charles J.

biographical background: 236

Eugene Zuckert portrait: 40

Gabriel, Charles A.

accomplishments during term: 168

biographical background: 167, 168

military career highlights: 167–68

portrait: 166

promotions, assignments, decorations:

221–22

support of service unity effort: 6, 172

Galaxy (C–5): 5

Gardner, Carton & Douglas: 33

Gardner, Trevor: 4

GEC Marconi Electronic Systems Corporation: 168

General Advisory Committee of the Arms

Control and Disarmament Agency: 128

General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force: 2

General Motors: 25

Georgetown University: 83, 125

Georgetown University Law Center: 100

George Washington University: 53, 167,

171, 182

Germany. See Berlin Airlift; World War II

Glasnost: 172

Glidden, Germain Green

biographical background: 236

Donald Quarles portrait: 28

“Global Engagement”: 7

“Global Reach, Global Power”: 7, 92

Goldwater-Nichols Act (1986): 6, 157, 188

Gorbachev, Mikhail: 172

Great Britain: 2, 3, 150, 181

Grissom, Virgil “Gus”: 128

H.E. Talbott Company: 25

Haller, Raymond and Brown, Inc.: 59

Halsey, William Frederick: 121

Hanoi: 5. See also Vietnam War

Harmon, Millard: 107, 120, 121

Harmon International Trophy Committee: 109

Harriman, W. Averell: 21, 114

Harvard Graduate School of Business

Administration: 41

Harvard Law School: 33, 99

Harvard University: 53, 99

Hercules (C–130): 5

Hiroshima: 3, 121, 132

Ho Chi Minh Trail: 5

“Hollow Force”: 6, 92, 163, 168

Honorary degree recipients

Harold Brown: 47

Douglas: 34

Quarles: 30

Ryan: 145

Seamans: 53

Hoover Committee: 109

House Investigative Committee: 14

Hull, Cordell: 19

Hussein, Saddam: 6, 182

ICBMs. See Intercontinental ballistic 

missiles

Industrial College of the Armed Forces: 167

Institute for Defense Analyses: 73, 173

Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs):

4, 5, 6, 48, 127, 172

Interim Report (Mark): 21

Interservice Committee: 42

Iran: 150, 157

Iraq: 6, 156, 182. See also Persian Gulf War

257
Ishmael, Woodi

biographical background: 236

John McConnell portrait: 136

Italy: 108

J.C. Stetson, Inc.: 70

Japan: 3, 121, 126, 132, 137. See also World

War II

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 163

Johnson, Louis: 14, 114

Johnson, Lyndon B.: 48, 128, 138

Joint Chiefs of Staff

chairmen: 201–2

Goldwater-Nichols Act and: 6

Reorganization Acts effects: 4, 5, 122

selection of George Brown: 150

selection of Jones: 156

Joint Committee on Nuclear Weapons 

Surety: 173

Joint Strike Fighter program: 194

Joint Task Force II: 150

Jones, David C.

accomplishments during term: 156–57

biographical background: 155

military career highlights: 155–56

portrait: 154

promotions, assignments, decorations:

217–19

readiness emphasis: 6, 156

work with McLucas: 5

Jonniaux, Alfred H.

biographical background: 236–37

W. Stuart Symington portrait: 12

Kansas National Guard: 171

KC–10: 78

Kelly Field, Texas: 107

Kemper Corporation: 70

Kennedy, John F.: 4, 42, 128, 162

Kenney, George C.: 3

Keogh, Carey and Costello: 83

Kettering, Charles: 25

Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia: 188

Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruholla: 157

Kinstler, Everett Raymond

Edward Aldridge portrait: 86

biographical background: 237

John McLucas portrait: 58

Verne Orr portrait: 76

Sheila Widnall portrait: 94

Klein, Sandor

biographical background: 237

Curtis LeMay portrait: 130

Korean War

Air Force objectives after: 20

chief of staff during: 114

funding for: 4, 15, 26, 114

Gabriel’s participation in: 167

George Brown’s participation in: 149

Jones’ participation in: 155

Rourke’s participation in: 83

Kosovo: 100

Kuwait: 6

Laird, Melvin: 5, 54, 61

Laos: 5

Laredo Forward Air Controller Flight: 187

“Latest Word”: 178

Lavelle, John D.: 144

The Law of Bankruptcy Reorganization

(Finletter): 21

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory: 47, 162

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory: 47, 65, 73

Lawrence Sperry Award: 95

League of Nations: 19

Lear, Coates: 42

Legion of Merit: 83

LeMay, Curtis E.

accomplishments during term: 132–33,

161

biographical background: 131, 133

command of SAC: 4, 5, 132, 138, 161

comments on White: 128

conflicts with secretary of Air Force: 29

military career highlights: 131–32

portrait: 130

258
promotions, assignments, decorations:

210–11

selection by Vandenberg: 115

selection of Jones: 155

work with McLucas: 59

Liberator (B–24): 3, 149

Liberty engine: 1

Linebacker Operations: 5

Los Alamos Laboratory: 161

Lovett, Robert A.: 3, 115

M. D. Anderson Cancer Hospital: 38

MAC. See Military Airlift Command

MacArthur, Douglas: 3

MacArthur Foundation: 95

Mackay Trophy: 131

The Management of Research Institutions

(Mark): 74

Manned Orbital Laboratory program: 162

Mark, Hans M.

accomplishments during term: 74

biographical background: 73

career highlights: 73–74

portrait: 72

relationship with Allen: 163

work with Orr: 78

Mars exploration: 88

Marshall, George: 115

Marshall Plan: 20

Martin Marietta Corporation: 43, 168

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT): 53, 54, 55, 69, 73, 95

Mattel: 49

Mayaquez incident: 151

McCaffrey, Maxine

biographical background: 237

George Brown portrait: 148

Thomas Reed portrait: 64

McConnell, John Paul

accomplishments during term: 138

biographical background: 137, 138–39

military career highlights: 137–38

portrait: 136

promotions, assignments, decorations:

211–13

McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems

Company: 88

McIntyre, Malcolm A.: 37

McLucas, John L.

accomplishments during term: 60–61

biographical background: 59, 61

career highlights: 59–60

portrait: 58

view of role: 5

McMillan, Brockway: 59

McNamara, Robert S.

power position: 4, 5

recommendation of Zuckert: 42

relationship with LeMay: 132–33

relationship with McConnell: 138

work with Harold Brown: 47, 48

McPeak, Merrill A.

accomplishments during term: 7, 92,

182–83

biographical background: 181, 183

military career highlights: 181–82

portrait: 180

promotions, assignments, decorations:

227–28

Medal of Freedom Award, U.S.

Douglas: 34

Quarles: 30

Mediterranean Allied Air Forces: 108, 121

Meritorious Civilian Service Award: 88

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company: 34

Midland Army Air Field: 143

MiG–15: 167

Military Airlift Command (MAC): 7, 92

Military Air Transport Service: 4

Military backgrounds of secretaries

Douglas: 33

Finletter: 19

McLucas: 59

Orr: 77

Peters: 99

Quarles: 29

259
Military backgrounds of secretaries, 

continued

Reed: 65

Rice: 91

Rourke: 83

Sharp: 37

Stetson: 69

Symington: 13

Zuckert: 41

Minuteman missile: 4, 6, 74

MIRVs (multiple independently targetable

reentry vehicles): 5

Missile programs

advancements in: 4

advisory council: 47

aging of: 74

ICBMs: 4, 5, 6, 48, 127, 172

SALT and: 151

SLBMs: 5, 48

space program and: 4, 162

upgrades to: 48

Mission Manufacturing Company: 37, 38

Missouri: 109

MIT. See Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mitchell, William “Billy”: 1, 2, 34

MITRE Corporation: 60

“Mixed force” plans of White: 127

Momyer, “Spike”: 59

Multiple independently targetable reentry

vehicles (MIRVs): 5

Murray, Albert K.

biographical background: 237–38

Thomas Finletter portrait: 18

Mustang (P–51): 3

Mutual Defense Assistance Management

Council: 37

Nagasaki: 3, 121, 132

NASA. See National Aeronautics and Space

Administration

National Academy of Engineering: 47, 54, 55

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics: 29, 53

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): 4, 33, 34, 53–54, 73, 74

National Command Authority: 194

National Commission on Supplies and

Shortages: 92

National Committee on U.S.–China Relations: 92

National Defense Award: 128

National Executive Board, Civil Air Patrol:

109

National Geographic Society: 127

National Guard: 5, 42

National Intelligence Distinguished Service

Award: 88

National Reconnaissance Office: 60

National Research Council: 95

National Resources Award: 128

National Science Board: 92

National Science Foundation: 73

National Security Act (1947)

establishment of Air Force: 1, 4

proposed changes to: 157

secretary’s power from: 13, 15

National Security Agency: 162

National Security Council: 20

National Security Resources Board: 15, 33

National War College: 150, 156, 171, 182, 193

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization):

20, 42, 59–60, 156, 194

Naval Air Service: 3

Naval Reserve: 77

Naval War College: 167

Navy, U.S. See United States Navy

Navy Distinguished Civilian Service 

Award: 47

Newsweek: 109, 128

New York University: 30, 53

NIBCO, Inc.: 70

Nimitz, Chester: 3

19th Air Division: 144

19th Bombardment Squadron: 155

99th Observation Squadron: 125

97th Bombardment Wing: 143–44

93d Bombardment Group: 149

260
93d Bombardment Wing: 155

Ninth Air Force: 114, 172

90th Attack Group: 119

90th Attack Squadron: 113

Nixon, Richard M.: 5, 48, 54, 60, 150

Norstad, Lauris: 113, 115

North American Aviation Company: 25

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO):

20, 42, 59–60, 156, 194

Northwest African Air Force: 108, 114

Nuclear power

bombing of Japan: 3, 109, 121, 132

cold war with Soviets: 4, 7, 15, 99, 182

conference on testing of: 47

development of: 42

implications assessment: 109

need for: 163, 172

report on Air Force readiness: 19

strategy against Soviets: 48

threatened use against China: 122

weaponeers school: 161

Nuclear Science & Engineering Corporation: 42

Objective wing: 7

Office of Management and Budget: 87, 91

Office of the Chief of the Air Corps: 108, 120

Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)

chronological listing: 201–2

power position: 4, 5, 20

Rice’s work in: 91

Office of the Secretary of the Air Force

(OSAF). See also Secretaries of the Air

Force

authority diminishing legislation: 4

changes in power structure, 1950s: 30

establishment: 1, 4, 13

reorganization in 1950s: 20

“On Target” program: 178

Operation Desert Shield/Storm: 6–7, 92,

178, 182

Operation Torch: 3

Oppenheim, Samuel Edmund

biographical background: 238

Harold Brown portrait: 46

Orr, Verne: 6

accomplishments during term: 78

biographical background: 77, 78–79

portrait: 76

relationship with Allen: 163

OSAF. See Office of the Secretary of the

Air Force

OSD. See Office of the Secretary of

Defense

P–47 (Thunderbolt): 3

P–51 (Mustang): 3

Pacific Air Command: 127

Pacific Air Forces: 182

Packard, David: 61

Packard Commission: 88

Panama Canal: 151

Patrick, Mason M.: 1

Patton, George S.: 114

Peacekeeper missiles: 6, 172

People-to-People Health Foundation: 42

Perestroika: 172

Pershing, John J.: 107

Persian Gulf region: 157, 178

Persian Gulf War: 6–7, 92, 178, 182

Personnel issues

communication initiatives by Dugan: 178

cuts during Douglas’ term: 34

Fogleman’s goals: 188

manpower cuts, 1970s: 69

need to motivate people: 172

post-Vietnam morale: 5, 60, 163

quality of life improvements, 1950s: 26

quality of life improvements, late

1970s: 74

quality of life improvements, 1980s: 6,

78, 84, 88, 168

quality of life improvements, 1990s:

96, 100

readiness during Vietnam War: 5

segregation abolishment: 42

Peters, F. Whitten

accomplishments during term: 100–101

261
Peters, F. Whitten, continued

biographical background: 99–100

career highlights: 100

portrait: 98

Ploesti oil field raids: 121, 149

Polaris Steering Committee: 47

Pollard, George

biographical background: 238

Michael Dugan portrait: 176

Ron Fogleman portrait: 186

Donald Rice portrait: 90

Pomona College: 77

Poore, B.A.: 119

Portrait artists, alphabetical listing: 233–39

Powell, Colin C.: 178

Power and Policy (Finletter): 21

President’s Advisory Group on Science and

Technology: 73

Presidents of United States: 201–2

Princeton University: 33, 34, 37

Principles of Corporate Reorganization

(Finletter): 21

Project Forecast: 43

Promotions, assignments, decorations of

chiefs

Lew Allen: 219–21

George Brown: 215–17

Thomas Dresser: 208–10

Michael Dugan: 224–26

Ron Fogleman: 229–31

Charles Gabriel: 221–22

David Jones: 217–19

Curtis LeMay: 210–11

John McConnell: 211–13

Merrill McPeak: 227–28

John Ryan: 213–15

Michael Ryan: 231–32

Carl Spaatz: 203–5

Nathan Twining: 206–8

Hoyt Vandenberg: 205–6

Larry Welch: 223–24

Providers (C–123): 5

PT–17: 161

Purple Heart: 143

Quarles, Donald A.

biographical background: 29, 30

career highlights: 29–30, 33

portrait: 28

research and development emphasis: 30

Question Mark: 108

RAF (Royal Air Force): 2

Rainbow Division, USA: 29

Rand Corporation: 91

Rapid deployment force (RDF): 157

Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force: 172

Readiness strategies

emphasis under Allen: 163

emphasis under Jones: 6

goal of Ryan: 194

nuclear power and: 19

personnel during Vietnam War: 5

technology and: 156

Reagan, Ronald

military expansion under: 163

SDI support: 6

selection of Aldridge: 88

selection of Mark: 74

selection of Orr: 77, 78

selection of Reed: 66

Reconstruction Finance Corporation: 15

Reed, Thomas C.

accomplishments during term: 66

biographical background: 65–66

portrait: 64

Reorganization Acts (1953, 1958): 4, 20,

122

Research and development. See Technology

Research and Development Policy Council,

OSD: 37

Rice, Donald B.

accomplishments during term: 7, 92

biographical background: 91, 92

portrait: 90

Richardson, Elliot L.: 61

Rickenbacker, Eddie: 2

Robertson, Reuben B.: 30

Rolling Thunder: 5

262
Rommel’s Afrika Korps: 108

Roosevelt, Eleanor: 21

Roosevelt, Theodore: 33

ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps):

181

Rourke, Russell A.

accomplishments during term: 84

biographical background: 83

portrait: 82

Royal Air Force (RAF): 2, 3, 181

Ryan, John D.

accomplishments during term: 144–45

biographical background: 143, 145

military career highlights: 143–44

portrait: 142

promotions, assignments, decorations:

143, 213–15

selection by Wilson: 1

work with Peters: 100

Ryan, John D., Jr.: 145

Ryan, Michael E.

accomplishments during term: 7, 194

biographical background: 193

military career highlights: 193–94

portrait: 192

promotions, assignments, decorations:

231–32

SAC. See Strategic Air Command

SAGE (semiautomatic ground environment)

system: 60, 127

SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty):

48, 49, 87, 151, 157

Sandia Laboratory: 29

Satellite systems: 144, 162

Saudia Arabia: 6

Scharr, Robert L.

biographical background: 238

David Jones portrait: 154

Schlesinger, James R.

management style: 61

selection of Allen: 162

selection of Reed: 65

Schriever, Bernard A.: 4, 59

Scientific Advisory Board, USAF: 53, 60,

66, 73

Scientific Advisory Committee on Ballistic

Missiles: 47

SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative): 6, 88

Sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs): 

5, 48

Seamans, Robert C., Jr.

accomplishments during term: 54

biographical background: 53, 55

career highlights: 53–54

portrait: 52

selection of McLucas: 60, 61

In Search of the Fulcrum (Mark): 74

2d Air Division: 149

Second Air Force: 137, 143, 144, 156

2d Bombardment Group: 131, 143

2d Operational Conversion Unit: 193

Secretaries of the Air Force. See also individual secretaries; Office of the Secretary

of the Air Force

chronological listing: 197–98

first female secretary: 95

first secretary: 13

military backgrounds. See Military

backgrounds of secretaries

Secretary of Defense

chronological listing: 201–2

conflicts with secretary of Air Force: 

14

power of: 4, 5

Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian

Service Award: 88

Security Policy Advisory Board: 173

Semiautomatic ground environment

(SAGE) system: 60, 127

7th Air Division: 137

Seventh Air Force: 3, 126, 150, 156, 188

7th Bombardment Group: 108, 161

7th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

Seventy-group goal: 4, 14, 15, 20, 109

79th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 177

Sharp, Dudley Crawford

accomplishments during term: 38

263
Sharp, Dudley Crawford, continued

biographical background: 37, 38

government career: 37–38

portrait: 36

Shuttle Launch Facility: 78

Signal Corps: 1

Silver Star

John Ryan: 143

Hoyt Vandenberg: 114

Sixteenth Air Force: 144, 194

16th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

6th Pursuit Squadron: 113

60th Service Squadron: 119–20

61st Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

62d Troop Carrier Group: 149

Sky Bolt: 43

Skytrain (C–47): 3, 5

SLBMs (sea-launched ballistic missiles): 

5, 48

Society of Women Engineers: 95

Southeast Asia: 5. See also Vietnam War

Soviet Union (USSR)

Brown’s policies concerning: 48

changes in attitude, late 1980s: 172,

173

Cold War: 4, 7, 99, 182

diplomatic recognition by U.S.: 126

nuclear force: 172

nuclear strategy against: 48

SALT II and: 49, 157

space program joint effort: 88

Sputnik: 34

Stetson’s view of: 69

strategy against: 163

technological advances: 30

threat from: 15, 20, 84, 115, 144, 156,

157

Twining’s visit to: 122

U–2 issue: 34

Spaatz, Carl A.

accomplishments during term: 109

biographical background: 107, 109

interpretation of role: 1

military career highlights: 107–8

portrait: 106

promotions, assignments, decorations:

107, 108, 203–5

relationship with Vandenberg: 115

seventy-group goal: 4, 14, 109

work under Symington: 13, 14

Space Aeronautical Board: 95

Space and Ballistic Missiles Organization: 4

Space and Missile Systems Organization:

162

Space Command, USAF: 6, 78, 168

Space Commerce (McLucas): 61

Space programs. See also Technology

advancements under White: 127

Allen’s work in: 162

Challenger accident: 87, 88

flight research: 74

joint effort with Soviets: 88

LeMay’s support of: 133

missile programs and: 4, 6

NASA: 4, 33, 34, 53–54, 73, 74

program development: 53–54

Space Command: 6, 78, 168

unified command concept: 168

The Space Station: A Personal Journey

(Mark): 74

Spanish-American War: 1

Sputnik: 4, 33, 34

Starfighters (F–104): 181

Starlifters (C–141): 5

Stealth aircraft: 43, 48, 96, 172

Stephens, Thomas Edgar

biographical background: 238–39

Carl Spaatz portrait: 106

Stetson, John C.

accomplishments during term: 69–70

biographical background: 69, 70

portrait: 68

relationship with Allen: 163

Stimson, Henry: 3

Strategic Air Command (SAC)

1st Bombardment Wing: 108

2d Bombardment Group: 131, 143

3d Bombardment Division: 131

264
5th Bombardment Wing: 143

7th Bombardment Group: 108, 161

19th Bombardment Squadron: 155

22d Air Refueling Squadron: 155

33d Bombardment Squadron: 155

58th Bombardment Wing: 143

93d Bombardment Group: 149, 155

97th Bombardment Wing: 143–44

305th Bombardment Group: 131

509th Bombardment Wing: 143

bombers. See Strategic bombers

dismantling of: 7, 92, 182

Finletter and: 20

LeMay’s command of: 4, 5, 132, 138,

161

McConnell’s command of: 137

Ryan’s command of: 144

support from Twining: 121

Welch’s command of: 172

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II):

48, 49, 87, 151, 157

Strategic bombers. See also Bombing tactics; individual bombers

advances in: 144

campaign in WWII: 3

expansion under Twining: 121

in strategic triad: 48

support of B–1: 150

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI): 6, 88

Strategic triad: 4, 48, 114

Submarine-launched missiles: 4

Supercon Ltd.: 65

Superfortress (B–29): 3, 121, 132, 161

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers

Europe: 167

Surplus Property Board: 13, 41

Survival in the Air Age: 19

Symington, W. Stuart

accomplishments during term: 15, 30

air power subcommittee: 30

B–36 controversy: 14

biographical background: 13, 15

conflicts with secretary of defense: 14

goals for Air Force: 4

interpretation of role: 1

management style: 13

portrait: 12

relationship with Vandenberg: 114, 115

selection of Zuckert: 41

seventy-group goal: 4, 14, 15, 20, 109

Systems Command. See Air Force Systems

Command

Systems Planning Corporation: 87

TAC. See Tactical Air Command

Tactical Air Command (TAC)

3d Attack Group: 119

7th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

8th Tactical Fighter Wing: 193

13th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 107,

193

16th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

20th Tactical Fighter Wing: 181, 182

23d Tactical Fighter Wing: 177

26th Attack Squadron: 119

31st Tactical Fighter Wing: 181

32d Tactical Fighter Squadron: 187

33d Tactical Fighter Wing: 156

35th Tactical Fighter Wing: 171

36th Tactical Fighter Wing: 187

37th Tactical Fighter Wing: 181

56th Tactical Fighter Wing: 149, 188,

193

61st Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

79th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 177

86th Fighter Interceptor Wing: 167

90th Attack Group: 119

90th Attack Squadron: 113

311th Tactical Fighter Training

Squadron: 193

355th Tactical Fighter Wing: 177

366th Tactical Fighter Wing: 171

388th Tactical Fighter Wing: 188

389th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 171

406th Tactical Fighter Training Wing:

182

432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing:

167, 193

265
Tactical Air Command, continued

436th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 181

510th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 187

513th Combat Support Group: 182

creation of: 4

Finletter and: 20

First Tactical Fighter Wing: 171, 182

Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force: 156

funding support from Allen: 163

Gabriel’s work in: 167

reorganization in 1990s: 7, 92

Third Air Force Tactical Evaluation

team: 181

Third Tactical Air Force: 137

Welch’s work in: 171–72

Talbott, Harold E.

accomplishments during term: 4, 26

biographical background: 25

comments on Vandenberg: 115

directorships: 25

portrait: 24

resignation: 26

selection of Douglas: 33

Task Force on Management of Military

Research and Development: 60

Technology

advances during Vietnam War: 48

Air Force support of aviation industry:

15

B–1B: 5, 6, 48, 54, 78, 88, 150, 172

B–2: 6, 92

B–70: 43, 132–33, 156

emphasis under Quarles: 30

F–15: 5, 54, 61, 66, 156, 187

F–16: 5, 60, 61, 66, 156, 162, 193

F–22: 96, 100, 194

F–111: 6, 43, 54, 61, 133

F–117: 6

joint programs with universities: 60

Mars exploration plans: 88

missile program advancements: 4

modernization programs under Vandenberg: 114

NATO programs: 59–60

nuclear weapons development: 121,

161–62

programs under McLucas: 60

Project Forecast: 43

readiness strategy and: 156

research and development emphasis:

30, 37, 96

research work of Mark: 73

Ryan’s support of: 144, 145

SAGE: 127

satellite systems: 144, 162

SDI: 6, 88

Sky Bolt: 43

space program. See Space programs

stealth aircraft: 43, 48, 96, 172

Systems Command and: 150

TFX: 43

Tedder, Arthur W.: 114

Tenth Air Force: 3

Tet Offensive: 5

Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University: 87

Texas Fund, Inc.: 37

TFX: 43

Thinking about National Security: Defense

and Foreign Policy in a Dangerous World

(Brown): 49

3d Aero Squadron: 107

Third Air Force: 126, 137

Third Air Force Tactical Evaluation team:

181

3d Attack Group: 119

3d Bombardment Division: 131

3d Emergency Rescue Squadron: 155

Third Tactical Air Force: 137

Third Wing: 120

Thirteenth Air Force: 3, 120, 126

13th Squadron: 107

13th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 193

35th Tactical Fighter Wing: 171

31st Aero Squadron: 107

31st Tactical Fighter Wing: 181

3550th Pilot Training Group: 167

“Thirty-one joint initiatives”: 6, 43, 168

266
32d Tactical Fighter Squadron: 187

37th Tactical Fighter Wing: 181

36th Tactical Fighter Wing: 187

33d Bombardment Squadron: 155

33d Tactical Fighter Wing: 156

Thomas College: 53

389th Tactical Fighter Squadron: 171

305th Bombardment Group: 131

311th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron:

193

355th Tactical Fighter Wing: 177

388th Tactical Fighter Wing: 188

366th Tactical Fighter Wing: 171

Thunderbirds: 181

Thunderbolt (P–47): 3

Titan missile: 4

Total force concept: 5, 114

Trebilcock, Paul F.

biographical background: 239

Thomas Dresser portrait: 124

Truman, Harry S

budgetary policies of: 114

Finletter appointment: 20

segregation abolishment: 42

selection of Spaatz: 109

Symington appointment: 13, 14, 15, 30

Tunner, William H.: 115

Twelfth Air Force: 108, 114, 182

Twentieth Air Force: 3, 121

20th Tactical Fighter Wing: 181, 182

22d Air Refueling Squadron: 155

26th Attack Squadron: 119

23d Tactical Fighter Wing: 177

2236th Air Force Reserve Training Center:

155

Twining, Nathan F.

accomplishments during term: 4,

121–22

biographical background: 119, 122

comments on Vandenberg: 115

conflicts with secretary of Air Force: 

29

military career highlights: 119–21

portrait: 118

promotions, assignments, decorations:

206–8

selection of White: 127

U–2: 34

Unified Space Command: 168

Uniform Code of Military Justice: 42

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(USSR). See Soviet Union

United Kingdom. See Great Britain

United Nations: 6

United States: 14

United States Air Force

2d Operational Conversion Unit: 193

3d Aero Squadron: 107

3d Emergency Rescue Squadron: 155

6th Pursuit Squadron: 113

18th Pursuit Group: 119

31st Aero Squadron: 107

60th Service Squadron: 119–20

62d Troop Carrier Group: 149

99th Observation Squadron: 125

2236th Air Force Reserve Training

Center: 155

3550th Pilot Training Group: 167

Aeronautical Systems Division: 95

Air Combat Command: 7, 92, 182

Air Command Southeast Asia: 137

Air Defense Command: 4, 20, 149

Air Materiel Command: 7, 121, 182

Air Mobility Command: 7, 92, 188

Air Training Command: 143, 149

Air Transport Command: 33

Army Air Corps Act effects: 2

atomic weapons and: 3, 4, 121, 122

budget and funding. See Budget and

funding

Central Air Forces: 6

combat commands in 1947: 4

depot problems in late 1990s: 100

Eighth Air Force: 3, 108, 114, 143

evolution and establishment: 1, 13

expansion efforts of Vandenberg: 115

Fifteenth Air Force: 3, 121, 143

267
United States Air Force, continued

Fifth Air Force: 127, 149

first chief of staff: 109

first female secretary: 95

first secretary: 13

force reduction in 1990s: 194

Fourteenth Air Force: 3

Goldwater-Nichols Act effects: 6, 157,

188

growth in 1980s: 6

Gulf War air campaign: 6

independent air force advocates: 2, 3

Korean War buildup: 4

Logistics Command: 7

manpower and base cuts, 1970s: 69

materiel movement during Gulf War: 6

Military Airlift Command: 7, 92

missile programs. See Missile programs

mixed force concept: 127

Ninth Air Force: 114, 172

organizational changes under McPeak:

182–83

Pacific Air Command: 127

Pacific Air Forces: 182

personnel issues. See Personnel issues

post-Korean War downsizing: 4

post-Korean War objectives: 20

post-Vietnam retrenchment: 5–6

post-Vietnam status: 5, 162

post-WWII austerity: 109

priorities in late 1970s: 74

readiness strategy. See Readiness

strategies

Reagan era expansion: 6, 163

Reorganization Acts effects, 1950s: 4,

20, 122

reorganization in 1990s: 7

Second Air Force: 137, 143, 144, 156

Seventh Air Force: 3, 126, 150, 156, 188

seventy-group goal: 4, 14, 15, 20, 109

Sixteenth Air Force: 144, 194

Soviet phasedown effects: 173

Space Command: 6, 78, 168

status of secretary and chief, 1947: 1

Strategic Air Command. See Strategic

Air Command (SAC)

strategic changes in 1990s: 92

strategic planning, post-Vietnam War:

48

strategic triad: 4, 48, 114

Systems Command. See Air Force Systems Command

Tactical Air Command. See Tactical

Air Command (TAC)

Third Air Force: 126, 137, 181

Third Tactical Air Force: 137

Third Wing: 120

Thirteenth Air Force: 3, 120, 126

“thirty-one joint initiatives”: 6, 43, 168

total force concept: 5, 114

Twelfth Air Force: 108, 114, 182

Twentieth Air Force: 3, 121

unity efforts with Army: 6, 42, 43, 168,

172

Vietnam bombing campaigns: 5

United States Air Forces in Europe

(USAFE): 132, 156, 177, 194

United States Army

Air Service and: 2

joint initiatives with Air Force: 6, 42,

43, 114, 168, 172

OSAF and: 1

United States Army Mail Service: 120

United States Central Command: 157

United States European Command: 137

United States Junior Chamber of Commerce: 47

United States Medal of Freedom Award

Douglas: 43

Quarles: 30

United States Military Academy. See West

Point attendees

United States Military Assistance Command: 150

United States Navy

B–36 controversy: 14

carrier aviation fight: 114

268
FB–111 and: 48

joint initiatives with Air Force: 3, 42

National Security Act effects: 1

Naval Air Service: 3

in strategic triad: 4

TFX and: 43

United States Securities and Exchange

Commission: 41

United States Southern Command Air

Forces: 182

United States Strategic Air Forces in

Europe: 108

University of California: 77

University of California, Berkeley: 47, 73

University of Maryland: 83, 171

University of Missouri: 29, 149

USAFE. See United States Air Forces in

Europe

USAF Exceptional Service Award: 30

USAF Scientific Advisory Board: 53, 60

USSR. See Soviet Union

Vandenberg, Arthur: 113

Vandenberg, Hoyt S.

accomplishments during term: 4,

114–15

biographical background: 113, 115

military career highlights: 113–14

portrait: 112

promotions, assignments, decorations:

114, 205–6

work under Symington: 14

Vandenberg, William Collins: 113

Van Zandt, James E.: 14

Vietnam War

Air Force mission during: 5, 43

Dugan’s participation in: 177

Fogleman’s participation in: 187

Gabriel’s participation in: 167

LeMay conflicts with McNamara: 133

McPeak’s participation in: 181

Michael Ryan’s participation in: 193

post-war austerity: 66

post-war policies: 151

preparation for: 47–48

public opinion of policies: 60

Vietnamization: 54

Welch’s participation in: 171

War Department: 1

War Production Board: 26

Weinberger, Casper W.: 83, 88

Welch, Larry D.

accomplishments during term: 172–73

biographical background: 171, 173

military career highlights: 171–72

portrait: 170

promotions, assignments, decorations:

223–24

support of service unity effort: 6, 172

Wells Fargo and Company: 92

Western Electric Company: 29

West Point attendees

Lew Allen: 161

George Brown: 149

Thomas Dresser: 125

Michael Dugan: 177

Charles Gabriel: 167

John McConnell: 137

John Ryan: 143

Carl Spaatz: 107

Nathan Twining: 119

Hoyt Vandenberg: 113

Weyland, Otto P.: 115

Weymouth, George A.

biographical background: 239

James Douglas portrait: 32

White, Ed: 128

White, Thomas Dresser

accomplishments during term: 127–28

biographical background: 125, 128

military career highlights: 125–27

portrait: 124

promotions, assignments, decorations:

208–10

relationship with Douglas: 33

relationship with Zuckert: 43

Wickham, John A., Jr.: 6, 168

269
Widnall, Sheila E.

accomplishments during term: 96

awards and honors: 95

biographical background: 95

portrait: 94

Williams Air Force Base: 150

Willkie, Wendell L.: 26

Wilson, Charles E.: 30, 33

Wilson, Woodrow: 1

World War I

Air Force’s role in: 1–2

Finletter’s participation in: 19

Quarles’ participation in: 29

Spaatz’s participation in: 107

Symington’s participation in: 13

World War II

Air Force’s role in: 3–4

Douglas’ participation in: 33

John Ryan’s participation in: 143

LeMay’s participation in: 131–32

McLucas’ participation in: 59

Orr’s participation in: 77

Sharp’s participation in: 37

Spaatz’s leadership during: 108, 109

Stetson’s participation in: 69

Twining’s participation in: 120–21

Vandenberg’s participation in: 114

White’s participation in: 126

Wright, Orville: 25

Wright Brothers: 1

Yale Law School: 42

Yale University: 13, 25, 41

YF–16/YF–17 flyoff: 60

Zuckert, Eugene M.

accomplishments during term: 42

biographical background: 41, 43

mission of Air Force and: 5

portrait: 40

work with McLucas: 59

Zuckert Management Award: 43

270