Evening star., 1943-05-12
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
Sta1 Staff Correspondent

| ORLANDO Fla, May 12.-Uncle
Sam revealed many Of the details OF
his thunderbirds today displaying to
group of newspaper men and
women the mechanics and operation
of a complete Combat Air Force
Tactical Command.
The Army Air Force School of
Applied Tactics here at Orlando,
where cadres of student roll up to
follow through as instructors at a
rate soon to become $500 month
sits in tie middle of North Central
Florida, in the center of tactical
area covering 5000 square miles and
every type of combat operation
which might be expected in any
theater of operations.
Commanded by Brig. Gen Hume
Peabody, AAFSAT is literally West
Point of the air, a postgraduate
course supplementing previous air
training. To this spot come air
students of all categories from all
parts of the country and the world.
Fighters Learn Anew.
We saw men back from the South
west Pacific. learning anew the most
modern gunnery methods, even
though they have had the sharp
thrill of battle against Jap Zeros.
This school also is complete air
force Combining all elements of
air-poWer, a complete fighter COM
mand, bomber command, air sup
port command and air service COM
mand. In addition it is a tactical
research center, but only selected
men come here to learn the how
of winning battles.
We learned that dive bombing, as
such, is on the way out. Instead,
low-level and skip bombing, COM
bined with high-level bombing, is
the latest wrinkle. But ground
strafing is very much in, particu-
larly from those tremendously fast
A-2O Bostons which brush the tree
tops as they move over simulated
enemy-o occupied country on low
level missions.
We flew in almost everything the
Air Force has, leaving Washington
in the big BITS. We flew in C-53s,
the "taXis' of the Air Force, operated
by men of the Troop Carrier Com
mand, and we flew in the lethal
A-2Os. We watched dive bombing
and ground strafng by the new
A-36 jobs, adapted especially from
the Psi design for the dual fighter
bomber mission.
Quick Recognition Necessary.
We learned that big part of the
job of an Air Force pilot is to recog-
nize quickly. even at speeds of one
hundredth of a second, other planes
in the air, the silhouette of armored
vehicles and of surface waterloo
craft. We saw the simulated cap
ture of an enemy airport by air.
borne infantry dropped in gliders
and even took a short glider ride
ourselves. In other words, the
Army pulled back the curtain on
many operations hitherto a secret
to civilians.
We ducked low as a fight of A
2Os roared 10 feet overhead at 25C
miles per hour, tossing theoretical
slugs from machine guns at us, the
simulated enemy troops under stra-
fng attack. We saw the newest
technique of skip bombing, Sc
effective against enemy ships, by
dropping heavy bombs at low alti-
tude so they'll skip across water and
detonate against the side of a vessel
We flew cross country over neat
little orange groves, bombing and
strafng theoretical enemy-held air.
fields. stirring up the fish and alli-
gators with our prop wash as we cut
air furroWs 3 feet above lakes, and
clipped the tops of tail pines as we
zccmed at unbelievable speed over
t.ee forest in l,700-horsepower air.
pane so widely used for low level
bombing and sartfng in France and
, TuniSia.
Only School of Kind.
This is the only school of its kind
anywhere in the United States, the
final school Of applied air tactics. II
any nation has its counterpart il
isn't known. We learned for example
that air support is split three ways
/ The first phase is counter-air opera
tions, to destroy enemy air forces
| The second is to isolate the front
attack communication lines and
troop concentrations in the enemy
rear, and third, to closely support
the ground forces.
The third mission of air support
explained slim, decisive Col. Morton
H NcKinnin, is the most compli.