Evening star., 1951-11-17
; Senators Predict
Plea for Additional
Billions for Air Power

Three Senators expressed the
opinion today that the admins
tration would request added bill
lions of dollars next year to speed
expansion of air power.
The trio. Senators johnson,
Democrat, of Colorado and Re-
publicans Young of North Dakota
and Lodge Of Massachusetts indi-
Gated they were anxious to boost
that strength.
1t. Gen. Curtis E. LIE MAY,
commander of the long-range air
fleet. said last night that his air
levlathans could launch a swift
IetaIlatory attack at any enemy
but that the Strategic Air Com
mand faced gigantic task call
ing for more than "a handful of
oombers and atomic bombs"
He spoke at the first in the Ma
tlonal Geographic Society's oath
annual series of lectures, in Con-
stitution Hail. Gen. LIE May is a
life trustee of the society.
Gen. LIE May did not explain
how large force would be needed
to wage strategic air war against
big land-massed enemy like
Russia.
More Air Strength Recommended.
However, buildup of the
United States Air Force from the
now existing strength of about 90
wings to a level of about 140, has
been recommended by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. The force of
strategic bomber units, now be-
+" tween II and Is wings, presum-
ably would be expanded at least
proportionately in the buildup.
Due to the prolonged cold war
and the hot war in Korea, just
about every one of us today has
become a strategiSt," Gen. LIE May
told the Geographic audience.
Given half a chance. just about
any one of us can volunteer
good theory on how third World
War should be fought, if it is
forced upon us.
Popular slogans are derived
from these theories. One of
these popular slogans in particu-
lar has a great deal of appeal at
the moment. and is affecting the
thinking of large number of
people. That is the slogan, Let's
get the battle back to the battle
field
If We could conf1ne the battle {
to soldiers with nothing in their s
arsenalS of greater range than a I
rifle, our cities would be untaxed
and unthreatened. and our fac
tories could be hard at work pro- r
ouclng butter as well as guns" II
Two Things Needed. r
He said that While he SYM s
pathizes with the slogan the t
advent of the atomic bomb and ,
the long-range bomber force now j
make it difficult to confine a
battle to the battlefront. Two f
things are needed: Destruction by !
mterceptor planes of the Air De- /
tense Command of enemy bomber
planes flying to attack America
although some bombers might get :
through the defenses. and =
destruction of both enemy bomber q
fields and all war-goods indus 9
tries, to wreck as much as possible {
OF the enemys bomber force be- a
lore it gets airborne, and to
cripple supplies of equipment for =,
the battlefront.
Gen. LIE May told how SAC is =
made up of long-range B-29's, h
B-50's and B-36 bombers. The 9
b-3o he termed "our first truly +
lntercontinental bomber" SAC n
also has some fighter-escort wings. e
He spoke of the new six-jet
s-4f StratoJet as lust beginning n
TO come into our force" and also A
OF the KC-97 tanker aircraft for
in-hlght refueling to give the big r
oombers even greater range. X
Would Cripple Production.
This striking force would be I
launched against the enemv's in j
duStrial heart in the early days of
q next war Gen. LIE Nav de-
clared. by destroying the en- -
emyo tanks on the production = =
lines, his aircraft while it is still % %
In factories, his gasoline in stor- % %
age and his basic industry. SUM- a
plies and governmental commu- - -
nlcatlons, We can insure that the =
battle fought on the battlefield
will be considerably shortened and V,
less costly. u
TO do this is a gigantic task
We cannot accomplish it with 81
simply handful of bombers and "
atomic bombs. But if our Stra- II
teglc Air Command is properly p
supported and we do our lob l
properly, the results. if not de- l
cisive, will insure our ultimate K