page_title: George Kenney
section_title: Post-war career
hierarchical_section_title: George Kenney / Post-war career
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Air Force Boeing B-50A-5-BO Superfortress (s/n 46-010) which made the first non-stop flight around the world in 1949. The aircraft was named "Lucky Lady II" and was assigned to the 43rd Bomb Group. It took off from Carswell Air Force, Texas (USA) on 26 February 1949 with a crew of 14 under Captain James Gallagher. The aircraft was refueled four times in the air by Boeing KB-29 Superfortress tankers of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron, over the Azores, Saudi-Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii. The flight lasted 94 hours and 1 minute and was completed on 2 March. The aircraft flew a distance of 37,743 km at an average speed of 398 km/h. Note: This aircraft is a United States Air Force 1948 fiscal year Boeing B-50D and despite image caption has nothing to do with Lucky Lady II.
context_page_description: George Churchill Kenney was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. He is best known as the commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, a position he held between August 1942 and 1945.
  Kenney enlisted as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps in 1917, and served on the Western Front with the 91st Aero Squadron. He was awarded a Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in which he fought off German fighters and shot two down. After hostilities ended he participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland. Returning to the United States, he flew reconnaissance missions along the border between the US and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Commissioned into the Regular Army in 1920, he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, and later became an instructor there. He was responsible for the acceptance of Martin NBS-1 bombers built by Curtis, and test flew them. He also developed techniques for mounting .30 caliber machine guns on the wings of an Airco DH.4 aircraft.
  In early 1940, Kenney became Assistant Military Attaché for Air in France.
context_section_description: In April 1946, Kenney became the first commander of the newly formed Strategic Air Command (SAC). He was encouraged by Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington to join him in the political battle surrounding the establishment of an independent United States Air Force. Separately, the two men gave promotional speeches around the country. As a result, SAC's efficiency suffered. On 8 May 1946, Kenney publicly presented the Medal of Honor to the family of Thomas B. McGuire, Jr, the second-highest scoring US fighter pilot, who had been killed in action.
  Kenney left day-to-day operations at SAC in the hands of his deputy commander, Major General St. Clair Streett. Part of the reason for Kenney's lack of focus on SAC was also his assignment as U.S. representative to the United Nations Military Staff Committee, which appeared at that time to be potentially an important assignment. In January 1947, Streett was replaced by Major General Clements McMullen. With McMullen serving officially as Kenney's deputy but actually in command, a cross-training program was implemented in early 1948 to teach bomber crew members each other's tasks, the goal being to reduce each bomber's contingent of officers from five to three. Morale suffered as a result. Major General Lauris Norstad, responsible for reporting the readiness of American airpower to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, heard from unhappy airmen that the SAC was in a poor state of readiness, and he initiated an investigation. He selected Charles Lindbergh and Paul Tibbets to perform the inquiry. Tibbets told Norstad that he found nobody at SAC knew their job. Lindbergh said that McMullen's cross-training program "seriously interfered with training the primary mission."
  On 6 May 1948, Kenney spoke to a crowd in Bangor, Maine, telling them that the US was likely to be attacked by the Soviet Union as soon as the latter had enough atomic bombs. In Washington, D.C., a group of senators including Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. complained of Kenney's "belligerent" speech, and previous ones in the same vein by Symington, saying that matters of foreign policy should be left to the president and the secretary of state, not to leaders of the United States Air Force (USAF). Another controversy that Kenney became embroiled in concerned the Convair B-36 Peacemaker. He was less than impressed with this expensive and under-performing aircraft, preferring the Boeing B-50 Superfortress, an upgraded version of the B-29 instead. The USAF, however, had staked much of its credibility on the B-36, something that Kenney did not seem to appreciate.
  In the context of the Berlin Blockade in June 1948, the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg met with Forrestal to report the poor state of SAC. Following this meeting, Norstad recommended that Vandenberg replace Kenney, and Vandenberg quickly agreed, choosing Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay as the man he would prefer to lead the strategic bombing arm in case of war with the USSR. LeMay was made leader of SAC, and Kenney became commanding officer of the Air University, a position he held from October 1948 until his retirement from the Air Force in September 1951.
  In April 1949, Kenney became the sixth person to receive the General William E. Mitchell Memorial Award.
caption: B-50 Superfortress.
exif: {}