page_title: Laurence S. Kuter
hierarchical_section_title: Laurence S. Kuter
caption_attribution_description: English: Genereal Laurence S. Kuter
context_page_description: General Laurence Sherman Kuter was a Cold War-era U.S. Air Force general and former commander of the North American Air Defence Command. Kuter was born in Rockford in 1905, and graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York on June 14, 1927.
  Second Lieutenant Kuter was first assigned to Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, Presidio of Monterey, California. He was formally assigned all battery officer duties except command. In May 1929 he was accepted for flying training, graduating from flying schools at Brooks and Kelly Fields, Texas, as a bombardment pilot in June 1930.
  He was then assigned as operations officer, 49th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group, Langley Field, Virginia. One month later Lieutenant Kuter was transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps. During his assignment at Langley, Lieutenant Kuter placed second in the annual bombing competition of the Army Air Corps.
  In August 1933 Lieutenant Kuter moved up as operations officer, 2nd Bombardment Wing, and assistant base operations officer at Langley. During this period he flew alternate wing position with Captain Claire L.
context_section_description: General Laurence Sherman Kuter (May 28, 1905 – November 30, 1979) was a Cold War-era U.S. Air Force general and former commander of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD). Kuter (pronounced COO-ter) was born in Rockford in 1905, and graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York on June 14, 1927.
  Second Lieutenant Kuter was first assigned to Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, Presidio of Monterey, California. He was formally assigned all battery officer duties except command. In May 1929 he was accepted for flying training, graduating from flying schools at Brooks and Kelly Fields, Texas, as a bombardment pilot in June 1930.
  He was then assigned as operations officer, 49th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group, Langley Field, Virginia. One month later Lieutenant Kuter was transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps. During his assignment at Langley, Lieutenant Kuter placed second in the annual bombing competition of the Army Air Corps.
  In August 1933 Lieutenant Kuter moved up as operations officer, 2nd Bombardment Wing, and assistant base operations officer at Langley. During this period he flew alternate wing position with Captain Claire L. Chennault's acrobatic group, "The Men on the Flying Trapeze." This was the first recognized aerial acrobatic team in the military service.
  He then was given a leading role in the operational development of the Boeing Y1B-9 twin engine bombers which pioneered high altitude bombing techniques and tactics in the U.S. Air Force.
  From February to June 1934, Lieutenant Kuter served as operations officer of the Eastern Zone Army Corps Mail operations. He was the last officer relieved from this duty being held over to write the final report and history. At the conclusion of this assignment he was selected for the Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama. He graduated at the top of his class in the spring of 1935 and was retained at the school as instructor in bombardment aviation and in the employment of air power.
  At this time the school was beginning to develop the role of strategic bombing in future warfare. Prior to this, planning had been directed to defensive and supporting roles. The 10,000-plane Air Force envisioned in Captain Kuter's lectures taxed imaginations at that time.
  The ideas born and developed at the school were to play an important part in his next assignment in the Operations and Training Division, War Department General Staff, Washington, D.C., where he was ordered to duty on July 1, 1939. General George C. Marshall, who became the chief of the War Department General Staff on that day had called for the experimental assignment to the general staff of aviators, young and junior officers and officers who had not attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Captain Kuter's assignment represented all three phases of this experiment.
  Early in 1941 he was a principal factor in several augmentations of the Air Corps. In August 1941, Kuter was brought into the Air War Plans Division where he was one of the four principal authors of AWPD-1, the basic plan for employment of air power in World War II. This plan was used almost without change through the war, in the form of its incorporation into the Combined Bomber Offensive. It has been said that there is no other case in military history where a detailed overall plan had been drawn up and adhered to so closely through the organizing, training, fighting and winning of any great war.
  In November 1941, Major Kuter was designated assistant secretary, War Department General Staff. After participating as one of a committee of three in the reorganization of the War Department, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 5, 1942, and at the recommendation of General George C. Marshall to brigadier general on February 2, 1942. Commanding General of the Army Air Forces Gen. Henry H. Arnold transferred him  in March to Headquarters USAAF as the deputy chief of air staff.
  At this time there was extensive public interest expressed in the sudden promoti
caption: General Laurence Sherman Kuter
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