Clifford Schoeffler Brigadier General Clifford Schoeffler ( March 8 , 1924 – August 22 , 2005 ) was director of operations and training in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff , Operations , Headquarters Strategic Air Command , Offutt Air Force Base , Nebraska . He was a command pilot with more than 10 , 000 flying hours accumulated during his career . Schoeffler was born in Lafayette , Louisiana , where he graduated from Lafayette High School in 1940 and attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette , then named the Southwestern Louisiana Institute . In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps Reserve and began pilot training as an aviation cadet at Kelly Field , Texas . He received his pilot wings and commission as a second lieutenant in 1943 . Military career . Early career . After serving in 1944 as a B - 24 pilot in which he completed 30 missions for the Eighth Air Force in England , he returned to the United States . He became an instructor pilot at Bryan Army Air Base , Texas , and later at Barksdale Air Force Base , Louisiana . Carswell Air Force Base . From 1948 to 1960 , Schoeffler was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base , Texas . During the return of the 7th Bomb Wing from an Arctic bombing exercise then - Lt Col Schoeffler was involved in a crash at Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay on 12 February 1953 that claimed two lives . Flying through adverse weather Schoeffler was receiving directions for an instrument landing by a ground control operator who was actually monitoring another nearby B - 36 . Colonel Chadwell , the Wing Commander , was on board at the time . When the plane hit the ground the aft section broke off and the open end acted like a giant scoop packing in the snow . This incident would provide the basis for the 1955 film Strategic Air Command starring James Stewart which Schoeffler served as a consultant . He graduated from the Air Tactical School at Tyndall Air Force Base , Florida . While at Carswell he also flew B - 29 Superfortress and B - 52 Stratofortress aircraft , and accumulated more than 5 , 000 hours flying the B - 36 . He served consecutively as a crewmember , flight standardization chief , squadron commander , and deputy commander for operations of the 7th Bombardment Wing . 1961 - 1975 . Schoeffler graduated from the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base , Alabama , in 1961 . He next was assigned to the 379th Bombardment Wing , equipped with B - 52H aircraft , at Wurtsmith Air Force Base , Michigan , where he served as squadron commander , deputy commander for operations , and as a 40th Air Division operations staff officer . He returned to Barksdale Air Force Base in 1965 , and was assigned as operations chief in the office of the inspector general , Second Air Force , and a year later became deputy commander for operations of the 2nd Bombardment Wing . He traveled to the Republic of Vietnam in 1967 as deputy chief of the Strategic Air Command advanced echelon at Tan Son Nhut Air Base . He flew combat missions in B - 52 Stratofortress , KC - 135 , and UH - 1 Iroquois aircraft . In 1968 he was transferred to Strategic Air Command headquarters as chief of the Contingency Division in the office of the deputy chief of staff , operations . In 1972 he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington , D . C . , as chief of the Strategic Operations Division within the Directorate of Operations . He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on April 2 , 1973 . He returned to SAC headquarters in 1974 to assume duties as director of operations and training . He retired in 1975 .