A decision made in 1991 by this guy
who is now campaigning (left in the picture) for
Anyone else think it's a coincidence?
A decision made in 1991 by this guy
who is now campaigning (left in the picture) for
Anyone else think it's a coincidence?
Wait until Obama is elected.
We have had air supremacy for so long, we now take it for granted. Big mistake. Without the best aircraft and pilots we will not keep it. Drones are great for some missions, but are nearly useless in air to air combat or heavy bombing. The Russians, Chinese, and even the Europeans (who sell abroad) are not sitten on their laurels here. The danger is that we come to consider low intensity warfare as the standard and then a big conflict comes along and bites us in the a$$. And it will take us far longer to add air wings than it will take us to add Army divisions.
SAC is successful, let’s redistribute its mission and assets. Great idea.
What goes around, comes around. During Viet Nam people said the bomber guys screwed the fighter jocks; TAC could have been described as the Tactical Nuclear Deployment Command - and it showed early in VN. SAC guys got a bum rap. They hadn’t planned for SEA.
Now the fighter jocks can’t manage nuclear missions. Perhaps folks should look to the civilian masters to pinpoint responsibility for any particular deficiency in operational emphasis.
But hey, I’ll going along if folks want to point a finger at Tony(I now go by Merrill)McPeak. Thunderbirds are generally a great bunch, but They picked some doozies for the general officer gigs. How does McPeak get picked over a Jack Chain or Bob Russ type?
Please pardon the vanity, I can’t help myself. McPeak was my next door neighbor on Richenbacher at Nellis. His career-path was similar to my old man’s, and they knew each other pretty well.
McPeak’s rise was surprising to many, many people. However, that can be said about the success of a lot of folks in all walks of life. The man had a fine reputation as a pilot, demonstrated some political savvy, but was not regarded as a stud leader.
I ran into an intelligence officer who briefed the inner-sanctum types in the 80s and 90s. McPeak was described as brittle and aloof. A coffee pot was behind him as he was seated at his desk, the IO goes for a cup and McPeak loses his cool - can’t be as informal as to walk behind the man.
OTOH, same IO briefs Gen. Robert Russ - boss walks in, sits down, puts his feet up on the desk, lights up a cigar and says, “Whatcha got?”.
Who would you want to work for?
For all of a year, in the middle of a war. Even I served longer than that, and had quite a bit of voluntary time in the reserves, some of that supporting a SAC Wing's intell shop.
An intell officer at the wing level, or below, is pretty much a briefer. He has nothing to do with the weapons, their maintenance, or getting them on target. In a Bomber Wing, he might have helped with operational matters, such as laying out EWO missions for the flight crews, although those were planned at SAC Hq at Offutt.