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Chief By CMSgt. Charles Lucas, USAF (Ret.) Airey n 1966, the Air Force launched a the force, but he is reluctant to claim I search for “the best qualified and credit for anything accomplished on most impressive individual” in the his watch. “I will never be convinced service to fill a new position, that that I was the most qualified or the of Chief Master Sergeant of the Air best,” Chief Airey said. “I ended up Force. It said that candidates had to with the job, so you go out and do the have at least 22 years of active-duty best you can.” service and two years as a chief mas- Paul Airey, who will be 74 in ter sergeant. Each had to have “the December and lives in Panama City, highest standards of integrity and Fla., grew up in a Navy town, Quincy, performance.” Mass., with its seaport and shipyards. At the time, the Air Force had more Joining the Navy was his first choice than 5,900 chiefs on active duty. Fewer when he left high school in 1942, but than half had the required time in it was not to be. service. Only 26 could be nominated. Only three were chosen as finalists, The Navy Way and the job went to tough, up-from- Airey recalled that the chief petty the-ranks Paul Wes ley Airey. In the officer in the Navy recruiting office was Air Force’s 50 years, the selection of “a belligerent type that really turned Airey must surely rate as one of its me off.” The CPO seemed completely golden moments. uninterested in the young man before In Airey’s selection, the system him and told him to come back later. worked. Today’s Air Force continues Instead, Airey went down the street to benefit from that decision. Airey and joined the Army Air Forces. was a man who did not complete high “I owe that petty officer much for school but gained a diploma through changing my mind,” Airey remarked. off-duty study, even acquiring a col- After Airey completed basic training As the first Chief lege associate degree. He was captured at Atlantic City, N.J., the AAF sent and imprisoned by the Nazis during him to Scott Field, Ill., to train as an Master Sergeant World War II, but he came back and airborne radio operator. “I wanted reenlisted because he liked the Air to be an aerial gunner,” Airey noted, of the Air Force, he Force life. adding, “I got some consolation when paved the way for Airey helped define the role of the I learned that crews on B-17s and B- Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force 24s had the radio operator double as those who came and, as such, was instrumental in the a waist gunner.” after him. success over the years of USAF’s most He completed radio school at Scott, visible symbol of the enlisted force. received his gunnery training at Tyn- Establishing the position of Chief dall Field, Fla., and moved on to Salt Master Sergeant of the Air Force had Lake City and Boise, Idaho, for crew been opposed by some in the Air Force assignment and transition training for hierarchy, but in the end Airey won the B-24 aircraft. He was assigned their respect and cooperation. to the 485th Bomb Group, and the Airey brought many benefits to crew was ordered to North Africa in AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1997 61 March 1944. They took the southern After a 90-day recuperation leave, became a first sergeant at Scott, and route—West Palm Beach, Fla., Puerto and weighing less than 100 pounds, over the next 14 years he held “first Rico, British Guiana, and Brazil. From Airey was returned to the United shirt” assignments at five bases. “Of there, the crew crossed the Atlantic to States. There was no question in his all the jobs I had in the Air Force, Dakar in West Africa and flew on to mind that he would be going back on next to being Chief Master Sergeant Tunisia for a month until an airfield duty. “Even as a POW, I was giving of the Air Force, I think first sergeant was completed at Foggia, Italy. much consideration to staying in,” he was probably the best,” said Airey. “I Newly promoted Technical Ser- said. “I liked it. There was something liked it. I liked the discipline part of geant Airey was on his 28th combat about it I wanted. I came off leave and it. I liked being able to counsel and mission in July 1944, flying over oil reenlisted.” lead. You never knew what was going refineries on the outskirts of Vienna, He was assigned as an instructor at to happen, day or night.” Austria, when his B-24 was hit by flak. the radio school at Scott Field, where In March 1964, the Air Force As- “We got as far as Hungary when he spent the next six years. In 1951 sociation’s Enlisted Council asked the pilot ordered us to get out,” Airey he was sent to Naha AB, Okinawa, as USAF to appoint a “Sergeant Major recalled. “There was no hesitation on NCOIC of communications. Respon- of the Air Force” through whom “en- my part. Right out the camera hatch I sible for radio repair, the young Airey listed personnel can freely express went at 18,000 feet. I remember getting soon found the tropical moisture and their opinions and recommendations the ‘psycho card’ [radio code] out of fungi of the place were playing havoc on matters ranging from mission ef- my pocket, tearing it up, and scattering with the radio and radar equipment. fectiveness to personal problems.” it to the wind.” Reaching into another He developed a corrosion control as- The proposal was turned down but pocket, he found his cigarettes, lit one, sembly line to correct the problem. “I resurfaced in 1965 when the Army and waited for the inevitable. It didn’t didn’t invent anything,” Airey said. created its first Sergeant Major of the take long arriving. “The process was there. All you had Army position. “As I got closer to the ground,” said to do was read it. I dug it out and set By 1966, the time was right. At Airey, “I could see a group of farmers it up.” that point, Airey was at Tyndall coming after me. I never got out of my Others thought he deserved high AFB, the same base at which he had harness. I got the hell beat out of me.” praise. At a ceremony in which he was completed gunnery training 23 years German soldiers and police arrived awarded the Legion of Merit for his earlier. There, he first heard about and took him to a local jail for the initiative, he was credited with sav- the proposed CMSAF position. “I night. Eventually, he ended up at Stalag ing millions of dollars in electronic thought, whoever gets that job is Luft IV, a German POW camp near equipment that would have otherwise really going to have to go through a the Baltic Sea. In February 1945, as deteriorated. lot,” said Airey. “What a great honor the Allied armies pushed farther into it would be, but I didn’t think I had the Reich, he and 6,000 fellow POWs “First Shirt” any chance of being selected.” began a forced march of rough ly 400 On his return from Okinawa in Airey was unaware of the Wash- miles to another camp near Berlin. 1953, Airey made a career change that ington political controversy over the That’s where he ended his POW days; would set him up as a candidate for proposed position. Principal person- he was liberated by British forces on the post of Chief Master Sergeant of alities involved were Gen. John P. May 2, 1945. the Air Force when it was created. He McConnell, Air Force Chief of Staff, and Rep. Mendel Rivers (D–S.C.), the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Noting that the Army and Marine Corps each had senior enlisted positions, Rivers introduced a bill to establish such a position in each of the armed forces. “The top NCO would advise the leader- ship on the morale, welfare, and career opportunities of the enlisted men and women of their respective service,” the bill read. Support for the idea grew on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon. However, resistance to the position by senior officers in some of the services was evident. McConnell weighed his options and asked for a recommendation from his Air Council. In August 1966, McConnell adopted the Rivers recom- Newly sworn in, CMSAF Paul W. Airey accepts congratulations from his boss, Gen. John P. McConnell, USAF Chief of Staff, after the April 3, 1967, ceremony installing mendation, with minor changes, and Airey as the first Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. directed that steps be taken to establish 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 1997 precedent. He read and reread the job description. It was his first Pentagon assignment. In fact, until his interview for the job two months earlier, he had never been in the building. “I think you have to remember that 1967 was a period of turmoil for many in the United States,” he noted. “The leadership recognized the need for improved communications. May be that’s why the job was established.” Chief Airey spent his first few weeks in a tiny fifth-floor office of the Pentagon as he awaited preparation of his permanent office.

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