EDITORIAL STAFF M aj o r Kenneth F. G antz, Ph D., Editor C aptain Patr ick O. M ar tin, Assistant Editor G race G. Lane, Editorial Secretary EDITORIAL BOARD C olonel James W. Chapman, J r ., C 5 Education, Presideht C olonel George E. H enry, Deputy Commandant, AWC C olonel John C. H orton, Deputy Commandant, AC&SS C olonel Joseph Ladd, Deputy Chief, Evaluation Division L ie u t e n a n t Colonel Jac k L. Bentley, AU Secretary D r . C har les M. T homas, Dept. of the Air Force Líbrary M r . A lder M. Jenkins, Publications Section, Academic Div. ATTENTION Views expressed in this journal are those of the authors, and are not to be construed as the official opinions or policies of the Department of the Air Force or the Air University. The purpose of this journal is to stimulate healthy discussion of Air Force problems which mav ultimately result in improvement of our national security. Appropriate contributions of pertinent articles and corre- spondence which present new views, or refute or support old ones, are solicited. THE U nited States A ir Force AIR UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY REVIEW V olume III SPRING 1950 N umber 4 P R IZ E E D IT O R IA L ......................................................... 2 Discipline and the Air Force FORMULATING THE AIR FORCE PROGRAM 5 D r . F ritz Morstein Mar x A PROBLEM IN LEADERSHIP 17 C ol. D al e O. Smith THE DOOLITTLE INFLUENCE ON THE PACIFIC WAR 25 C ol. J ermain F. R odenhauser CAREER PLAN FOR USAF OFFICERS 31 C ol. G eorge D. Campbel l , J r . MAINTENANCE CONSIDERATION IN DEVELOPMENT OF USAF AIRCRAFT 39 M aj . W il l ia m H. W heeler IN M Y OPINION . A Plan for the £ducational Development of the Air. Force Officer 46 L t . C ol. T homas S. T orresson, J r . AIRMANS READING 57 My Three Years in Moscow, Dr. Eugene M. Emme; The Red Army Today. Maj. Robert B. Rigg, GSC; Slipstream. Col. Harvey T. Alness; Economic Geography of the USSR, Prof. George B. Cressey; Russian-American Relations in the Far East, Robert W. Schmidt; Air Power and Unification, Dr. R. Earl McClendon; 999 S urvived, Dr. Deric 0 ’Bryan; Briefer Comment. THE PERIODICAL PRESS 80 AIR ANTHOLOGY 92 E D IT O R S N O T E S 100 »»»» • «««« Publíshed quarterly by the Air Uníverslty, Maxwell Air Porce Base, Alabama. The printlng „ publicatlon has been approved by the Dírjctor of the Bureau of the Budget. 17 June. 1949. Students and íaculty of the Air Uníverslty schools are provided free copies ás textuai material. Prlnted by Fleld Printing P'.ant. AU. Price, single copy, 50 cents; yearly subscrlp- tion, *2 00. Address orders to Air Uníverslty Book Department. Maxwell Air Force Base. Alabama. Properly credlted quotatlons are authorized. PRIZE EDITORIAL DISCIPLINE AND THE AIR FORCE UR YOUNG AIR FORCE is going through an extremely criticai O period. Its history is memory-fresh, its traditions still entangled in the service from which it derives. Its ideas are new, full of the creativeness which comes with independence, but some are as yet unchanneled, unformed, riding along under the power of wartime habits. Out of these elements, the brief history, the entangled past, the ideas and the habits, a pattern for the future is beginning to emerge. Not clearly defined yet in that pattern is the power and direction of its controlling force— discipline. During the war years the Air Force grew frorr. a small component of the arm y into one which encircled the globe. And while it grew and battled for air superiority, it shed the customs and ideas of its parent like pieces of clothing grow n too small for its bulging muscles. Sometimes it replaced them with new ones; sometimes it did not re- place them at a11. Time was short, the pressure of more immediate things great. The influx of young, eager civilians who had to be trained as quickly as possible to man our combat areas reduced our training program to the bare minimum to ensure an adequate supply of combat-capable men. Beyond training and in combat the trend was aw ay from outward manifestations of discipline, away from the customs and courtesies of the army, the salute, the junior walking on the left, the "yes, sir, no' sir, no excuse, sir." But we had excellent discipline, nevertheless, of the kind that American civilians are used to—fighting to win, getting a job done with as little ceremony as possible. That w as what counted. Our air discipline and ground maintenance discipline was high. Discipline elsewhere in the form of ceremony w as not for our civilians hurriedly put into uniforms. They remained civilians at heart until victory carne to release them. After the mass exodus the majority of Air Force officers remaining on active duty were still those who had received their commissions from wartime training programs. They were excellent pilots and technicians, but they were lacking in the qualities essential to peace- time ofTicers. With the airmen it was much the same. Here then is the crux of our problem: we are civilians in habit and training, working and living in a military organization which is itself experiencing its first peacetime years. Long-time habits call for one thing, and military customs and existing regulations call for another. Airmen are embar- rassed to salute officers, and ofFicers are embarrassed to enforce the courtesy. The "Good Joe" theory is still alive, and the boys growing up during the war are now entering the Air Force with pictures still fresh in their minds of the wartime "fly-boys," popularized by the comic-strips, with their droopy caps and go-to-hell attitudes. The Air Force has not renounced the traditions and customs that it inherited, but neither has it made any significant effort to support them. In its new blue uniform it appears to many to be going in a completely new direction. It is going in a new direction, of course. The Science it uses can not progress except on a free, open road. But neither it nor Science can afford not to look backw ard. It is the quickest way to go forward. Military organizations have always depended on a system of discipline to keep them intact and powerful. This system has taken m any forms, but in the Am erican form we know it has alw ays been an attempt to cement the individual into the organization, a process by which the little an individual loses is to the great gain of the organization. It is a system for order, efficiency, and economy. It em- braces the general as well as the private. Salutmg and the other customs we associate with good discipline are not the points at stake. These are simply trained responses to certain established demands. They are recognition of the demands, overt acknowledgment of them. At best they are simple expressions of a man's attitude towards that discipline which can not be measured from the outside. Elimination or alteration of any of the present de­ m ands would not d a m a g e true discipline —unless it happened in the way it appears to be happening now, in a slow, confusing, crumbling way. The pressure of dem ands still exist, but there is not a correspond- ing degree of pressure inside us to w a n t to a c k n o w le d g e them. Bit by bit we are assuming individual authority over our small acts. Good discipline is the substructure of any organization, large or small. The larger the organization, the more solid must be its con- struction. It is time we examine our Air Force foundation before piling more materiais on it. If it is not the right one, if it does not harm onize with our new ideas, our new materiais, then it must be repaired or replaced. But it must not be permitted to crumble away. Lt James D Huqhes. USAF Itazuke Air Force Base Formulating The Air Force Program* F ritz Morstein Mar x OW DOES THE AIR FORCE PROGRAM come into being? What is the interplay of judgments and deci- Hsions that makes the program developed by and for the Air Force part of the national program? These questions ulti- mately refer us to the political process. They reach beyond the technical aspects of formulating large-scale programs. They can not be answered in terms of scientific management alone. Management specialists and professional planners necessari- ly must pay tribute to the goddess of rationality. They often become impatient when they see the product of their own work played about by what they suspect are irrational forces. They are easily disturbed about the changes which the product of their planning undergoes in the political arena. No doubt in a large establishment such as the Air Force, exacting planning and exacting management throughout the organization are prime requirements today. Public opinion itself insists upon a demonstration of high standards of performance. In meeting these standards, what those charged with devel- oping the Air Force program do within their individual sphere of work thus has an important impact upon the character and the public reception of the emerging program. More than the ordinary virtues of the soldier is required today to keep a pro- gram of such magnitude well conceived and effectively exe- cuted. Certainly each specialisfs contribution to this end is a vital factor.