He Graduated from West Point with Three Things That Stuck: a Nickname, a Desire to Fly, and a Reputation for Honesty

He graduated from West Point with three things that stuck: a nickname, a desire to fly, and a reputation for honesty.

Spaatz By Richard Davis

ARL A. Spaatz, born in Boyertown, Pa., on June C28, 1891, became the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in September 1947. For two years after the end of World War II, he had led the fight to separate the Army Air Forces from the Army and thereby create an independent air service. His success in this endeavor was typical of his career: Some- one would give Spaatz a tough, thankless job to do, and then he would quietly and relentlessly go about getting it done. Spaatz was not flashy. Today, few Americans outside the service he helped found would even remember him. Fewer still can correctly pro- nounce his name, despite his addi- tion of the extra “a” in 1937. (The right way is “spots,” as on a leopard, not “spats” as in old-fashioned foot- wear.) Spaatz showed his determination early in life. When he was a teen- ager, his father suffered burns in a fire and could not work at the family

After graduating from West Point, Spaatz served with the infantry in Hawaii. Then he reported for flight training at San Diego, where he posed with this Martin trainer aircraft.

66 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 67 Nov. 25, 1915. His training con- sisted of two to five hours of dual instruction, combined with lectures on flight safety and engine mainte- nance. On his first solo flight, his engine quit, but he managed to land safely. Spaatz’s first actual flying assign- ment came in May 1916. He flew as part of the 1st Aero Squadron under Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois. The squadron was attached to a force under Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing, who had embarked on his famous Punitive Expedition into Mexico, an action provoked by the cross-border raids of Mexican guerrilla Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Pershing never caught Villa, and the US force returned within its borders after 11 In 1934, Capt. Ross Hoyt (left) and Maj. Carl Spaatz look over Army Air Corps months in Mexico. airmail routes. President Roosevelt had canceled domestic airmail contracts because of fraud and gave the AAC the job of carrying the airmail. Off to France In June 1917, Spaatz was promoted newspaper. Spaatz for several months on a trip from New York City to to major. (His next promotion would ran the enterprise, doing everything Albany. Spaatz watched him go by not come for nearly 18 years.) The from selling advertising to setting and then and there decided that he, United States had only a month ear- type by hand. too, would learn to fly. And he did. lier entered World War I on the side In 1910, the young man entered As for honesty, Spaatz demon- of the Allies, and Spaatz was one of the United States Military Academy strated it at West Point in a typically only 65 flying officers in the Army, at West Point. His four years there damn-the-consequences way. Upon so there never was any doubt that he produced a permanent distaste for returning to post after an evening would be shipped over to Europe. professional military education. For out, Spaatz was asked whether he He arrived in France in September the rest of his career, Spaatz attended had just come from a specific off- 1917, and by November, he had as- service schools only when unavoid- limits drinking establishment. He sumed command of the 3rd Aviation able or as a last resort. His record of promptly replied, Yes. However, no Instruction Center, Issoudun, France. demerits at West Point showed his one else had seen him there, and, (Spaatz commanded the unit until particular antipathy for “bull” and after some scratching of heads, an the arrival of Lt. Col. Walter G. spit and polish. He never earned a honor committee refused to punish Kilner, then became the officer in cadet rank and remained a “clean- him. The panel ruled that he had charge of training. He took com- sleeve” throughout his four years. simply told the truth. mand again in May 1918.) The US Spaatz coasted through West Point After West Point, Spaatz went di- had no modern aircraft of its own, on wit rather than scholarship, fin- rectly to the infantry. Rules required and this center trained all US fighter ishing 57th out of 107 class mem- that he spend one year in a regular pilots in the use of French fighters. bers in academics and 95th in con- branch of the Army before transfer- Spaatz arrived at Issoudun only duct. He excelled at the things that ring to his chosen specialist branch, to find no good roads, a handful of really interested him—bridge, poker, the Signal Corps Aviation Section. shoddily constructed buildings, a and the guitar. Three things that he He wound up in Hawaii, serving as a sea of mud, and a veritable mob of acquired at the academy stuck to white officer in a company of the dispirited trainees and instructors. him for the rest of his life—a nick- 25th Infantry Regiment, an all-black When he left in September 1918, name, a desire to fly, and a reputa- unit. Spaatz recalled that he “en- Issoudun had become the largest tion for honesty. joyed that year of service with that training field in the world. Under outfit as much as any I ever had,” but Spaatz, Issoudun graduated 766 Three Lasting Items 2nd Lt. Spaatz made no lasting mark fighter pilots and suffered 56 train- Spaatz had the kind of pale, freck- on the 25th, and he was eager to start ing fatalities. led complexion characteristic of most flying. Spaatz gained invaluable experi- redheads. It so happened that he At about the same time, he met ence as a trainer and administrator shared the trait with a certain upper- Ruth Harrison, the 17-year-old daugh- of a fledgling air force, but like any classman, Francis J. Toohey. In short ter of a cavalry officer. The two were officer, he wanted to fight at the order, his classmates stopped using married in July 1917. front. Brig. Gen. William “Billy” the name “Carl.” Thereafter, he was Spaatz, when his year with the Mitchell was impressed with Spaatz’s known as “Tooey” Spaatz. infantry was over, reported for record and wanted to send him back On May 29, 1910, early aviator flight training at the North Island to the US to help upgrade the train- Glenn Curtiss flew over West Point field in San Diego. The date was ing effort. Spaatz, however, resisted

68 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 and managed to get two weeks at the front. He reported to the 2nd Pursuit Group, which had entered combat five weeks earlier, and promptly won the respect of his fellow pilots, mostly first and second lieutenants, by stick- ing his major’s insignia in his pocket and becoming one of them. He shot down his first German airplane on Sept. 15. For actions 11 days later, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and made the New York Times. The headline read, “Flying Officer Shoots Down Three Planes—Two German and His Own.” When Ruth Spaatz saw the headline she said, “That has to be Tooey!” He had con- centrated so fiercely on damaging

defense. He forthrightly told the high- est ranking court-martial board in US history that the Air Service had only 59 modern airplanes and that “by dragging all administrative officers from their desks,” the service might field 15 pursuit aircraft. When asked the key question— Was the War Department slowing the development of airpower?—he quickly answered Yes, beating the prosecutor’s objection. Spaatz was warned that his testimony might dam- age his career, but he refused to trim to the prevailing wind. He noted, perhaps naively, “They can’t do any- thing to you when you’re under oath and tell them the answers to their questions.”

To publicize the potential of air-to-air refueling, this crew kept the Fokker C-2A Question Mark Question Mark (in photo at top) flying over California for more than 150 hours. In late 1928, the Army Air Corps They were, from left, SSgt. Roy Hooe, Lt. Elwood Quesada, Lt. Harry Hal- needed publicity and to demonstrate verson, Capt. Ira Eaker, and Maj. Carl Spaatz. the potential of air-to-air refueling. Spaatz’s friend Capt. Ira C. Eaker the enemy that he had neglected to Spaatz was in the midst of an inspec- came up with the idea of carrying check his own fuel. He ran out of gas tion trip of training bases in the US. out a world record endurance flight. and crashed in no-man’s-land. For- He had finished the war as a recog- Spaatz got the job. During the period tunately for Spaatz, French “poilu” nized expert in training and pursuit Jan. 1Ð7, 1929, Spaatz, Eaker, Lt. rather than German grenadiers won aviation. Elwood R. Quesada, Lt. Harry A. the race to his airplane. Spaatz, at that time, believed that Halverson, and SSgt. Roy W. Hooe By that time, Mitchell had had the Air Service deserved autonomy kept Question Mark aloft over south- enough. He packed Spaatz off to the within the Army. By 1924, however, ern California for 11,000 miles and a US, telling him, “I will be glad to he had come around to adopt the then world record 150 hours, 40 min- have you command a group at any more radical belief of his mentor, utes, and 15 seconds. time under my command.” Spaatz Mitchell, that the country required Early in the mission, an accident arrived home on Oct. 13, 1918, and an Air Force that would be separate caused Spaatz to be drenched with traveled to Washington, where he from, and coequal with, the Army high-octane aviation gasoline. The first met Col. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold. and Navy. crew quickly took off his clothes The two would become fast friends, When Mitchell was tried at court- and rubbed him down with zinc ox- with great benefit to each of their martial in late October and Novem- ide to prevent serious burns and in- subsequent careers. At the war’s end ber 1925, Spaatz testified for the jury. He instructed them, “If I’m

AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 69 burned and have to bail out, you France and the Battle of Britain, he Arnold named Spaatz the first chief keep this plane in the air.” On the remained confident the Royal Air of the Air Staff. next refueling, Spaatz manned his Force would win out. He shared that After the attack on Pearl Harbor post wearing only skin cream, gog- view with William J. Donovan, Roo- brought the US into World War II, gles, a parachute, and a grin. sevelt’s special envoy. Donovan, in Arnold assigned Spaatz to command Spaatz became a lieutenant colo- turn, convinced the President to con- Eighth Air Force, which was to spear- nel in 1935, and with the promotion tinue supplying aid. Spaatz left En- head the American strategic bomb- came orders to attend the Army Com- gland, having made many friends ing campaign against Germany from mand and General Staff School, within the RAF and still convinced bases in England. Assembling units, which Spaatz thankfully observed the Air Corps was on track in back- completing their training, and tak- had just shortened its course from ing the development of strategic bom- ing them across the Atlantic to newly two years to one. He went only to get bardment. In June 1941, when Gen. built stations took time. Spaatz, now away from Washington and made George C. Marshall, Army Chief of a major general, could not launch his little attempt to conceal his dislike Staff, authorized the creation of the first heavy bomber raid until Aug. for a curriculum that lacked an ap- Army Air Forces, Chief of the AAF 17, 1942. He had to withstand pres- preciation of modern airpower. He graduated 94th of 121, with an unfa- vorable recommendation for further staff training. He went from Leavenworth to Langley Field, Va., home of the 2nd Wing. He stayed until November 1938, when thenÐMajor General Ar- nold called him to Washington to help plan the air portion of the rearm- ament program just instituted by President Roosevelt in recognition of war looming in Europe and the Far East. As head of the Air Corps plans section, Spaatz helped to imple- ment an ever-growing program. Pi- lot training alone increased a hun- dredfold.

Strategic Bombing From late May to early September 1940, Spaatz served in Great Britain In World War II, Spaatz began a bombing campaign against Germany and as an official Air Corps observer. commanded anti-air and interdiction operations in Tunisia. He then directed During the dark days of the fall of strategic and tactical air forces to support the Allied invasion of France.

sure from Washington to begin operations immediately and from Lon- don to defend British airspace and to switch to night bombing operations. By October 1942 the Eighth had dis- patched 1,000 bomber sorties. Then grand strategy intervened. On Nov. 8, 1942, the AngloÐAmer- ican Allies began their invasion of French North Africa. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the invasion commander, soon realized that he needed closer coordination between his air and ground units. Spaatz got the job and eventually a third star. First as advisor, next as coordinator, and last as Ike’s overall air commander, he smoothed tangled airÐground rela- tions, integrated the AAF and RAF operations, and conducted a devas- tating anti-air and interdiction cam- Spaatz steps from a B-17 on an inspection in England in spring 1944. In preparation for the Normandy invasion, he directed bombing of Germany’s paign against the Axis in Tunisia. synthetic oil industry as well as rail targets and V-1 sites. After the Axis surrender in Africa

70 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 in May 1943, Spaatz’s Northwest African Air Forces paved the way for Allied invasions on Sicily and Italy. The bombing of Rome on July 19, 1943, caused the fall of dictator Benito Mussolini and his replacement by an Italian government anx- ious for peace. Spaatz convinced the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the need for estab- lishing a second US strategic air force in Europe. Fifteenth Air Force, es- tablished in November 1943 and based in Italy, opened a new air front forcing Germany to spread its de- fenses and giving the Allies the capability of attacking a new range of targets, especially the Rumanian oil fields, which supplied much of the Nazis’ fuel. Spaatz in December 1943 started As commander of US Strategic Air Forces in Europe, Spaatz speaks to Eighth the most crucial phase of his war- Air Force officers. At his side are Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, Eighth Air Force time service. At Arnold’s instiga- commander, and Maj. Gen. William Kepner, 2nd Bomb Division commander. tion, Eaker moved from Eighth Air Force to the Mediterranean and in forward bases in France and re- tions in “Big Week,” Feb. 20–25, Spaatz transferred to England, where served its strength for defense of damaged much of the German air- he had operational control of the two the cities and industry of the Fa- craft industry, he sent his forces largest strategic air forces ever therland. straight at Berlin, knowing that the fielded—Eighth and Fifteenth—and Spaatz and the new commander Luftwaffe would have to fight. administrative control, including the of Eighth Air Force, Lt. Gen. Jimmy Hermann Goering, Luftwaffe com- power of promotion, over the world’s Doolittle, began to go after the Luft- mander in chief, admitted later that largest tactical air force, Ninth Air waffe almost as soon as they ar- he knew the Germans had lost the Force, which was based in England rived. In late January 1944, with war when he saw Mustangs over the with the mission of supporting the Spaatz’s permission, Doolittle radi- capital. cross-channel invasion into north- cally changed the role of the fighter The Americans won the battle de- ern France. escorts. He told them not to stay cisively. Spaatz observed, “The con- Spaatz, to meet this challenge, glued to their bombers but to hunt centrated attacks on the Luftwaffe organized a headquarters based on down German fighters from the tops production and product paid the divi- the deputy system rather that the of the clouds to the tops of the trees. dends we had always envisioned, the traditional G sections. He had two Both American airmen knew that, dividend being beyond expectation. deputies, one for operations and one to kill the Luftwaffe, they needed to During the entire first day of the for logistics. His was the first mod- destroy its trained pilots, the men invasion, enemy opposition in the ern headquarters to place the two on who provided its fighting leadership. air, fighter or bomber, was next to equal footing. He not only gave his This could only be done by drawing nil.” deputies wide responsibility, he gave them into a grinding battle of attri- them the authority to go with it. tion. Spaatz, one of the greatest be- Oil or Railroads? lievers in the information supplied However, strategic airpower also Target: France by Ultra (the AngloÐAmerican break- had to make a direct contribution to Everything pointed toward the in- ing of high-level German codes), had clearing the invasion’s path. All vasion of Europe on the French coast. learned that the Luftwaffe had be- agreed it would have to expend bombs A key question confronted Spaatz gun 1944 with a severe shortage of on German coastal fortifications, but and Eisenhower, the man entrusted fighter pilots, and he knew that the a great controversy arose over the with command of the invasion by American pilot replacement system targeting of the remainder of the stra- Roosevelt and Churchill—What was could sustain heavy losses. In the tegic effort. In a dispute that criss- the best use of strategic airpower in cold logic of war the Germans would crossed service and national lines, helping the invasion? have to replace an expert with 20 or Spaatz recommended the bombing Strategic air’s primary role was more kills with a kid with less than and destruction of the German syn- to ensure Allied air supremacy over 100 hours’ flight time, while Spaatz thetic oil industry, which should halt the beachhead and inland. Only the could replace an American of 250 the German war machine in its tracks. heavy bombers and their escort fight- hours of flight training with an His opponents advocated a large- ers had the range and capability to equally skilled flier. scale attritional attack on the French carry the fight into Germany, for by The battle raged through May and Belgian rail network between this stage in the war the Luftwaffe 1944. Spaatz drove his men and the German border and the invasion had ceased stationing strong forces machines relentlessly. When opera- site, which would hamstring Ger-

AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 71 Wrecking the rail system halted the distribution of coal and forced an embargo on the shipment of manu- facturer’s sub-assemblies. By Feb- ruary 1945, Germany was finished as an industrial power. In March 1945, Spaatz became a full general. On May 7, 1945, he attended the surrender of Germany to the western Allies. The next day, as the official American representative, he attended the German capitulation to the Sovi- ets in Berlin. (May 8 is officially noted as Victory in Europe day.) He noted in a letter, “Germany has been more completely destroyed than any nation since Carthage.”

To the Pacific Spaatz had not completed his war- After Germany’s surrender, Spaatz went to the Pacific Theater. He supervised the time service. Arnold wanted the AAF final strategic bombing of Japan, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and in on the kill for Japan and placed Nagasaki. Here, he confers after the war with Gen. George Kenney in Japan. him in overall command of Twenti- eth Air Force, in Guam, and Eighth, man logistics and slow reinforce- sites and a day after it hit the largest in the process of moving to Okinawa. ments. On March 25, Eisenhower marshaling yard in Europe—Hamm, On July 29, 1945, after a short rest chose the rail attack plan. the gateway to France. In the face of with his family, he arrived on Guam. In public, Spaatz loyally accepted determined aerial resistance, the AAF Upon receiving authorization from the verdict, but he quietly conducted hit synthetic oil on May 12 and 28. President Truman and Army Chief a behind the scenes campaign to fur- Ultra revealed it struck the enemy in of Staff Marshall, he ordered the ther the oil plan. On April 5, the first the solar plexus. Consequently, atomic bombing of Hiroshima and time since August 1943, Fifteenth Eisenhower made oil strategic air- Nagasaki. Three weeks later, Sept. began operations against Ploesti, the power’s top priority for the rest of 2, he stood on the deck of USS Mis- center of Rumanian oil production. the war. souri, witnessing the final Axis sur- Instead of hitting the town’s rail mar- During the summer of 1944, Spaatz render—he was the only American shaling yard, the bombers “missed” continued the strategic offensive general to attend the three major cer- and hit the adjacent refineries—a against Germany and at the same emonies ending the war. few days later they returned and time cooperated with the land forces. The shooting had stopped, but “missed” again. Ploesti oil output Three times he sent hundreds of heavy Spaatz immediately found himself fell more than 40 percent, making bombers to attack German front lines in the midst of the most bruising the Nazis more reliant on synthetic just prior to ground attacks. Regret- bureaucratic fight in American his- production. tably, the attacks inflicted friendly tory—the unification of the armed By the middle of April 1944 the casualties, but the July 25 Operation services under a single Department Eighth had yet to bomb any of its rail Cobra strike paved the way for the of Defense. Arnold had made it pos- targets. At the same time the Luft- decisive breakout from the beach- sible by gaining Marshall’s agree- waffe failed to contest two large raids head. As American ground forces ment to a separate air force, but over central Germany, leading Spaatz conducted their lightning drive Arnold’s bad heart forced him from to fear they had begun to conserve through France, Spaatz converted two active duty by November 1945. their forces for the invasion. In addi- groups of B-24s to aerial freighters Someone else would have to do the tion, the British chose that moment to haul gas and other crucial sup- hard work of fighting it out with the to insist that Spaatz divert much of plies for advancing armored units. Navy, creating a new service, and his force to bombing launching sites Once the Allies reached the Ger- presiding over the destruction of the on the French coast for the V-1 jet man border, the last phase began. largest aerial armada ever created. propelled bomb. Spaatz knew that Spaatz agreed to make the transpor- Spaatz got the job as the second and the Germans would not waste air- tation system second priority after last Commanding General of the craft defending French targets. He oil. These two target systems re- Army Air Forces. Fortunately for went to Eisenhower and, after a ses- ceived the bulk of the remaining the air service, Spaatz had an excel- sion both men kept confidential for bombing. Although Spaatz had to lent and tested working relationship the rest of their lives, they ham- hand over one-third of the Eighth to with the new Army Chief of Staff— mered out an agreement. Spaatz got the tactical air forces to help fight Eisenhower. During the war at off- permission for two attacks on syn- the Battle of the Bulge, the attacks duty parties, Eisenhower would sing thetic oil before the invasion—to test on oil and transportation proved de- and Spaatz would accompany him if the Germans would fly to defend cisive. Lack of oil grounded the on the guitar. They formed an effec- it. The next day Eighth bombed V-1 Luftwaffe and stopped the Panzers. tive, although not uniformly success-

72 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2000 ful, tag team against the Navy. In March 1946, in the midst of the struggle, Spaatz changed the basic structure of the AAF by creating major commands based on function. The three new operational commands were Air Defense Command, Strate- gic Air Command, and Tactical Air Command, which formed the combat backbone of USAF for more than 40 years. The formation of a tactical command reassured the Army that USAF would meet its airlift and close air support needs. It also dampened separate Army campaigning for its own air arm. With the creation of the US Air Force in September 1947, Spaatz made two further contributions to his service. First, he created the Air Staff. As befitted a man who loathed The President signs a proclamation for Air Force Day—Aug. 1, 1946—with paperwork, the organization chart Spaatz, Commanding General of the AAF, and Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, AAF deputy for his initial staff was the simplest commanding general, observing. Spaatz had just changed the basic structure of the AAF and was leading the drive for an independent air arm.

Fla., where, after a good deal of head butting, they reached an agreement defining the roles and missions of each service. This confirmed USAF’s primary roles in continental air defense, providing tactical support to the Army, and in conducting strategic air warfare. A few days later, worn out by almost nine years of unremitting la- bor, Spaatz retired to enjoy his family and grandchildren. (Spaatz’s official retirement date was June 30, 1948.) In the years 1950Ð51, Spaatz served one term as Air Force Asso- ciation Chairman of the Board. He worked as a columnist until 1961 and at age 70 retired for good. He died from complications of a stroke on July 14, 1974, and is buried at the During retirement, Spaatz served a term as Air Force Association Chairman of Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, the Board. Here, he reads an AFA Citation of Honor that was presented to retired Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Phillips (right), a military analyst for the St. Colo.—whose site he helped to se- Louis PostÐDispatch. lect. Spaatz stands in the front rank of airpower leaders. He was a man who, in the history of the institution. Per- authority to four deputy chiefs of when he spoke at all, told the unvar- haps that organization’s subsequent staff: operations, materiel, and to nished truth, often to superiors. He expansion reflected the growing com- meet the needs of a headquarters of hated paperwork and disliked pro- plexity of the modern military, per- an entire service, personnel and ad- fessional military education. He just haps not. ministration, and an air comptroller. got things done. Spaatz’s Air Staff reflected his Secondly, in March 1948, he met Eisenhower gave equal billing to wartime experience with the deputy with the other service chiefs and the Spaatz and Gen. Omar Bradley, call- system. It granted responsibility and Secretary of Defense at Key West, ing them the two officers most re- sponsible for victory in Europe. Ike perhaps best summed up the essence Richard G. Davis is a senior historian with the Air Force History Support of Tooey Spaatz: “Experienced and Office, Bolling AFB, D.C. Before joining the Air Force history program, he was able air leader; loyal and coopera- an archivist at the National Archives. He is the author of Carl A. Spaatz and tive; modest and selfless; always the Air War in Europe, 1940–1945. reliable.” ■

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