TAKING THE HIGH GROUND THE SKY ISN’T THE LIMIT, IT’S THE BEGINNING

TAKING THE HIGH GROUND

THE SKY ISN’T THE LIMIT, IT’S THE BEGINNING.

The U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron “Thunderbirds” fly past the tail of a C-5M Super Galaxy during the 2022 Thunder Over Dover Airshow, May 22, 2022, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The theme of this year’s event was “Reunite” and coincided with Armed Forces Day, the Air Force’s 75th anniversary and featured the co-headlining acts, of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Faith Schaefer.

HIGH GROUND

“All that I am… I owe to the Air Force.”

By Jim Lamb

It’s fitting that the National Security Act of 1947, which established the United States Air Force as an independent service, was signed aboard the first aircraft purposebuilt to fly an American Commander-in-Chief. The President was Harry S. Truman. The date was July 26. The plane was a Douglas VC-54C Skymaster, officially dubbed “The Flying White House,” but nicknamed “The Sacred Cow,” a reference to the high security surrounding the aircraft.

The National Security Act restructured America's military and intelligence agencies, creating the office of Secretary of Defense, establishing the National Security Council as well as separate departments for each branch of the armed forces; it also provided coordination of the military branches with the Central Intelligence Agency.

That restructuring prepared America for the dynamic and often dangerous political landscape that unfolded in the decades following World War Two.

Who better to put the Air Force’s historic 75th anniversary into context than Charles Quinton Brown, Jr., the four-star general who serves as the 22nd chief of staff of the military branch whose duty it is to soar into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun.

It should be noted that Brown is the first African American to lead a branch of the Armed Forces; he’s also the first African American appointed as chief of staff.

“Ever since the Air Force became a separate military service, empowered Airmen have pushed the boundaries of technology and innovation that have allowed the service to excel and keep pace with the rapid changes and the demands placed upon us,” Brown said, adding that, “I am confident that our Airmen will continue to innovate, accelerate, and thrive so that we can execute our mission to Fly, Fight, and Win… Air Power Anytime, Anywhere.”

Ambitious words but words that have already proven their ability to inspire.

Think back to 17 December 1903. South of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their heavier-than-air glider. A lightweight 12-horsepower engine. With a one-gallon gas tank. Sprocket chain drive. Hand-made twin propellers. All contained in a bi-plane configuration, with a wingspan of 40 feet 4 inches. Here’s what Orville Wright wrote in his diary that day: “When we got up, a wind of between 20 and 25 miles was blowing from the north.” On the aircraft’s fourth and final flight, the Wright Flyer soared 852 feet in 59 seconds. Rarely has a mere minute made such an impact on history. To emphasize the significance of the event, portions of the Wright Flyer’s original fabric and wood gtraveled to the moon on Apollo 11 in 1969.

America’s first military aircraft was also built by the Wright brothers. It was sold to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in July 1909. Flight trials took place in Virginia during September 1908. After several successful flights, Orville crashed. He survived with severe injuries, but his passenger, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, did not. He became the first fatality in a powered airplane.

The legacy of the Air Force is a story of people and planes, conflict, and challenges. It entered World War One as part of the Army. It exited World War Two having earned its status as a stand-alone, fighting force ready to write its own heritage. Inbetween there were numerous stories of courage all the more intriguing when one considers it had entered World War One with no precedent in place, no patterns, no protocol of best practices.

Airmen left the ground in contraptions and soared into the wild blue yonder with pistols, cameras, and bombs, determined to define and refine the finer points of combat and reconnaissance once they got into the air.

If one were to pick a name from that First World War to exemplify an all -American Ace, Edward Vernon “Eddie” Rickenbacker would topmost lists a Medal of Honor recipient with 26 aerial victories.

Rickenbacker was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross eight times, one of which was later upgraded to Medal of Honor. He was also awarded the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre by France.

Another person worthy of recognition was William “Billy” Mitchell, who is regarded as “The Father of the United States Air Force.”

Mitchell served during World War One. By the war’s end, he commanded all American air combat units in France. Afterwards, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power.

“The day has passed when armies on the ground or navies on the sea can be the arbiter of a nation's destiny in war,” Mitchell said in 1918. “The main power of defense and the power of initiative against an enemy has passed to the air.”

Convinced that bombers had the ability to sink battleships, Mitchell tested the idea with a series of bombing runs against stationary ships. The tests were not without controversy. Though Mitchell’s firm belief in air power was eventually vindicated, he fell out of favor among some of his peers and many political power-players.

Mitchell’s vindication was underlined and punctuated when a squadron of North American B-25 twin-engine bombers, named after him, completed an historic raid over Tokyo in 1942 in response to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. That raid was led by James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle, an American military general and

The Doolittle Raid. U.S. Air Force 75th Anniversary Poster that marks the 80th Anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. \U.S. Air Force graphic by Travis Burcham.

aviation pioneer. Doolittle received the Medal of Honor for his daring, risky, and historic mission.

Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold was an aviation pioneer whose career reached a length and breadth few have achieved. Trained by the Wright brothers themselves, Arnold was one of the first three rated pilots in Air Force history and he reached those heights overcoming a fear of flying. He then went on to supervise the expansion of the Air Service during World War One and became a protégé of Gen. Billy Mitchell. During the course of his career, Arnold held the ranks of General of the Army and, later, General of the Air Force, Chief of the Air Corps, commanding general of the United States Army Air Forces, the only United States Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only officer to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services.

Another seasoned and battle-hardened officer was Curtis LeMay, who joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1929. By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he’d risen to the rank of major. Though he g

began World War Two as an officer in the European theater, he was ultimately placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, including incendiary attacks on 67 Japanese cities and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the war, he was assigned to command USAF Europe and coordinated the Berlin airlift, a creative and demanding solution to one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. The airlift lasted more than a year and resulted in the delivery of more than 2.3 million tons of food and fuel.

LeMay served as commander of the Strategic Air Command from 1948 to 1957, where he presided over the transition to an all-jet force, and as Chief of Staff of the Air Force from June 1961 to January 1965. But it wasn’t just commanding officers and squadron commanders who left their mark on the Air Force. Consider the case of Charles “Chuck” Yeager who started out as an aircraft mechanic. In September 1942, he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to flight officer. He went on to become a flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who became the first person to exceed the speed of sound, a story told with panache and vigor in the movie “The Right Stuff,” based by a book by Tom Wolfe. Yeager is ranked fifth on Smithsonian Magazine’s “10 All-Time Great Pilots.” He broke the sound barrier on Oct. 14, 1947, when he flew the Bell X-1 at Mach 1. The man who had started out as a mechanic and reached the position of Brigadier General appreciated the opportunity he was given.

“All that I am… I owe to the Air Force,” Yeager said. In 1962, Yeager became the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, which trained and produced astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as well as the Air Force.

There are many names, places, planes, and events to flesh out the full story of this remarkable branch of service.

“Our commemoration of this important anniversary provides a chance to reflect on the amazing accomplishments of our service and those who have served among its ranks since 1947, while also celebrating the boundless future that lies ahead,” explained Air Force Chief of Staff Brown.

The achievements are many and varied. For example:

Robin Olds was a "triple ace" with 17 victories in World War II and Vietnam. He devised a way to leverage the boldness of g

A CV-22 Osprey assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron and a KC-46 Pegasus assigned to the 349th Air Refueling Squadron conduct the first in-air refueling training operation undertook between the two aircraft, over Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., June 1, 2022. An advantage to the CV-22 being able to refuel the KC-46 is the capability for faster refueling during real-world missions. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Max J. Daigle.

Vietnamese pilots with “Operation Bolo,” which looked like a standard USAF F-105 bombing run into North Vietnam. MiG21s took a straight-shot for what appeared to be F-105 Thunderchief bombers only to find a fleet of F-4 Phantoms ready for air-to-air combat. Without suffering a single loss, the Air Force downed seven MiGs that day. In the following weeks, North Vietnam lost half of its combat planes to U.S. airmen.

Here are more examples of “those who love the vastness of the sky”:

Jacqueline Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, proposing the idea of a women’s flying division. By July 1943, Cochran was director of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) and received a U.S. distinguished service medal.

Ann Baumgartner broke barriers to become the first American woman to pilot a jet, having served in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Growing up, Baumgartner’s passion for aviation was inspired by stories she heard about aviator Amelia Earhart.

Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell was the first African American women fighter pilot in America’s history. During Northern Watch combat missions, she flew F-16 Fighting Falcons. She’s considered one of the best female fighter pilots in the United States.

Capt. Kim Campbell, born in Hawaii, got a Bachelor of Science from the Air Force Academy. She flew an A-10 "Warthog” during the Iraq war and was hit by anti-aircraft artillery, but managed to bring her jet safely back to the base. She was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Jammie Jamieson was the first operational female pilot to fly the fifth-generation stealth F-22 Raptor. Born in Tacoma, she joined the Air Force Academy in 1996. She finished her F-15 training at Tyndall Air Force Base, completing the Transition Qualification Course of F-22A in 2008.

Lt. Col. Christine Mau led the first combat mission planned, briefed, launched, and flown by women. That took place in 2011 flying the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. In addition, Mau was the first female pilot to fly an F-35A, the Air Force’s fifthgeneration fighter.

The Air Force routinely recognizes its past achievements even as it points to its future horizons. Consider the roll-out of the first T-7A Red Hawk training aircraft which took place this year at Lambert International Airport in Saint Louis. The aircraft featured the iconic “Red Tail” symbol of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

The Air Force noted that, “The Red Hawk name is derived from the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, one of the aircraft flown by the 99th Fighter Squadron, the U.S. Army Air Force’s first African American fighter squadron.” Attending the official T-7A Red Hawk ceremony were retired Lt. Col. George Hardy, a Tuskegee Airman, along with Yvonne and Ron McGee, children of the late Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, who completed 409 air combat missions across three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

“With this roll-out, we honor our storied history and the heroes who wrote the chapters,” said Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, U.S. Air Force Academy superintendent, “and we usher in an exciting new era of aviation and a new generation of heroes who will write the next chapters.”

Those chapters will no doubt carry on the Air Force tradition that reaching for the wild blue yonder isn’t the end of the story but merely the writing of a new page.

As noted in the Department of the Air Force Posture Statement Fiscal Year 2022, “Democracy is not a birthright, and neither is air dominance. And although airpower is our great comparative advantage, tomorrow’s competitive environment requires that we accelerate change or lose.”

Jim Lamb is a retired journalist living in Florida. He specializes in writing about issues of interest to veterans and active military personnel.

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