The Rise of Air Mobility and Its Generals

In the early years of the Cold War, the United States relied on strategic nuclear attack as the primary means of deterring the Soviet Union. The focus on manned bombers and atomic weapons led to the rise of Strategic Air Command and its leaders, the bomber generals, within the Air Force. The power and influence of the bomber generals peaked in the early 1960s. In the following two decades, Tactical Air Command and the power of fighter generals rose within the Air Force. Mike Worden described this transformation of leadership in his insightful book, Rise of the Fighter Generals-The Problem of Air Force Leadership 1945-1982. Worden argued that fighter pilots rose to preeminence over bomber pilots because the bomber generals failed to adjust to changing realities related to America's failure in Vietnam and a growing conventional Soviet threat. The transition was complete by 1982 when a fighter pilot, General Charles A. Gabriel, became Air Force Chief of Staff. Today, twenty-five years after first assuming top command, fighter pilots continue to lead the Air Force. During the rise of the fighter generals, mobility operations played a significant yet secondary role in airpower strategy. Since the end of the Cold War, however, airlift, airrefueling, and aeromedical evacuation missions flown in support of combat and humanitarian operations have become an indispensable and direct aspect of US grand strategy.