U.S. Army Air Forces Logistics in the Southwest Pacific during World War II

This paper analyzes how General George C. Kenney and his airmen in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) managed to overcome severe logistics challenges during World War II, and how in spite of these challenges they continued to successfully fight and defeat the Japanese. There is much discussion about how Kenney fostered a spirit of unconventional problem-solving and innovation in finding solutions to the operational and tactical problems that his airmen faced in the Southwest Pacific during World War II. However, few speak of Kenney's simultaneous battle to solve logistics and supply problems in the SWPA, while working in a location over 7,000 miles from the logistics infrastructure based in the continental United States. While operations and tactics usually are the primary focus of history, both historians and military commanders appreciate the importance of logistics in any campaign and this paper intends to build on that appreciation.