Word: vandenbergers
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Missionary Work. But Vandenberg's biggest problem was to expound the meaning of the new power in air power to the Pentagon and the White House, to convince the nation that the U.S. Air Force had become the first line of defense. First there was some missionary work to do in his own backyard. If the other services were denying the Air Force its rightful responsibility, maybe it was because it too often seemed irresponsible. The prewar airman was bold and brave, and, for his time, precise, but he had managed to sell the public on the idea that...
...Force gasped when the new orders began to click out of the Pentagon: salute and discipline will be smartly observed; no flight clothing will be worn away from air bases; dangerously low flying and stunting are strictly prohibited. Vandenberg also took a hand in designing the new Air Force blue uniforms-and issued stern orders on the width of trousers, length of tunics and kinds of shoes to be worn. When an Air Force bulletin advised the use of suspenders instead of belts, airmen at Wright Field dubbed him "old braces for britches." In November 1950, when Vandenberg saw that...
...Squeeze. Outside the Pentagon, as the new chief of staff went to work, the U.S. itself was still retreating, in Vandenberg's phrase, "from one fading hope to another" in its military policy. The President's Advisory Committee...
...would put naval aviation into the strategic bombing business. In 1949 the "revolt of the admirals" broke out, a no-holds-barred attack on the Air Force and its 6-36 which developed-on all sides-into the blackest chapter of modern U.S. military history. In the brawling, Hoyt Vandenberg kept his voice low. In his testimony to a congressional committee, he doggedly stated the simple facts: "The only military threat to the security of the U.S. ... comes from the Soviet Union," and the only force that could counterattack the threat at its source was the Air Force...
Balance of Forces. But Vandenberg always stopped short of saying publicly that the Air Force had to have first priority in funds and materiel if it was really to be the first line of defense. This was a deliberate personal decision on his part: he felt that nothing in air power history, from Billy Mitchell's public martyrdom to Tooey Spaatz's pleas to Congress, had achieved its purpose. Van vowed to keep his arguments "in channels" and in the secret councils of the Joint Chiefs. This did not prevent him from making broad public hints...