Kyle White

AST 202 Final

March 19, 2010

LeMay : General Curtis E LeMay influence began as the commander of the 305 th Squadron in the 8th Air

Force which flew B-17s from England. During this time he is credited with developing the “Combat Box”

formation. This formation is where there are three, three flights formations at three different altitude

levels. This allowed for the all aircraft to give support to their wingmen and enemy fighters were facing

more machine guns making it more difficult to destroy the bombers. He was later transferred to the 20 th

Air Force in the China Burma Theater and later given command of the entire Japanese area in the air. He

quickly determined that European tactics would not work in Japan. He therefore switched from daylight

high altitude bombing to low altitude nighttime bombing. He also changed the ordinance of the

bombers from high explosive to incendiary bombs. These attacks were more devastating than both of

the nuclear bomb attacks killing more people and leaving even more homeless.

During the Cold War he oversaw the Berlin Airlift and then took over command of the Strategic

Air Command (SAC). When LeMay took control of SAC it was in a poor state of readiness. He ordered a

mock attack on Dayton, OH and not a single bomb hit its mark. He then began to reorganize SAC. When

he began this process there were only a few squadrons of B-29s, but by the end of his career SAC

commanded 2000 bombers and 800 tankers. LeMay became the Air Force’s Chief of Staff, but he

enjoyed SAC Command better. He is most famous for making SAC in to the most powerful military

command in history with its ability to launch devastating nuclear attacks.

2)Vietnam Opperations:
Rolling Thunder: Was the bombing campaign in North Vietnam from 1965-68. Its objectives were to

bolster moral in the South, to stop the North from supporting insurgency in the South, to destroy

infrastructure in the North, and to interdict troops from entering into South Vietnam. In 1968 the

Operation was deemed a complete failure since it achieved none of its objectives. The capitol of North

Vietnam was the most heavily defended city the USAF had faced since the bombing of Nazi Germany.

One of the main problems with the Operation was that the Government in Washington made the target

list and they feared Chinese or Soviet escalation.

Linebacker I: Was another bombing campaign in 1972 that was designed to bring the North Vietnamese

to the peace table. Its goal was isolate North Vietnam, destroy their supplies, and destroy or damage

their air defenses. Unlike Rolling Thunder, Linebacker had more success in meeting its objectives. In one

month of operation only 30 percent of the intended supplies for the North Vietnamese Army actually

reached their troops.

3) All-In: The primary reason why the US Government did not go all in Vietnam was the risk of escalation

to Nuclear War with the Soviets because of Vietnam. The idea was that if the US put too much in to the

Proxy war in Vietnam that it would force the Chinese to fight directly against that US like they did in

Korea. There was also the threat of the USSR getting directly involved with the US through the use of

Nuclear weapons, either by using their BEAR bombers or ICBMs. It was this fear of nuclear war that

made the civilian leadership hesitance to anger the USSR and China.

4)Speaking: Communication for an Air Force Officer is imperative because it allows the person to give

orders and information so that other can understand it and carry out the mission. Also, effective

communication skills through briefings and speaking give the officer confidence in themselves to lead in

front of other people. This confidence can translate to the battlefield. The other importance of

communication on the battlefield is telling your subordinates exactly what you want to happen. If they
cannot understand what you want to happen, then they cannot carry out your commands or they will

interpret your orders differently than your original intent and may cause the mission to fail.

5)Communication: The most important communication skill to have as an officer is to articulate your

orders in a way so that there can be no misinterpretation. This allows for clarity of orders so that you

can be confident as the leader that your orders will be carried out the way you want them to be

accomplished. This is not to say that the leader should micro manage everything. It is important for the

subordinates to see the merit of your orders but it is not mandatory, especially in a combat environment

were speed is of the essence.

6) Briefings: The most common errors I noted in the briefings were the use of “ums” and “ahs”. This is a

common practice in public speaking were your not sure of what you are going to say next. I also noticed

reading off of the slides. Other than these two small things I think most of the cadets did a good job on

their briefings.

7) SAM: A SAM is a surface to air missile. In Vietnam the North Vietnamese deployed the Soviet built SA-

2. It had a ceiling of 70,000 feet and flew at a speed of Mach 3. A SAM site was the area in which a SAM

operator deployed a radar station and a ring of SA-2s so that one operator could control multiple

missiles. The problem with the SAM sites was that American pilots would see the sites being built, but

they were unable to attack them because there was the fear of killing Soviet advisors. Then in a month

or so when the site was active, the pilots would be ordered to destroy it.

8)Wild Weasels: The mission of the Wild Weasels was to destroy SAM sites once they became active to

protect other aircraft so that they could carry out their mission without worrying about the SAMs. They

fought the SAMs by being bait for the radar sites. The radar operators would turn on their radar to track

the Weasels. Once they had locked on to the Weasels, the Weasels would fire radar following missiles to

go down the beam of radar signal directly to the site, killing to operators and neutralizing the site. This
very dangerous mission had a high casualty rate. One of the common practices for dealing with a

tracking missile was to play chicken with the missile. The pilot would then ungulate the aircraft up and

down and finally the missile would lose its lock on the plane because it could not turn as fast. The Wild

Weasels were the first in and the last out in the combat mission.

9) Aircraft: The two most important aircraft of the Vietnam War were the McDonald Douglas F-4

Phantom and the Republic F-105 Thunderchief “Thud”. The F-4 was important because it was the front

line air superiority fighter for both the Air Force and Navy during the war. Its large engines gave it Mach

2 capabilities and it also had a large amount of armament capacity. It became the MiG killer much like

the F-86 in the Korean War. It was not without its flaws, it was big so it couldn’t turn with a MiG, it didn’t

have a gun built in, and the training pilots received early in the war was not as good as it should have

been and the kill ratios reflect this. The Thud performed the role of the Wild Weasels and also was used

as a bomber. It was more maneuverable than the F-4, but in its bomber form it was an easy target for

enemy MiGs. While in its Wild Weasel form it was quick and able to out maneuver the SA-2 SAMs.

Without these two aircraft the larger bombers like the B-52 would have a much more difficult time on

their bombing raids and would have suffered more casualties.

10) Lessons: The lessons that can be learned from Vietnam are that the civilian government cannot

micromanage the military and expect success. In Vietnam this was the major problem. Also the South

Vietnamese government was not as strong as it should have been to help the US effectively wage a war.

Also Vietnam was a war without an exit strategy or defined goals so that once the object was met the US

could leave. This is important in Iraq because the goal is to have a stable country however it has not

been well defined on how this is to be defined. Also by simply setting a date for leaving your objectives

might not be met by that date and thus you cannot leave without risking the destruction of every that
you had built. So it is important to allow the military to do their jobs and to make sure that it is possible

to exit the combat once you have met your objectives.