The risk takes: aviation pioneers helped mold a fledging air force

Airman, Feb, 2003 by Louis A. Arana-Barradas

The Air Corns, and later Army Air Forces, got a chance to prove its mettle in World War II. That's where Arnold, Spaatz and Eaker defined the Air Force's role. And it's where they garnered support for a separate Air Force after the war.

After the war, Arnold continued to lead the post-war Army Air Forces before retiring in 1946. Spaatz, who commanded the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe during the war, took his place. With Eaker--whose forte was building a strong force structure and organizational plans for the post-war Air Force--he continued the quest for a separate Air Force.

A separate force

That finally happened when the National Security Act of 1947 created a separate Air Force on Sept. 17, 1947. Spaatz became the Air Force's first chief of staff eight days later. Two years later, President Harry Truman appointed Arnold the first and only five-star General of the Air Force.

Many of the early pioneers lived to see a separate Air Force. Then the airmen the early pioneers trained carried on the work of building a strategic Air Force.

They contended with a different challenge: taking the Air Force into the jet-and then space-age. Generals like Hoyt Vandenberg and Curtis LeMay defined the Air Force role.

The new Air Force had its share of risk takers, like Chuck Yeager. A World War II ace, he became a test pilot and was the first man to break the sound barrier. He was part of the new breed of airmen, the kind the Air Force needed to build a separate image.

Though he took them, Yeager said he never concentrated on risks.

"You concentrate on results," he said. Because he said, "in the business we're in, you only get one mistake. And, unfortunately, you don't get to learn from it."

Yeager had "the right stuff" needed to continue forging the new Air Force. He broke the sound barrier for the last time Oct. 28, 2002, in an F-15 Eagle. It brought to an end a 60-year military flying career.

"Now is a good time [to quit]," the retired brigadier general said. "I've had a heck of good time, and very few people get exposed to the things I've been exposed to."

In its first 100 years, aviation has made a quantum leap in sophistication and technology. The men who forged aviation went from riding horses to flying airplanes.

Aircraft were first built of wood, then metal and now stealthy composites. Piston engines gave way to jet power.

And for the past 55 years, the Air Force has been at the forefront of space development. The Air Force grew because of the will and ingenuity of visionary airmen who "thought outside the box" way before it became a catch phrase.

Homer said aviation pioneers tackled hard jobs because it was what they had to do.

"I think about Jimmy Doolittle, who could have been a glamour poster child, but who more often took hard jobs and got them done," Homer said.

Today's pioneers continue to shape military aviation. And they still face challenges. The Afghanistan campaign and the war on terrorism attest to that.

Air Force attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda targets are a study in precision strategic bombing. The aircraft used are leading edge--bombers, tankers, fighter and cargo alike. And smart bombs fly to their targets on courses plotted by space-based guidance systems.