Air Force Culture and Conventional Strategic Airpower

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The Air Force was founded upon the precepts of strategic bombing. Hugh Trenchard, Giulio Douhet, and Billy Mitchell pioneered early airpower doctrine while the Air Corps Tactical School refined and developed it to eventually form the blueprint for American bombing in World War Two. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear strategic airpower stole the limelight from its conventional counterpart. The Air Force blossomed under the national strategy of Massive Retaliation because its long range heavy bombers were the preeminent delivery platform for nuclear weapons. Thus SAC’s bomber pilots dominated the service to the point strategic airpower became synonymous with nuclear weapons while TAC operated in the shadows of Air Force respectability striving to maintain its legitimacy despite the ambiguous effects of strategic airpower in Korea. Technology and the impact of the Vietnam War started a shift in Air Force culture from bombers to fighters that has seen the pendulum swing to the other extreme where fighter pilots run the service at the expense of conventional strategic airpower. After Vietnam, the Air Force seemed preoccupied with the European theater and AirLand Battle doctrine that did not require conventional strategic airpower.