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Air Force Officers Personnel Policy Development 1944-1974 Vance 0. Mitchell DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A Approved for Public Release Distribution Unlimited 20050429 012 Air Force History and Museums Program United States Air Force Washington, D.C. 1996 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mitchell, Vance 0., 1936- Air force officers: personnel policy development, 1944-1974 / Vance 0. Mitchell. 512 p. 24cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States. Air Force-Officers. 2. United States. Air Force-Personnel management-History. 3. United States-History, Military-20th century. 1. Title. UG793.M58 1996 358.4'1 33'0973-dc2O 96-19357 CIP For sale hy the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents. 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ABSTRACT A historical study of the personnel policies of the United States Air Force as it attempted to develop and maintain a viable officer corps during some of the most turbulent times of American military history. This thirty-year period constituted a full military career for most officers, making this a history of the first generation of officers of the independent Air Force. It is the most important generation in Air Force history in terms of the ground-breaking decisions made and the lasting imprint these decisions left for future generations. 510 pp., tables, diagrams, photos, notes, appendices, glossary, bibliography, index GPO Stock No.008-070-00712-6 ISBN: 0-16-048862-1 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON a. REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE ABSTRACT OF Richard 1. Wolf PAGES -U UU19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER [Include area code) UU.U510 202-404-2186 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 To Barbara Air Force Officers Personnel Policy Development 1944-1974 Foreword The many histories dealing with the United States Air Force have most often dealt with aerial campaigns, strategy, tactics, and air battles won or lost. More precisely, the central position has been occupied by the airplane, the dominant symbol of all air forces and the probably most visually arresting weapon of war of this century. When it came to people, the other half of the Air Force equation, famous generals and the exploits of popular heros have been written about, but examinations of the forces that shaped the rank-and-file have been largely overlooked. Even military sociology, a relatively new discipline dedicated to understanding military services worldwide, has dealt overwhel- mingly with the Army experience. In this, his first book, Vance 0. Mitchell examines this relatively unknown part of the Air Force experience by looking, over a period of thirty years, at the personnel policies that shaped the officer corps in the grades of colonel and below. In taking 1944 as his departure point, he catches land-based American air power on the verge of achieving the status of an independent service. It also turned out to be the beginning of the most protracted period of personnel turbulence in American military history. The personnel planners of the late 1940s had to address the implications of Morris Janowitz's famous dictum that modern officer corps must include "heroic leaders, military managers, and military technologists." For the Air Force, that meant the end of an officer corps of virtually all pilots and the integration of all skills needed to lead and manage a modern, complex air force. Further, external pressure and internal considerations meant that future officers would also include women and racial minorities, and not be exclusively the domain of white males. Other issues included promotion by merit instead of seniority, centralized personnel management, adjusting the rank structure, and use of Reserve components. Whatever might have been the ramifications of these early policy decisions was mooted in the early 1950s by the intensification of the Cold War and the rise of the large standing military. The author traces the major personnel issues-procurement, flight pay, promotions, training, and retirement-as the Air Force tried to cobble together a personnel system in a new and contradictory era. Adequately addressing these issues was made even more difficult because neither previous peacetime policies or traditional wartime expedients offered vii Foreword adequate answers, since, for most of the period, the nation was neither at war nor truly at peace. As he amply demonstrates, the policies of the period reflect a mixture of compromise, ingenuity, innovation, and, in the case of temporary promotions, near desperation. If one had to choose the issue that most severely taxed the personnel system, it would be the presence of large numbers of Reserve officers on active duty during peacetime, a condition not adequately provided for in either public law or internal Air Force policies. In the last section of the book, Mitchell examines important issues that, while always present, were either not the results of straightforward policy decisions or were largely ignored for most of the period. These issues were career patterns and what he calls three types of integration: race, gender, and skills. In analyzing the types of integration, he illustrates the limitations inherent when revolutionary change takes place within a conservative organization. This book has value to a diverse audience. Personnel planners from any of the American military services can gain insights into the problems of fashioning large numbers of individuals into a cohesive and responsive body, and military sociologists will find the work useful in expanding their frame of reference beyond the Army experience. Finally, Dr. Mitchell has returned to the Air Force an important portion of its heritage, the history of its first generation of officers. RICHARD P. HALLION Air Force Historian Viii Acknowledgments Although this book is something of a labor of love, since it traces the policies that shaped a corps of individuals within which I served for almost thirty years, I could not have completed it without the guidance and counsel of a large number of individuals. In listing those who extended a helping hand, it is my desire that they share only in the positive things that might accrue from this manuscript; any shortcomings are my responsibility entirely. To begin with, Professors Van Perkins, Sarah Stage, and Irwin Wall of the University of California, Riverside, read and commented on those portions of the manuscript that served as my dissertation. Although not military historians, these scholars offered criticisms that significantly improved the book that finally emerged. Within the office of Air Force History, where this book was written, the support and encouragement never faltered. To list the instances where individuals offered help when I needed it would produce a volume just in itself. On the management side, Col. John F. Shiner, Col. David Tretler, William Heim- dahl, and Sheldon Goldberg handled the paperwork that made the archival materials available and kept me on active duty until my work was complete. Colleagues who read and commented on draft chapters include Colonel Shiner, Dr. Daniel Mortensen, Dr. B. F. Cooling, Jacob Neufeld, Dr. Rebecca Cameron, Maj. John Kreis, Maj. William Borgias, Capt. Kenneth Schaffel, Bernard Nalty, Dr. George Watson, and Dr. Eduard Mark. I am especially indebted to Dr. Richard H. Kohn, former Chief of the Office of Air Force History, for reasons too numerous to list, but most of all because he gave me a great gift, the opportunity to work with, for, and among scholarly, intelligent people. The illustration on the cover and dustjacket is an original painting by Nilo Santiago, a visual information specialist in the Media Services Flight, 11t h Communication Squadron. And I must not forget those whose con- tributions were in a more personal context: Catherine and Robert, who perhaps know too little about their father's professional life, and the one to whom this book is dedicated. ix The Author Vance 0. Mitchell is a retired Air Force officer whose varied experience includes airborne reconnaissance, strategic airlift, special operations, and seven years as an Air Force historian. He also served as an executive officer, resource manager, and major air command operations staff officer. He holds a doctoral degree in American History from the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Mitchell resides in Fairfax, Virginia, with his wife Barbara. This is his first book. x Contents Forew ord .................................................. vii Acknow ledgm ents ............................................ ix Introduction ................................................. 1 Part One: Planning in the Traditional Way, 1944-1953 1. The Initial Planning for a Postwar Officer Corps, 1944-1945 ....... 7 General Arnold Confronts the Problem ....................... 9 Planning Fails to Keep Pace ............................... 13 2. Laying the Foundations for an Officer Corps, 1946-1947 ......... 17 The New Officer Personnel System ......................... 20 Defining the Rated Force ................................. 25 Augmenting the Regular Force ............................ 28 Problems W ith the 70:30 Ratio ............................ 33 3. Erecting and Manning the Structure, 1947-1950 ................ 39 The Officer Personnel Act of 1947 .......................... 40 Realigning the Permanent Rank Structure .................... 43 Problems with Academic Education .......................... 48 Officer Procurement ..................................... 53 4. Resistance and Turbulence, 1948-1950 ....................... 63 Officer Career Management: Resistance and Progress .......... 63 The Experiment in SAC .................................. 67 R & D and Control ...................................... 71 Officer Procurement and the Reserve Forces .................. 74 The Austere Budget of Fiscal Year 1950 ..................... 76 5. Personnel Policies During the Korean War, 1950-1953 .......... 81 Squeezing the Officer Corps for Manpower ................... 83 Partial M obilization ..................................... 85 Problems of Reservists at W ar ............................. 88 The Changed Status of Reserve Officers ..................... 99 The Buildup of the Officer Procurement Programs ............ 102 Part Two: The Era of the Large Peacetime Military, 1954-1973 6. Policy Development in a New Era, 1954-1960 ................ 113 The New Look, Another RIF, and the AFROTC Conversion .... 114 The Decentralized Beginning of Career Management .......... 122 The Buildup of the Regular Officer Force ................... 124 The Founding of the Air Force Academy .................... 130 The Emphasis on Quality ................................ 135 Promotions: the Protracted Crisis Begins .................... 138 xi