The White Falcon - 04.03.1961, Blaðsíða 2

2
WHITE FALCON
Saturday, March 4, 1961
Project Top Star Launched
The Air Force is not satisfied with its officer retention program
and is now taking steps to halt the exodus.
Lt. Gen. Truman H. Landon, Deputy chief of Staff, Personnel,
in a Jan. 12 all-commands letter said: “In recognition of the urgency
of this matter I have established a task group to be identified
with project TOP STAR. My guidance to this group is to Test
Our Existing Policies on Selection, Training, Assignment, and
Retention of Officers.”
The group will be permitted to range far and wide in its
search for a formula to increase retention rates, especially among
young officers.
General Landon said: “The efforts of the task group are not
to be confined to personnel policies controllable within our present
latitudes of operation. I recognize certain legistative proposals may
be necessary to alleviate this problem.”
Finding a solution to the officer retention problem is not the
exclusive Franchise of the task group. General Landon, taking note
of the experience and ideas to be found in the field, asked com-
manders to submit specific management improvements within “the
functions of personnel leading to improved officer retention.”
These proposals are to be submitted to Headquarters in suf-
ficient time for consideration at the initial meeting of the task
group on Feb. 20.
Top star in the TOP STAR task group is Maj. Gen. James
V. Edmundson, Director, Personnel Procurement and Training.
One of the primary targets of TOP STAR is the “young
officer” group, a category described by a Pentagon spokesman as
“those with five years or less service.”
The imbalance of young officers electing Air Force careers
is pointed up by the following table:
FY 1961 FY 1962
4,400 young officers eligible for separation 4,500
2,500 estimated loss 2,800
1,900 estimated will stay for career 1,700
2,250 51% desired for optimum strength 2,290
1,900 estimated will stay 1,700
350 shortage for optimum force composition 590
In addition to the study group gathered under TOP STAR,
commanders in the field will have new assistance in counselling
young officers when a rewrite of AFR 36-20 appears early in
February. An indication of the content and philosophy of the
retention program is contained in the regulation title: “Officer
Career Motivation Program” nee “Officer Retention Program.”
The regulation will require establishment of a formal motiva-
tion program in each command.
★ ★ ★
Most Are Successful
The propulsion unit is at least as important to a missile or
satellite booster as an engine is to an automobile.
For a few years the Soviets are likely to lead us in size of
loads that can be boosted beyond the atmosphere. Reason for this
is our concentration in the 1950s on developing strategic missiles
to deliver advanced, relatively small nuclear warheads. The Soviets
geared their development of ICBMs to the much larger but relatively
less efficient nuclear warheads of an earlier period.
Currently, the responsibility foy developing super boosters,
such as Saturn, is in the hands of the National Aeronautics and
Space Agency. The Department of Defense and NASA are working
together in a cooperative effort on launch vehicles.
During the past 11 years the Air Force became the Nation’s
primary high-thrust propulsion developer. Rocket engines developed
from initial Air Force contracts with North American Aviation
are used in the Thor, Atlas, Jupiter and Redstone ballistic missies.
A version of the North American Aviation Rocketdyne engine is
being clustered to boost NASA’s Saturn vehicle.
As of September 1959, the official responsibility for launch and
development of military space boosters for the Armed Forces was
assigned by DOD to the Air Force. Also, for all practical purposes,
the launch capability for the civil space program, directed by NASA,
rests with the Air Force.
More than 35 experimental orbiting vehicles have been boosted
into space. More than half of them—all but two of which are U.S.—
are still there.
More than 90 per cent of the combined payloads of these
vehicles and more than 95 per cent of their total weight, have been
launched by Air Force booster systems and guided into orbit by
Air Force instruments.
The Air Force is working with the Atomic Energy Commission
to develop a nuclear powered ramjet engine for aerospace vehicles
in a program called Pluto. AEC and NASA also are working to-
gether in their joint Nuclear Propulsion Office, which is responsible
for nuclear rocket propulsion.
Because nuclear power offers the most energy per unit mass
of fuel of any fuel source known, it may well be the key to the
best propulsion power for space operations.
THE WHITE FALCON
Col. Benjamin G. Willis, USAF
Commander, Air Forces Iceland
The WHITE FALCON ia an official Class II Armed Forces newspaper published weekly at
Keflavik Airport, Iceland by Air Forces Iceland of the Military Air Transport Service for
all contingents stationed at Keflavik Airport. The WHITE FALCON receives AFPS and
AFNS materials. 'Views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the
Department of Defense.
Information Officer.............Capt. Warren J. Papin, USAF
Editor ........................... TSgt Wylie Mason, USAF
Isafoldarp-.-entsmiOJa h.f.
Aerospace Power for
The
Commander
Calls
The film, “Stay Safe—Stay
Strong,” was produced to inform
and impress upon all Air Force
personnel the facts about the
safety of nuclear weapons being-
carried in USAF aircraft.
It will be available through In-
formation Services in May.
Commanders should explain the
purpose for showing this film and
emphasize this key point before
and after showings.
“Nuclear weapons carried by
USAF aircraft and in the nose
cone of ballistic missiles are de-
signed anu engineered to be safe
from accidental explosion. There
has never been an accidental ex-
plosion of a nuclear weapon even
though aircraft carrying these
weapons have crashed and burn-
ed.”
The film covers the background
on the development of nuclear
weapons and explains the basic
principles involved in nuclear ex-
plosions and devices used for de-
tonating or triggering nuclear
weapons.
The film shows the testing pro-
gram employed to check on safe-
ty factors designed and engineer-
ed into nuclear weapons. Actual
weapons are subjected to conven-
tional explosions, crash landings
and intense fires. There were no
nuclear explosions.
The final scene shows the crash
landing of a nuclear weapons car-
rying aircraft and discusses the
safety precautions that should be
observed in any crash or emerg-
ency situation.
Forces Decrease
Stresses Unified Defense
Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert stressed unified
defense action in his first major address since becoming AF
Secretary.
Speaking before the Air Force Association 15th anniversary
meeting, in Washington, D. C., Mr. Zuckert said, “The President’s
guidelines compel us to a course of unified action in defense.”
“This is a course which demands efficient utilization of man-
power and resources, undiluted by jurisdictional struggles. It calls
for effective organization and management of all our means of
defense, and it calls for balanced application of all means of a con-
structive offense for peace—diplomatic, political and economic—
to strengthen the entire non-communist world,” he said.
Mr. Zuckert prefaced his remarks by saying he was not speak-
ing on USAF plans and policies, but was, instead, saying a few
words about principles and some general observations. “I want
to pay a tribute, in which I know you join, to their integrity, their
competence, and their unswerving devotion to duty; starting with
General White, and my fine colleagues, Secretaries Charyk and
Garlock,” he said.
Mr. Zuckert continued, “Next let us be reminded of the Con-
stitutional principle of command authority vested in the President
of the United States, and of the fact that the Air Force is one
of three co-equal military arms in a single Department of Defense
established by Congress, under a Secretary of Defense to whom the
Secretary of the Air Force is immediately and directly responsible.”
The Air Force Secretary developed the thesis of unified defense
action by saying sister services to USAF face similar problems
that must be dealt with in similar fashion.
“Their efforts and ours, not separate but together and comple-
metnary, will yield the ‘arms sufficient beyond doubt’ to support
national policies. It is such a unity of purpose,” he continued,
“which must underlie all discussions of unification of the armed
services. But unity of purpose must produce unity of results. The
fact that uniforms may vary with the ambient of war—as do
techniques, tradition, professional qualifications and material—may
not be important. What is important is that there be no deviation
from the line of unified action, without waste or lost motion
attributable to jurisdictional barriers.”
As for his own duties, Mr. Zuckert said, “it is my duty to
be the advocate of the Air Force, spokesman for aerospace power,
and proponent of Air Force defense philosophy.”
He told the Air Force Association audience that since serving
last with USAF a technological revolution had occurred. In 1952
he was USAF Assistant Secretary, and the Air Force was flying
B-36s and having B-47s come into the inventory. Now, he noted,
the B-52 has replaced the 36’s and 47’s and we have fighter air-
craft of speed and firepower never dreamed of eight years ago.
“I have to go back to school to learn the new vocabulary, the
new developments, the new problems, the many changes in the Air
Force vastly different from the one I left,” Mr. Zuckert said.
★ ★ ★
Net losses of 2,706 military and
68 civilian personnel reduced act-
ive USAF manpower to 1,162,612
on Dec. 31, 1960, according to
the USAF Comptroller. On that
date military strength totaled
810,800, just 200 below the re-
vised program strength of 811,000.
Civilian employment decreased
slightly (68) during December
1960 when losses to Contract Hire
exceeded gains to Direct Hire em-
ployment.
Net losses of 8,369 AF reserv-
ists and 35 Air National Guards-
men lowered the total to 574,513.
The AFRes. decrease was caused
primarily by discharges for ex-
piration of term of service or
military service obligations. In
the ANG officer strength increas-
ed by 32 while airmen decreased
by 67.________^__________
AEROSPACE EVENT
They Always Look Up
It’s odd how many men resent a winner. They’re the men who,
when they were boys back in school, hooted at the brightest kid
in the class, the “smarty” who walked away with the prizes. They
felt that it was downright unfair of him to apply himself to his
studies so diligently.
He is the man now — enlisted or commissioned — who takes to
training with healthy zest, accepting it as a challenge to his stamina,
his capacity to learn new ways of doing things. If he attends a
service school, he’s once again the student seeking to advance him-
self and enlarge his proficiency.
You’ll spot this man everywhere in the service — because he
stands out. He’s the soldier of the month, the sailor or airman of
the year in his command. But while most of us give him the “well
done” that certainly is coming to him, there are always a few
detractors who resent his superior performance and attribute the
praise it brings him to a talent for apple polishing.
The top man on the career ladder is so accustomed to looking
up that he hasn’t time to worry about the opinions of others. 'Hiey
have a chance to profit by the example he sets and they pass it up.
They stay put; he keeps going up until they lose sight of him.
They all started together. The competition was equal. Unfair
of him, isn’t it? (AFPS)
Jan. 15, 1935 — Maj. James H.
Doolittle, with two passengers,
flew an American Airlines plane
nonstop from Los Angeles to New
York in 11 hours 59 minutes, set-
ting a transcontinental record for
passenger transport airplanes and
a nonstop west-east transcontin-
ental record.
★ ★ ★
This Will Bum You Up
Forty winks can be fiery—and fatal. Suppose, one evening,
you’re quite tired, physically, but still feel mentally alert.
So you decide to relax on a bed, or a couch, or in a nice easy
chair. You light up a cigarette and stretch out. First thing you
know you’ve dozed off. You’ve gone out in bliss and contentment,
but that cigarette in your hand hasn’t gone out at all.
It’s still glowing at a temperature between 600 and 1,100
degrees. Now, remember this—some upholstery doesn’t just burn;
it may smolder inside.
As this goes on, smoke and gases slowly begin to surround
you and they can easily cause asphyxiation. Sure, some people
wake up in time, but others are suffocated or terribly burned.
The National Safety Council says—don’t smoke in bed, or
anywhere, when you’re tired and likely.to fall asleep. Otherwise
your sweet dreams, and your life, may go up in smoke and flame.
Peace Through Deterrence