Addenum A: The Roosevelt Presidency
Franklin Roosevelt is remembered as a paradox of a man - his leadership during the Great Depression permanently enshrines him as one of America's greatest presidents, yet when it came to what he always felt would be his and America's greatest challenge - the Second World War - his leadership would be debilitated by charges of misconduct, attempts to remove him from office, mistrust of his military leaders, ill health, and disloyalty within his administration.
When Hitler declared war on the US on 29 Mar 41, most Americans accepted FDR's explanation of why it had been necessary to assist in the hunt for the Bismarck and supported the idea that they were going to be at war.. Only a few of his closest advisors knew how close the UK was to strangulation. There is also the likelihood that Churchill used his not inconsiderable powers of persuasion to make the situation look even worse than it was. But either way, when the battleship USS New York opened fire on Bismarck, it was too late to turn back.
US military leaders felt badly betrayed by Roosevelt's decision to embroil them in a war they were not ready for. They had been led to understand that there would be no war until at least mid-1942, and Douglas MacArthur, in his famous 'Last Communique', would say as much. The awful losses of the first three months of the war seemed to bear that out, and although Roosevelt's military leaders never said so in public (at least not during his administration), they always felt afterwards that Roosevelt would sell them down the river for expediency's sake. On at least one occasion in the dark days of June 1942, FDR and his commanders came near to blows and had to be physically separated. Until FDR's death in 1944, his commanders always kept one very close eye on their Commander in Chief.
Whether or not FDR deliberately hung his commanders out to dry is debatable. More than likely, Roosevelt had been persuaded by Churchill that the end was near, and that the US Navy had to join in the hunt for Bismarck. But the appearance caused by FDR's actions always corroded his relationship with the Joint Chiefs from then on.
It is believed that the damaged relations between the Joint Chiefs and FDR led directly to the impeachment crisis of 1942. After the poor showing of US forces in the First Battle Of The Phillipine Sea, the raid on Chesapeake Bay by German commandos in September of 41, and continued heavy losses in the Atlantic, a group of senior Republican senators led by Senator Arthur Vandenberg began pressing for impeachment hearings. Roosevelt, distracted by the war, either did not consider the threat genuine or believed he could handle it with a few face-to-face chats. However, someone (exactly who has never been determined) obtained minutes of several meetings between FDR, his senior advisor Harry Hopkins, and the Joint Chiefs that showed FDR in an exceptionally poor light, belittling military requests for better planning and more resources. These minutes were provided to Vandenberg, who had a field day with them. Worse still, with the 1942 elections coming up, it badly rattled Democratic politicians who were trying to regain their seats. Not even legendary Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn was able to stop a vote on June 17, 1942, to initate impeachment hearings.
The hearings lasted through the summer, but as polls indicated that there was little public support for removing FDR in wartime, the hearings were eventually suspended in early August and never resumed. The damage, however, had been done. A great many Democratic politicians began to distance themselves from FDR, and although the Democrats held onto Congress in November, for the first time in ten years, Franklin Roosevelt knew what it was like to be vulnerable, and it affected his temper and his health.
FDR officially suffered two heart attacks in office, though recent historical work suggest there may have been as many as five. The first known one was in late October 42, but was not revealed to the public (and then only in a very oblique way) until the spring of 1943. The first big offensive actions against Germany and Japan were just beginning then, and it was felt that those would be better circumstances under which to reveal it. The second was much more public - it happened on August 4, 1943, in front of a group of war industry managers whom FDR was addressing. The press was told that it was simple heat exhaustion, but the word was getting out in Washington that FDR's health was not what it should be.
It was questions about FDR's health that led Vice President Henry Wallace to start quietly looking into making a run for the presidency himself in 1944. Wallace had been steadily drifting more to the Left since his election, and had been a vocal advocate of support to the USSR - so much so that at least one official investigation was conducted as to whether or not the USSR had undue influence on him. (It should be noted that recent works that suggest Wallace was a Soviet spy are at best wildly overblown - however, the same cannot be said for individuals who served on his staff) Roosevelt, who was always hypersensitive to any threats from within,could not simply fire Wallace without opening himself up to attacks from within his own party, and difficult questions from the Republicans - not to mention the fact that Wallace would probably have put up a memorable fight. FDR, however, came up with a brilliant idea - he appointed Wallace as the first US ambassador to the United Nations, which was formed in San Francisco in the spring of 1944. It was a highly visible appointment that the vain Wallace couldn't pass up, and he left the Roosevelt administration in May of 44.
There was no VP until after the 1944 elections, the Constitution at that time not requiring the President to name a new VP. In August of 44, Roosevelt, running for his fourth term, and now desperately ill, went to the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, where Missouri SEN Harry S. Truman was nominated as VP. Coming up from Washington to accept the nomination - and not having seen FDR face-to-face in several months - Truman was shocked at what he found:
"...Well, they took me to the Penn Hotel, where the President was staying, and led me up to the room where he was at, and told me to stay put for a second. The door opens, and in comes this god-awful scarecrow in a wheelchair - at first, I thought it was one of his Delano relatives, they were all about a hundred years old - but then he smiled at me and said, "Hello, Harry", and broke out coughing. It was only then that I realized that this was the President Of the United States...and I had just gotten myself into more trouble then I ever thought possible."
Casualty lists and concerns about war aims were growing again, and Roosevelt feared that if New York Governor Thomas Dewey won, he would try to disengage from the war. FDR therw everything he had into the campaign, and although his victory wasn't of the same magnitude as his previous ones, it was solid enough that he could claim a mandate to press on.
It was not to be. Exhausted from the campaign, Roosevelt may only have been semi-coherent in the last weeks of his life. He almost immediately traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia after the election, and very little work was done in the three weeks he remained. VP Elect Truman never saw or spoke to FDR again after November 8th, and only Harry Hopkins ever spoke to anyone else after that.
Rumors started to spread that FDR had indeed died or was incapacitated, and they grew to the point where some kind of action had to be taken. (Whether or not FDR was aware of them is unknown.)
On November 21st, 1944, FDR's train headed back for Washington. Sometime between 8AM and 11AM, Roosevelt suffered a massive stroke and became comatose. He was discovered at 11AM, and his medical staff did their best to keep him alive until they could reach the nearest hospital on their route, at Athens, GA. However, Roosevelt officially died at 1:36PM. To this day, many writers still suggest that Roosevelt had actually died early on the morning of November 8th, after his reelection was assured. Although some documents relating to his death are still classified, they do not affect the statements of many, many witnesses who saw him alive on the trip to Warm Springs and during his stay there.
Sadly, Roosevelt's last gift to his country was a constitutional crisis. Since Truman had not yet been sworn in, Republican leaders insisted that he could not become president, and that President Pro Tem Of The Senate Arthur Vandenberg - the senior elected offcial in the US at that time - should become President. It appears, however, that FDR had anticipated this grim possibility, and made quiet arrangements with the solidly Democratic House to deal with the matter. A quick finding by the US Supreme Court threw the matter to the House, where Truman handily defeated Vandenberg and was sworn in on December 5th, 1944.
TIPOTS Addenum(s)
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MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Addenum B: The US Navy, circa 2000~
In the TIPOTS universe, the United States Navy is the most powerful and awesome seaborne force ever assembled – at the end of the Long War, the ten largest navies behind it combined did not equal the sheer numbers it was able to put to sea. In terms of firepower, the rest of the world’s navies combined do not equal it for sheer ferocity.
At present, the USN numbers 568 combat vessels, down from its Long War high of 671. Most of the disposals were frigates and the older CVs and CA/CL that were still on the roster from the early 60s. Fleet disposition is as follows:
First (HQUSN)/ Washington DC, CINC callsign Defender
Second (Atlantic)/Norfolk NB, VA CINC callsign Crusader
Third (Pacific)/Pearl Harbor NB, HI CINC callsign Armada
Fourth (Indian)/Colombo NB, Ceylon CINC callsign Thunder
Fifth (Mediterranean) Port Lyautey NB, Morocco CINC callsign Lancer
(NOTE: First Fleet is the administrative framework for the Naval Reserve. In wartime it would expand as needed to oversee the reactivation of ships, aircraft, and men – MJK.)
Since Fleet OOBs vary from time to time, an overall list of the USN’s combat strength is shown below:
NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
3 Enterprise CVN (Enterprise, York Town, Hornet)
9 Ranger CVN (Ranger, Boxer, Argus, Lexington, Saratoga, Congress, Wasp, Essex, Kearsarge)
6 Intrepid CVN (Modified Ranger design) (Intrepid,Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, Bon Homme Richard, Lake Erie, Gettysburg)
+3 Intrepid CVN Building (Chancellorsville NNSBDD, Shiloh NYNSY, Antietam Bethlehem SBDD)
ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE CARRIERS
4 United States CVS (OTL Forrestals)
2 Constellation CVS
NOTES: The CVS’s have been modified to carry an almost all-helo air wing, but they maintain their arresting gear and 1 catapult to operate fixed wing ASW aircraft.
LIGHT AIRCRAFT CARRIERS/AMPHIBIOUS
4 Hampton Roads CVLA
2 Sagami Bay CVLA
7 Calais CVLA
7 Solomon Islands CVLA
NOTES: The Light Amphibious carriers are roughly the size of a Midway from our timeline. They are built with angled decks and can in an emergency, be fitted with arresting gear to serve as CVLs carrying a light strike CVAW. Otherwise, they maintain a completely rotary wing and VTOL air group. The CVL fit has only been tried once, mostly as an experiment to see if it could be done. Aircrew were not enthused.
MISSILE BATTLESHIPS
4 Oregon BBG
5 New York BBG
1 Mississippi BBG (see below)
NOTES: USS Mississippi is the Battle Line Command Training Ship and is stationed at Norfolk. In wartime she would immediately revert to control of 2nd Fleet. The Battle Line is to be fully decommissioned by 2008. Only Texas will remain in service as a battleship past that date.
NUCLEAR MISSILE BATTLESHIPS
1 Texas BBGN
NOTES: Texas is programmed to remain in the battleship role until her next refueling in 2008. At that time, her aft 18”/75 turrets will be removed and replaced with VLS missile launchers and a rotary-wing flight deck. She will then be redesignated as a Sea Control Ship (SCS) and will serve in that role until her final retirement in 2020.
NUCLEAR HEAVY MISSILE CRUISERS
4 Pittsburgh CAGN
4 St.Louis CAGN
4 Houston CAGN
2 Detroit CAGN
HEAVY MISSILE CRUISERS
10 Baltimore CAG
21 Seattle CAG
9 Honolulu CAG
LIGHT MISSILE CRUISERS
16 Agana CLG
6 Darlington CLG (Darlington, Daytona, Rockingham, Richmond, Las Vegas, and Indianapolis)
2 Saginaw CLG (Saginaw and Flint)
NOTES: The newest CLGs are the Darlington class - extremely fast (nearly 40 kts) and are armed with a mixture of medium (8”) and light (5”) DP guns, along with two 20-cell VLS launchers. The older Aganas date back to the late 60s and early 70s, and have more limited SAM systems only, though they have been fitted with fixed 6-tube Cutlass launchers. The Saginaws were an attempt to go with a missile based main armament and only two 3” guns. Saginaw and her sister Flint were not considered successful in their role, due to electronics limitations. Both ships serve as DDG flotilla leaders.
GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYERS
61 Ernest J. King DDG
17 Raymond Spruance DDG
30 Christopher Shannon DDG
12 William F. Halsey DDG
GUIDED MISSILE FRIGATES
100 James Lawrence FFG
16 Reuben James FFG
24 Husband M. Kimmel FFG
NOTES: The FFG force is expected to be eliminated as part of the drawdowns, along with most of the Reserve force. About half of the vessels – mostly the newer Kimmels – will probably be given or sold to Allied navies.
BALLISTIC MISSILE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
34 Robert E. Lee SSBN
26 George Washington SSBN
NOTES: The Robert E. Lees will be retired by 2006, and will not be replaced. In addition, it is expected that at least the first six Washingtons will be placed in reserve.
NUCLEAR ATTACK SUBMARINES
16 Cod SSN
40 Shark SSN
3 Seadragon SSN
20 Sealion SSN
20 Grenadier SSN
15 Triton SSN
NOTES: This list does not include the USN’s ‘special duty’ submarines: Porpoise, Dolphin, Hyman Rickover, Dace, Darter, Nathaniel Greene, Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, William Mosby, Tecumseh and Crazy Horse. The last six vessels are converted John J. Pershing class SSBNs, while the others are one-off SSN classes.
24 x CARRIER AIR WINGS (CVAW)
Standard compliment is as follows:
36 x Fighter (Grumman Tigercat II)
24 x Attack (Boeing SeaLion)
12 x Heavy Attack (Grumman Panther)
6 x Recon (Grumman Bobcat AKA Photocat)
8 x EW (Grumman Bobcat AKA Electricat)
6 x AEW (Lockheed ScoutStar)
8 xASW/SAR (Bell SeaSnake) - If Heavy ASW/SAR, delete Recon and SeaSnakes and replace with 6 Vought-Sikorsky Vikings.
40 PATROL SQUADRONS (VP)
8 x VPR (Recon Bomber) with 12 Lockheed P-6 Poseidons
32 x VP with 20 Martin P-4 SeaMasters
In the TIPOTS universe, the United States Navy is the most powerful and awesome seaborne force ever assembled – at the end of the Long War, the ten largest navies behind it combined did not equal the sheer numbers it was able to put to sea. In terms of firepower, the rest of the world’s navies combined do not equal it for sheer ferocity.
At present, the USN numbers 568 combat vessels, down from its Long War high of 671. Most of the disposals were frigates and the older CVs and CA/CL that were still on the roster from the early 60s. Fleet disposition is as follows:
First (HQUSN)/ Washington DC, CINC callsign Defender
Second (Atlantic)/Norfolk NB, VA CINC callsign Crusader
Third (Pacific)/Pearl Harbor NB, HI CINC callsign Armada
Fourth (Indian)/Colombo NB, Ceylon CINC callsign Thunder
Fifth (Mediterranean) Port Lyautey NB, Morocco CINC callsign Lancer
(NOTE: First Fleet is the administrative framework for the Naval Reserve. In wartime it would expand as needed to oversee the reactivation of ships, aircraft, and men – MJK.)
Since Fleet OOBs vary from time to time, an overall list of the USN’s combat strength is shown below:
NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS
3 Enterprise CVN (Enterprise, York Town, Hornet)
9 Ranger CVN (Ranger, Boxer, Argus, Lexington, Saratoga, Congress, Wasp, Essex, Kearsarge)
6 Intrepid CVN (Modified Ranger design) (Intrepid,Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, Bon Homme Richard, Lake Erie, Gettysburg)
+3 Intrepid CVN Building (Chancellorsville NNSBDD, Shiloh NYNSY, Antietam Bethlehem SBDD)
ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE CARRIERS
4 United States CVS (OTL Forrestals)
2 Constellation CVS
NOTES: The CVS’s have been modified to carry an almost all-helo air wing, but they maintain their arresting gear and 1 catapult to operate fixed wing ASW aircraft.
LIGHT AIRCRAFT CARRIERS/AMPHIBIOUS
4 Hampton Roads CVLA
2 Sagami Bay CVLA
7 Calais CVLA
7 Solomon Islands CVLA
NOTES: The Light Amphibious carriers are roughly the size of a Midway from our timeline. They are built with angled decks and can in an emergency, be fitted with arresting gear to serve as CVLs carrying a light strike CVAW. Otherwise, they maintain a completely rotary wing and VTOL air group. The CVL fit has only been tried once, mostly as an experiment to see if it could be done. Aircrew were not enthused.
MISSILE BATTLESHIPS
4 Oregon BBG
5 New York BBG
1 Mississippi BBG (see below)
NOTES: USS Mississippi is the Battle Line Command Training Ship and is stationed at Norfolk. In wartime she would immediately revert to control of 2nd Fleet. The Battle Line is to be fully decommissioned by 2008. Only Texas will remain in service as a battleship past that date.
NUCLEAR MISSILE BATTLESHIPS
1 Texas BBGN
NOTES: Texas is programmed to remain in the battleship role until her next refueling in 2008. At that time, her aft 18”/75 turrets will be removed and replaced with VLS missile launchers and a rotary-wing flight deck. She will then be redesignated as a Sea Control Ship (SCS) and will serve in that role until her final retirement in 2020.
NUCLEAR HEAVY MISSILE CRUISERS
4 Pittsburgh CAGN
4 St.Louis CAGN
4 Houston CAGN
2 Detroit CAGN
HEAVY MISSILE CRUISERS
10 Baltimore CAG
21 Seattle CAG
9 Honolulu CAG
LIGHT MISSILE CRUISERS
16 Agana CLG
6 Darlington CLG (Darlington, Daytona, Rockingham, Richmond, Las Vegas, and Indianapolis)
2 Saginaw CLG (Saginaw and Flint)
NOTES: The newest CLGs are the Darlington class - extremely fast (nearly 40 kts) and are armed with a mixture of medium (8”) and light (5”) DP guns, along with two 20-cell VLS launchers. The older Aganas date back to the late 60s and early 70s, and have more limited SAM systems only, though they have been fitted with fixed 6-tube Cutlass launchers. The Saginaws were an attempt to go with a missile based main armament and only two 3” guns. Saginaw and her sister Flint were not considered successful in their role, due to electronics limitations. Both ships serve as DDG flotilla leaders.
GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYERS
61 Ernest J. King DDG
17 Raymond Spruance DDG
30 Christopher Shannon DDG
12 William F. Halsey DDG
GUIDED MISSILE FRIGATES
100 James Lawrence FFG
16 Reuben James FFG
24 Husband M. Kimmel FFG
NOTES: The FFG force is expected to be eliminated as part of the drawdowns, along with most of the Reserve force. About half of the vessels – mostly the newer Kimmels – will probably be given or sold to Allied navies.
BALLISTIC MISSILE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES
34 Robert E. Lee SSBN
26 George Washington SSBN
NOTES: The Robert E. Lees will be retired by 2006, and will not be replaced. In addition, it is expected that at least the first six Washingtons will be placed in reserve.
NUCLEAR ATTACK SUBMARINES
16 Cod SSN
40 Shark SSN
3 Seadragon SSN
20 Sealion SSN
20 Grenadier SSN
15 Triton SSN
NOTES: This list does not include the USN’s ‘special duty’ submarines: Porpoise, Dolphin, Hyman Rickover, Dace, Darter, Nathaniel Greene, Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, William Mosby, Tecumseh and Crazy Horse. The last six vessels are converted John J. Pershing class SSBNs, while the others are one-off SSN classes.
24 x CARRIER AIR WINGS (CVAW)
Standard compliment is as follows:
36 x Fighter (Grumman Tigercat II)
24 x Attack (Boeing SeaLion)
12 x Heavy Attack (Grumman Panther)
6 x Recon (Grumman Bobcat AKA Photocat)
8 x EW (Grumman Bobcat AKA Electricat)
6 x AEW (Lockheed ScoutStar)
8 xASW/SAR (Bell SeaSnake) - If Heavy ASW/SAR, delete Recon and SeaSnakes and replace with 6 Vought-Sikorsky Vikings.
40 PATROL SQUADRONS (VP)
8 x VPR (Recon Bomber) with 12 Lockheed P-6 Poseidons
32 x VP with 20 Martin P-4 SeaMasters
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MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Addenum C: The USAF Circa 2000~
As of this writing, the United States Air Force is, without question, the most lethal fighting force on the planet. It is capable – within less than thirty minutes of receiving the order – of literally erasing any nation on Earth. The USAF alone avoided the more drastic cuts of the Kerry Administration simply for that reason. Although it is still considered somewhat inferior socially to the Navy – a point that rankles most airmen – it has since come to supersede the USN in importance to US foreign policy.
The USAF is made up of Major Commands (MAJCOM), which in turn are made up of at least two numbered air forces (NAF) each. MAJCOMS report to HQUSAF at Bolling AFB, Washington DC. Each NAF is comprised of at least three Wings (WG), which in turn have at least two flying Squadrons (SQN). Any units that do not have a flying mission are considered Groups (GP), but their basic building block is still the Squadron, which are in turn composed of at least three Flights (FLT).
In order of importance, the MAJCOMS are as follows:
STRATEGIC MISSILE COMMAND (SMC)
HQ: Offutt Field, NE
32nd Air Force HQ Eaker Field AR
23rd Air Force HQ Malmstrom Field MT
2 Heavy Strategic Missile Wings (SMW (H)) w/ 50 ea SM-44B Peacemaker II
10 Strategic Missile Wings (SMW) w/50 ea SM-36D Minuteman
STRIKE COMMAND (STRKCOM)
HQ: Langley Field, VA
1st AF HQ Langley Field VA
8th AF HQ Hunter Field GA
9th AF HQ Shaw Field SC
12th AF HQ Hamilton Field CA
20th AF HQ Fairchild Field WA
22nd AF HQ Castle Field CA
StrikeCom was created from the merger of the old Tactical Air Command and Strategic Air Command after SAC was disbanded in the wake of the “Archangel Incident” during the ’91 War. Up to that point, the ‘Bomber Mafia’ had been ascendant in terms of influence, but the disgrace of SAC’s senior leadership insured that it would never be so again. The changing role of the heavy bomber would, in any event, have made it necessary to look at a restructuring or elimination of SAC no matter what.
16 Heavy Bomber Wings (BMW(H))
4 BMW (H) w/30 ea B-88C Excalibur
11 BMW (H) w/30 ea B-52J Stratofortress
1 BMW (H) w/15 ea B-70D Valkyrie
32 Fighter Wings (FW)
5 Fighter Interceptor Wings (FIW) w/60 ea F-115E Eagle
16 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea F-116 Falcon
5 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea A-51 Lightning II
5 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea A-66 Thunderbolt II
1 Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) w/27 ea A-75 Hawk
3 Strategic Reconnaissance Wings (SRW)
1 SRW w/6 RB-70E Black Beauty
2 SRW w/10 ea SR-19 Sparrow
4 Tactical Reconnaissance Wings (TRW)
1 Heavy RW (RHW) w/30 ea RF-115 ReconEagle
3 TRW w/30 ea RF-116 PhotoFalcon
AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND (ATC)
HQ: Scott Field, IL
7th AF HQ Scott Field IL
5th AF HQ Norton Field CA
19th AF HQ McGuire Field NJ
6 Heavy Transport Wings (HTW)
3 Heavy TW w/20 ea C-158C Altair
3 Heavy TW w/20 ea KC-162C Super Cargomaster
14 Transport Wings (TW)
14 TW w/20 ea C-150ER Vega
14 Cargo Wings (CW)
14 CW w/20 ea C-130L Hercules
20 Aerial Refueling Wings (ARW)
20 ARW w/20 ea KC-135ER SuperStratotanker
As of this writing, the United States Air Force is, without question, the most lethal fighting force on the planet. It is capable – within less than thirty minutes of receiving the order – of literally erasing any nation on Earth. The USAF alone avoided the more drastic cuts of the Kerry Administration simply for that reason. Although it is still considered somewhat inferior socially to the Navy – a point that rankles most airmen – it has since come to supersede the USN in importance to US foreign policy.
The USAF is made up of Major Commands (MAJCOM), which in turn are made up of at least two numbered air forces (NAF) each. MAJCOMS report to HQUSAF at Bolling AFB, Washington DC. Each NAF is comprised of at least three Wings (WG), which in turn have at least two flying Squadrons (SQN). Any units that do not have a flying mission are considered Groups (GP), but their basic building block is still the Squadron, which are in turn composed of at least three Flights (FLT).
In order of importance, the MAJCOMS are as follows:
STRATEGIC MISSILE COMMAND (SMC)
HQ: Offutt Field, NE
32nd Air Force HQ Eaker Field AR
23rd Air Force HQ Malmstrom Field MT
2 Heavy Strategic Missile Wings (SMW (H)) w/ 50 ea SM-44B Peacemaker II
10 Strategic Missile Wings (SMW) w/50 ea SM-36D Minuteman
STRIKE COMMAND (STRKCOM)
HQ: Langley Field, VA
1st AF HQ Langley Field VA
8th AF HQ Hunter Field GA
9th AF HQ Shaw Field SC
12th AF HQ Hamilton Field CA
20th AF HQ Fairchild Field WA
22nd AF HQ Castle Field CA
StrikeCom was created from the merger of the old Tactical Air Command and Strategic Air Command after SAC was disbanded in the wake of the “Archangel Incident” during the ’91 War. Up to that point, the ‘Bomber Mafia’ had been ascendant in terms of influence, but the disgrace of SAC’s senior leadership insured that it would never be so again. The changing role of the heavy bomber would, in any event, have made it necessary to look at a restructuring or elimination of SAC no matter what.
16 Heavy Bomber Wings (BMW(H))
4 BMW (H) w/30 ea B-88C Excalibur
11 BMW (H) w/30 ea B-52J Stratofortress
1 BMW (H) w/15 ea B-70D Valkyrie
32 Fighter Wings (FW)
5 Fighter Interceptor Wings (FIW) w/60 ea F-115E Eagle
16 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea F-116 Falcon
5 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea A-51 Lightning II
5 Tactical Fighter Wings (TFW) w/60 ea A-66 Thunderbolt II
1 Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) w/27 ea A-75 Hawk
3 Strategic Reconnaissance Wings (SRW)
1 SRW w/6 RB-70E Black Beauty
2 SRW w/10 ea SR-19 Sparrow
4 Tactical Reconnaissance Wings (TRW)
1 Heavy RW (RHW) w/30 ea RF-115 ReconEagle
3 TRW w/30 ea RF-116 PhotoFalcon
AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND (ATC)
HQ: Scott Field, IL
7th AF HQ Scott Field IL
5th AF HQ Norton Field CA
19th AF HQ McGuire Field NJ
6 Heavy Transport Wings (HTW)
3 Heavy TW w/20 ea C-158C Altair
3 Heavy TW w/20 ea KC-162C Super Cargomaster
14 Transport Wings (TW)
14 TW w/20 ea C-150ER Vega
14 Cargo Wings (CW)
14 CW w/20 ea C-130L Hercules
20 Aerial Refueling Wings (ARW)
20 ARW w/20 ea KC-135ER SuperStratotanker
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MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Addenum D: USN Battleships 1941-2000~
North Carolina Class
North Carolina BB55
Commissioned 4/19/41
Museum Wilmington NC 1966
Washington BB56
Commissioned 5/15/41
Scrapped 1966
South Dakota Class
South Dakota BB57
Commissioned 1/20/42
Lost 8/20/47
Indiana BB58
Commissioned 2/28/42
Surveyed 1/1/48
Massachusetts BB59
Commissioned 3/12/42
Museum Fall River MA
Alabama BB60
Commissioned 6/16/42
Lost 8/20/47
Iowa Class
Iowa BB61
Commissioned 11/22/42
Lost 8/20/47
New Jersey BB62
Commissioned 2/23/43
Surveyed 1/1/48
Missouri BB63
Commissioned 3/11/44
Scrapped 1970
Wisconsin BB64
Commissioned 1/16/44
Pacific Fleet/Reserve (Essentially a parts and experimentation hulk at Bremerton.)
Illinois BB65
Commissioned 12/6/45
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Weapons test vessel and is probably not capable of returning to combat.)
Kentucky BB66
Commissioned 1/20/46
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (USNR training vessel. She is reliably reported to be incapable of moving under her own power.)
Montana Class
Montana BB67
Commissioned 11/11/45
Surveyed 1/1/48
Ohio BB68
Commissioned 3/21/46
Scrapped 1981
Maine BB69
Commissioned 7/1/46
Pacific Fleet/Reserve (Maintained in Class A Mobilization status, with the 44R modifications.)
New Hampshire BB70
Commissioned 11/15/46
Museum Portsmouth NH
Louisiana BB71
Commissioned 3/9/47
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Maintained in Class A Mobilization status, with the 44R modifications.)
Oregon Class
Oregon BB72
Commissioned 6/14/50
Pacific Fleet/Active
California BB73
Commissioned 5/1/52
Pacific Fleet/Active
Mississippi BB74
Commissioned 9/4/54
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Officially a training vessel with a USNR crew. However, she is fully capable of taking her place in the line.)
Arkansas BB75
Commissioned 9/19/56
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Virginia BB76
Commissioned 4/1/58
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Texas Class
Texas BBGN77
Commissioned 5/1/65
Atlantic Fleet/Active
New York BBGN78 (Cancelled)
South Carolina BBGN79 (Cancelled)
Tennessee BBGN80 (Cancelled)
NOTE: The other three ships in the Texas class were cancelled due to nightmarish cost overruns and delays on BBGN 77.)
New York Class
New York BBG81
Commissioned 7/14/71
Pacific Fleet/Active
Vermont BBG82
Commissioned 6/20/73
Pacific Fleet/Active
Georgia BBG83
Commissioned 9/9/75
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Florida BBG84
Commissioned 6/14/77
Pacific Fleet/Active
Oklahoma BBG85
Commissioned 9/27/79
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Alaska Class
Alaska BBGN86 (Cancelled)
Guam BBGN87 (Cancelled)
Hawaii BBGN88 (Cancelled)
Washington BBGN89 (Cancelled)
Nebraska BBGN90 (Cancelled)
Pennsylvania BBGN91 (Cancelled)
NOTE: All ships in class cancelled in toto in 1992 following the collapse of the Moscow Pact. The materials and power plants were diverted for the most part to the next three Intrepid CVNs.
North Carolina Class
North Carolina BB55
Commissioned 4/19/41
Museum Wilmington NC 1966
Washington BB56
Commissioned 5/15/41
Scrapped 1966
South Dakota Class
South Dakota BB57
Commissioned 1/20/42
Lost 8/20/47
Indiana BB58
Commissioned 2/28/42
Surveyed 1/1/48
Massachusetts BB59
Commissioned 3/12/42
Museum Fall River MA
Alabama BB60
Commissioned 6/16/42
Lost 8/20/47
Iowa Class
Iowa BB61
Commissioned 11/22/42
Lost 8/20/47
New Jersey BB62
Commissioned 2/23/43
Surveyed 1/1/48
Missouri BB63
Commissioned 3/11/44
Scrapped 1970
Wisconsin BB64
Commissioned 1/16/44
Pacific Fleet/Reserve (Essentially a parts and experimentation hulk at Bremerton.)
Illinois BB65
Commissioned 12/6/45
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Weapons test vessel and is probably not capable of returning to combat.)
Kentucky BB66
Commissioned 1/20/46
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (USNR training vessel. She is reliably reported to be incapable of moving under her own power.)
Montana Class
Montana BB67
Commissioned 11/11/45
Surveyed 1/1/48
Ohio BB68
Commissioned 3/21/46
Scrapped 1981
Maine BB69
Commissioned 7/1/46
Pacific Fleet/Reserve (Maintained in Class A Mobilization status, with the 44R modifications.)
New Hampshire BB70
Commissioned 11/15/46
Museum Portsmouth NH
Louisiana BB71
Commissioned 3/9/47
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Maintained in Class A Mobilization status, with the 44R modifications.)
Oregon Class
Oregon BB72
Commissioned 6/14/50
Pacific Fleet/Active
California BB73
Commissioned 5/1/52
Pacific Fleet/Active
Mississippi BB74
Commissioned 9/4/54
Atlantic Fleet/Reserve (Officially a training vessel with a USNR crew. However, she is fully capable of taking her place in the line.)
Arkansas BB75
Commissioned 9/19/56
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Virginia BB76
Commissioned 4/1/58
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Texas Class
Texas BBGN77
Commissioned 5/1/65
Atlantic Fleet/Active
New York BBGN78 (Cancelled)
South Carolina BBGN79 (Cancelled)
Tennessee BBGN80 (Cancelled)
NOTE: The other three ships in the Texas class were cancelled due to nightmarish cost overruns and delays on BBGN 77.)
New York Class
New York BBG81
Commissioned 7/14/71
Pacific Fleet/Active
Vermont BBG82
Commissioned 6/20/73
Pacific Fleet/Active
Georgia BBG83
Commissioned 9/9/75
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Florida BBG84
Commissioned 6/14/77
Pacific Fleet/Active
Oklahoma BBG85
Commissioned 9/27/79
Atlantic Fleet/Active
Alaska Class
Alaska BBGN86 (Cancelled)
Guam BBGN87 (Cancelled)
Hawaii BBGN88 (Cancelled)
Washington BBGN89 (Cancelled)
Nebraska BBGN90 (Cancelled)
Pennsylvania BBGN91 (Cancelled)
NOTE: All ships in class cancelled in toto in 1992 following the collapse of the Moscow Pact. The materials and power plants were diverted for the most part to the next three Intrepid CVNs.
-
MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Addenum E: US Presidents 1944-2000~
Harry S. Truman (1944-1953)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1957)
Adlai E. Stevenson (1957-1961)
Richard M. Nixon (1961-1969)
John F. Kennedy (1969-1973)
James E. Carter (1973-1977)
Ronald W. Reagan (1977-1985)
George W. Bush (1985-1993)
John F. Kerry (1993-2001)
Jeb Bush (2001-Present)
Harry S. Truman
Harry Truman is one of those stories that can really only happen in America – from Missouri haberdasher to the Presidency, and saving the Free World in the process.
Truman was sworn in on 5 December 1944, after an unnerving Constitutional crisis caused by Franklin Roosevelt’s death before he was sworn in for his fourth term. Roosevelt’s refusal to delegate any authority insured that Truman was utterly unprepared for his duties. In addition, the US military commanders mistrusted him (in fairness, they would have mistrusted anyone close to Roosevelt at this point), and the Allies were very unsure as to what they were getting.
Truman took off running and never looked back. He met with the JCS and assured them that he would never go behind their backs on anything – as long as they gave him the same respect. George Marshall convinced the JCS to give him a chance, and they never regretted it. Truman flew to England in April of 1945 to be present for the D-Day landings and at the same time met with Churchill to discuss war aims. Churchill was immediately taken with him and the two formed a friendship that would last the rest of their lives.
Truman oversaw the end of the war with Germany in March of 1946, and unhesitatingly ordered the use of the first nuclear weapons there to bring the war to an end. In the only time he overrode the JCS sent a surrender demand to the Japanese a few days later. It was of course rejected, but he believed for the rest of his life that it was important to at least give them a chance. Sadly, the Japanese rejected it and met the same fate as the Germans.
The war ended in October 1947, but within six months the Soviets had thrown down the gauntlet of the Stalin Doctrine and the Long War had started. The Cleveland Incident – where a US cruiser and her escorts were sunk north of Japan by Soviet forces – very nearly started another world war, but Truman was able to defuse the situation while delivering a solid enough retaliatory blow to make his point. His reactions went a long way to convincing Americans to re-elect him in November of 1948 in a decisive victory over NY Governor Thomas Dewey. In a brilliant tactical move afterwards, Truman appointed Dewey as US Ambassador to the UN. Dewey, a man of great integrity who may have lost the 1944 election in order to avoid revealing military secrets, set the standard for the job thereafter.
Truman had planned to drastically reorganize the War Department and set up a slow, controlled switchover from wartime to a peacetime economy. However, the start of the Long War delayed any economic reforms, and the Korean War in June 1951 essentially ended any hope of doing so. Truman had already made it very clear that he had no intention of running for a second full term, and dedicated himself to winning the war. He was able to get large numbers of troops from the UK, Turkey, Spain, and a reconstituted Italy, and these troops easily pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th Parallel, and by early ’52, they had captured the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Both the USSR and the People’s Republic Of China threatened to send in troops, and US commander GEN Matthew Ridgeway believed them. Even though they achieved tactical surprise and the Allied lines did fall back a few miles, Ridgeway had planned brilliantly for just such an attack when three PRC corps and one Soviet corps tried to overrun them in the summer of ’52. Allied airpower devastated the Communist forces, and the war settled down into an uneasy stalemate.
Truman was personally hurt when Dwight Eisenhower declared as a Republican in 1951, believing that Eisenhower had deceived him on the matter. However, when Ike won, Truman insured that the changeover was complete and thorough.
Truman retired to his Missouri home, but for the rest of his life was often an informal advisor to Presidents of both parties.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower’s likeable public persona hid an iron will and a remarkable intelligence. However, his failure to show them more openly condemned him to being a one-term President.
Ike understood that the Korean War could spread, even after a yearlong standoff following the US capture of Pyongyang in early 1952. He quietly sent a back-channel offer allowing Soviet and Chinese troops to withdraw before escalating the war, but the aging – and quite possibly insane - Stalin angrily rejected the idea, while the Chinese rose to new heights of paranoiac invective. The Chinese launched a massive offensive just a few weeks later, (while for reasons unknown the four Soviet divisions remained in place) attempting to drive Allied forces back across the 38th Parallel. That was enough for Ike, who ordered three nuclear bombs used on the Chinese spearheads. The Chinese were grouped together far more tightly than anyone had realized, and most of one entire corps was wiped out. Within days, the Chinese were starting to fall back across the Yalu, while the Soviet units would stay for several months yet before quietly moving back to Vladivostok. Not long after that, Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Churchill set up the framework for what would eventually become the Atlantic Alliance.
Eisenhower did not do much ‘up-front’ work in front of the glare of the cameras, believing that quiet negotiation backed by the reliable threat of military force was much more effective. However, the Democrats portrayed this as a ‘do-nothing’ approach. He recognized that domestic matters were not his strong suit, so he appointed a very strong staff of domestic advisors who oversaw the final conversion of the US economy to a full-time war economy. However, Democratic politicians portrayed Eisenhower as a weak, distracted President who was controlled by his advisors. In addition, they accused Eisenhower of risking a Third World War so as to gain a marginal military advantage. Eisenhower was used to being, essentially, the first among equals, with the ability to give an order and have it followed. He was never quite able to understand that politics did not work the same way, and the result was frequent disagreements with Republican power brokers. The result was that even in friendly media, he was often portrayed as in over his head, when in reality he was making great strides. However, he was unable to effectively change the portrait of a likeable but slightly befuddled leader and lost a close election to Adlai Stevenson in November of 1954.
Eisenhower retired to his Gettysburg farm, where he later became a popular writer and commentator. His 1965 TV special, “Return To The Pas De Calais”, introduced him to a new generation and he continued to write and speak until his death in 1975. He never participated in any political activities again.
Adlai Stevenson
A public that wanted to see if diplomacy would be a viable option in dealing with the Soviets voted the Stevenson Administration in. What it got, according to one memorable comment, was ‘a ride on the Disoriented Express.”
The Democratic Party had held the White House from 1932 to 1952, and they wanted it back – badly. Stevenson had not been the first choice of the party faithful – that distinction went to Senator Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. of Massachusetts, or his brother, the youthful Governor of that state, John F. Kennedy. However, by early ’56, both Kennedys were out of the running – the Senator because of a scandal involving a Hollywood actress, and the Governor after a serious illness. The second choice, Senator Estes Kefauver, was very popular with the Democratic establishment but his widely televised anti-crime hearings had made it appear (however unfairly) that he was anti-Italian, a genuine problem when that voting bloc was so important. The only other candidate with any recognition at all was Stevenson. The national party pulled out all the stops in order to get him elected, but the Stevenson candidacy was highjacked by the national party, who forced party faithful on Stevenson for his cabinet.
To a great extent, Stevenson was simply out of his league. He was an excellent state politician, but he was never able to grasp the subtleties of national and international politics. His statements favoring diplomacy when dealing with the Soviets often came across as peace-at-any-price rhetoric, which deeply concerned the Allies, especially after Stevenson ordered a moratorium on any further purchases of or research on weapons. This was intended to be a ‘signal’ to the Soviets that they weren’t threatened and that they could deal with America. Stevenson’s SecWar, Robert MacNamara, and his SecState, Alger Hiss, both strongly backed the moratorium for their own reasons – MacNamara because he considered himself morally and intellectually superior to the military leadership, whom he felt “had to be brought under control”, especially USAF Chief of Staff GEN Curtis LeMay. MacNamara personally ordered the suspension of the US Army’s long-range missile program as well as the Navy’s first missile submarines, as well as the USAF’s B-58 bomber. Hiss wanted to prove that Truman and Eisenhower had been wrong in their dealings with the Soviets and that he could bring about a rapprochement.
Stevenson immediately extended his olive branches to the Soviets, who in turn launched a ‘peace offensive’ around the world – all the time planning a major attack in the Western Pacific. Every time the Soviets made a vaguely approving noise, Stevenson and Hiss would make larger and more grandiose plans for disarmament, while MacNamara was now beginning to outright cancel major programs as well as deny vital operational funding. The cabinet – many of whom had political ambitions of their own – refused to challenge MacNamara or Hiss as long as Stevenson’s poll numbers held.
When Stalin died in August of 1958, Stevenson personally attended the funeral. Meeting afterwards with Party Secretary Beria, he came home with a disarmament agreement so sweeping that had it been implemented, the US would have effectively decommissioned nearly half of its military and reduced its nuclear forces to a token level that would have been completely eliminated by 1966. In addition, US forces would have mostly withdrawn from the Perimeter, leaving the still-recovering Allies on their own. The Soviets, on the other hand, were not required to make any serious cuts in their conventional forces, and none at all in their nuclear forces – which in any event were not to be eliminated until after the US dismantled its last weapons. Even the President’s most ardent supporters began to feel very uneasy, especially when Stevenson stepped off Air Force One on his return, waving the agreement over his head like Chamberlain returning from Munich.
What saved things – but only just – were pictures from America’s first spy satellite, Lookout 1. The little satellite had been launched in early 1957, and MacNamara had been unable to prevent it – but he had systematically gutted the program thereafter. With its last film canister (and the only one of five recovered completely intact), Lookout 1 showed unmistakable proof of a Soviet buildup in the Western Pacific. MacNamara refused to even look at the pictures, and it was only then that SecAF Eaker and SecNav Turner demanded their Constitutional privilege of access to the President to show him. Stevenson was badly confused and refused to order any increase in readiness for fear of provoking the Soviets. After a Cabinet meeting described by one witness as ‘the most acrimonious in US history’, Stevenson sent CNO FADM Brian Shannon to Sakhalin Island to see what was going on.
Shannon arrived on December 31st, 1958, to find a confused and almost paralyzed command situation. Shannon immediately took operational command – disregarding a direct order from MacNamara – and tried to get things ready. He was successful, but just barely: the Soviets manufactured a ‘provocation’ that night and attacked in full force the next morning. US losses were heavy, in ships, men, and aircraft until things got turned around a few weeks later. Soviet losses, though never fully accounted for, were known to be staggering, including at least one battleship, two carriers, dozens of smaller vessels, thousands of aircraft, and tens of thousands of soldiers. Although the US – and the newly reconstituted Japanese military – were eventually victorious, a shocked and angry US public wanted to know exactly what had gone wrong.
At this point, Stevenson, MacNamara and Hiss convinced themselves that it had been the ‘aggressive posture’ of US forces and Shannon’s actions that had provoked the Soviets. Accordingly, MacNamara and Hiss convinced the President that he had to fire the service secretaries and the JCS in order to convince Moscow of their good intentions. Stevenson agreed and called everyone concerned to the White House on the night of March 21st, 1959. What followed became what has been known ever since as the White House Turkey Shoot.
The service secretaries and the JCS not only refused to resign, but turned the tables by laying out detailed evidence that proved beyond any question that someone in the cabinet was a Soviet spy. MacNamara became enraged and ordered the Secret Service detail to arrest the JCS. What happened next is still unclear but it is known that not only did the Secret Service detail refuse to do so, but GEN LeMay physically attacked MacNamara severely enough to put him in the hospital. The secretaries and the JCS made their positions very clear – MacNamara and Hiss were to resign at once, or the evidence went to the newspapers.
Only after reading the evidence on his own did President Stevenson realize exactly what happened, and he fired MacNamara and Hiss four days later. (Interestingly enough, Party Secretary Beria died of a stroke that day as well and was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev.) The Stevenson Administration went into a free-fall from which it never recovered. The economy went bad as well, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
Stevenson never publicly admitted that he might have been wrong about the Soviets, maintaining to the day he died in 1967 that “it must have been something we did”. He was barely renominated in 1960, fighting off a serious challenge by John F. Kennedy. On Election Night, Stevenson was buried under the largest landslide in US history as Richard Nixon took every state of the Union. Just after Nixon’s inauguration, a national party conference erupted into a full-blown split between the liberal and conservative wings of the Democratic Party. By the end of 1961, the Liberal Party had taken up the left-wing causes of the Democrats, while the New Democrats tried to reestablish their conservative credentials.
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Nixon and his VP, Barry Goldwater, were about as conservative a pair of candidates as the Republican Party could nominate. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s VP, and Goldwater’s credentials were impeccable – war hero and Arizona senator. However, Nixon’s attempts at getting anything done in his first year were badly crippled by the civil war that had broken out within the Democratic Party. The Democrats had held a special convention in Washington in April of 1961, officially to review the causes of their defeat, but in actuality to apportion blame. The convention quickly split between the more conservative local and state politicians and the much more liberal national politicians. The end result was the more liberal leaders establishing their own party, the American Liberal Party. The ALP was very left wing and in some cases outright socialist, while the remainder coalesced into a much more centrist party called the New Democrats. The result was that the Congressional delegations, especially from larger cities, tended to be ALP while Senators tended to be NDs – but either way they still couldn’t quite outnumber the Republicans. On the other hand, the Republicans had a simple majority, but always needed help from one of the other parties to get anything done.
In the meantime, the Soviets – now under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, who had taken over from Beria – were already working on their next challenge to the United States. This would take the form of a dual assault on the governments of Vietnam and Cuba, with the intent of establishing Communist dictatorships in both nations. The Vietnamese effort – despite vast amounts of Soviet assistance – never quite got off the ground, as it was being actively sabotaged by Communist Chinese agents who were promoting their own insurgency. The end result was a remarkably vicious and essentially harmless fight between the two Communist factions.
Cuba, however, was another story. With a population seething under rampant corruption, the situation was ripe for Soviet intervention. Led by former baseball player Fidel Castro, active Soviet assistance started in early 1962, and by the end of 1963 the island was literally aflame. Corrupt and inept leadership by dictator Fugelencio Battista put the island in real danger of falling. Nixon ordered the 82nd, 101st, and 19th Airborne Divisions into the island with orders to wipe out the insurgency. The results were so effective that by the fall of 1964, the insurgency had been backed up into the Sierra Maestre Mountains, and was in danger of being wiped out. Khrushchev, whose prestige and literal survival were on the line, ordered that Soviet forces be sent to the island to support Castro’s self-declared “People’s Republic Of Cuba”. The result was the Cuban War, the first trading of nuclear shots between the Free World and the Communist one since Korea. The Soviets lost most of their Atlantic Fleet, but the price was high for the US – the Bennington CVBG, the wreck of the 19th Airborne, and the years of tense standoff that followed.
Public opinion in the US backed Nixon to the hilt, and he was able to get huge amounts of defense and national security spending approved. Critics pointed out that it was only because people on the East Coast had been able to see the flashes of nuclear explosions out to sea. The ABM system was approved and operational in almost record time, and he began the rebuilding of the US Navy with hundreds of new ships and conversions of older ones. On the other hand, the Department of National Security was set up during this time, and the disliked – and often feared – Strategic Protection teams went into service.
Nixon was easily re-elected in 1964, but immediately after the election, reports began to surface of campaign fraud and ‘dirty tricks’ by the campaign leadership. National Security suppressed many of the reports, but by 1966 it was apparent that there had been at least some illegal actions on the part of the Nixon campaign, and at least some of it with Nixon’s knowledge. Some lower-level campaign managers were sent to prison in 1966, but the damage was done. The youthful, telegenic ND John F. Kennedy ran against Barry Goldwater in 1968 on a strong defense platform and promises of an honest, upright government, promises that were broken almost from the start. The election was close, and fraud on the part of the Kennedy campaign has been often alleged but never proven. Nixon left office widely regarded as a strong, capable President, but under a cloud of suspicion that has never been dispelled.
John F. Kennedy
It has often been said that Kennedy won not so much because people liked him, but because they disliked Richard Nixon. Whatever the truth of that statement, the Kennedy campaign was brilliantly planned and run. Kennedy was young, articulate, and had an impeccable war record (that later turned out to have been somewhat inflated) and his running mate, Georgia Congressman Jimmy Carter, was even younger, with a Christian sincerity that played well against the suspicions that were being raised about Richard Nixon. Election Night was expected to be a squeaker, but no one expected the races in California, Illinois, and Ohio to be as close as they were. It was nearly thirty-six hours after the election that a few extra votes came through from Chicago – just enough to put Kennedy and Carter over the top. From the very beginning, there was strong evidence that there had been electoral fraud in Chicago, but this wasn’t confirmed until 2002. Barry Goldwater would later privately say that he had the proof, but that America didn’t need such a divisive crisis.
Kennedy was sworn into office in January of 1969, and hit the ground running. The economy, booming after five years of heavy defense spending, had started to grow a little sluggish, and Kennedy made that his first priority. On the whole, he did very well in guiding the economy to a highly successful ‘guns and butter’ status. However, one of his campaign planks was running the huge US defense effort in a more ‘rational’ manner, and as a practical matter that meant trying to trim as much as possible from the defense budget without incurring the ire – or notice - of the public. To do that, Kennedy appointed exactly the wrong man for the job: Harold Brown.
Brown had been one of MacNamara’s whiz kids but had managed to avoid his boss’ disgrace in 1959. He kept writing and teaching, keeping his name in front of ND and ALP leaders until they came back into power. When Kennedy was elected, Brown’s name topped the short list for SecWar. At first, Brown simply stressed economy and savings, but as time went on it became apparent that he had much the same opinion of the military as his mentor, and worse still, believed that he could succeed where MacNamara had failed. Had events not drastically changed course, Brown would probably have been thoroughly reined in, if not quietly asked to seek new employment. However, history was about to take an unexpected course.
Unknown to all but a handful of the closest Kennedy family and advisors, the President suffered from Addison’s Disease – a disease of the adrenal glands with potentially life-threatening effects. Kennedy had known about it since the mid 50s, but had been able to maintain a normal life with cortisone injections. But in the years before recombinant DNA therapy, prolonged cortisone use – especially the variants used to treat Addison’s – caused severe problems of its own, and when combined with stress led to crippling illnesses. Kennedy was no exception, and although he began his Presidency in good shape, by early 1971 he was starting to have serious problems. At least three major newspapers – including the New York Times – knew the truth, but decided for reasons that are still unclear to conceal it from the public. Kennedy was barely able to hold out through the campaign, but by his second inauguration in January 1973, his appearance was so bad that it couldn’t be hidden any longer.
In the meantime, as Kennedy became more and more consumed with his campaign and his health, Brown began to get progressively more and more out of control. He was seriously discussing retiring the B-70 and its companion, the SC-70A, along with the Patton III tank and several Navy projects. His public opinion of senior officers also started to slip as well, and with the administration desperately trying to keep things quiet, he was allowed to run loose. The topper seemed to come just before the election, when there was a congressional fight underway over how much of a pay raise the military would receive that year. Brown, speaking at an ND fundraiser, stated that the troops needed to be less concerned about their pay and more concerned with getting the President re-elected. That finally did bring a quiet reprimand, but Brown only stayed quiet through the election.
Kennedy defeated Ronald Reagan by a comfortable margin, but the numbers had started to close in the last weeks of the campaign. But within days of the inauguration, a serious crisis was looming regarding the President’s health. It wasn’t eased by the stubborn refusal of the Administration to even discuss the problem, and hints that anyone bringing the matter up was verging on treason. But finally, in June of 1977, Kennedy nearly died after a severe reaction, and the Senate Republican leadership finally rammed through a motion to invoke the 25th Amendment. The Administration stonewalled on for another few weeks, but Kennedy’s health was rapidly deteriorating to the point where they could hold on no longer. On August 18th, 1977, John F. Kennedy became the first President of the United States to resign his office. James E. Carter – known to his friends as Jimmy – was sworn in a few minutes after Air Force One took off from Bolling AFB, headed for Boston. Kennedy’s health improved once he was out of office, but he stayed mostly in seclusion with his family with occasional public appearances and speeches until his death in 1982.
James E. Carter
In his superb book about Presidential mistakes, The Limits Of Genius, National Security Advisor Dr. Stuart Slade comments, “It may be indeed possible to argue that Jimmy Carter was a worse President than Adlai Stevenson, or vice versa – but in the end, it is merely arguing over the difference between miserable and atrocious.”
To Be Continued….
Harry S. Truman (1944-1953)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1957)
Adlai E. Stevenson (1957-1961)
Richard M. Nixon (1961-1969)
John F. Kennedy (1969-1973)
James E. Carter (1973-1977)
Ronald W. Reagan (1977-1985)
George W. Bush (1985-1993)
John F. Kerry (1993-2001)
Jeb Bush (2001-Present)
Harry S. Truman
Harry Truman is one of those stories that can really only happen in America – from Missouri haberdasher to the Presidency, and saving the Free World in the process.
Truman was sworn in on 5 December 1944, after an unnerving Constitutional crisis caused by Franklin Roosevelt’s death before he was sworn in for his fourth term. Roosevelt’s refusal to delegate any authority insured that Truman was utterly unprepared for his duties. In addition, the US military commanders mistrusted him (in fairness, they would have mistrusted anyone close to Roosevelt at this point), and the Allies were very unsure as to what they were getting.
Truman took off running and never looked back. He met with the JCS and assured them that he would never go behind their backs on anything – as long as they gave him the same respect. George Marshall convinced the JCS to give him a chance, and they never regretted it. Truman flew to England in April of 1945 to be present for the D-Day landings and at the same time met with Churchill to discuss war aims. Churchill was immediately taken with him and the two formed a friendship that would last the rest of their lives.
Truman oversaw the end of the war with Germany in March of 1946, and unhesitatingly ordered the use of the first nuclear weapons there to bring the war to an end. In the only time he overrode the JCS sent a surrender demand to the Japanese a few days later. It was of course rejected, but he believed for the rest of his life that it was important to at least give them a chance. Sadly, the Japanese rejected it and met the same fate as the Germans.
The war ended in October 1947, but within six months the Soviets had thrown down the gauntlet of the Stalin Doctrine and the Long War had started. The Cleveland Incident – where a US cruiser and her escorts were sunk north of Japan by Soviet forces – very nearly started another world war, but Truman was able to defuse the situation while delivering a solid enough retaliatory blow to make his point. His reactions went a long way to convincing Americans to re-elect him in November of 1948 in a decisive victory over NY Governor Thomas Dewey. In a brilliant tactical move afterwards, Truman appointed Dewey as US Ambassador to the UN. Dewey, a man of great integrity who may have lost the 1944 election in order to avoid revealing military secrets, set the standard for the job thereafter.
Truman had planned to drastically reorganize the War Department and set up a slow, controlled switchover from wartime to a peacetime economy. However, the start of the Long War delayed any economic reforms, and the Korean War in June 1951 essentially ended any hope of doing so. Truman had already made it very clear that he had no intention of running for a second full term, and dedicated himself to winning the war. He was able to get large numbers of troops from the UK, Turkey, Spain, and a reconstituted Italy, and these troops easily pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th Parallel, and by early ’52, they had captured the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Both the USSR and the People’s Republic Of China threatened to send in troops, and US commander GEN Matthew Ridgeway believed them. Even though they achieved tactical surprise and the Allied lines did fall back a few miles, Ridgeway had planned brilliantly for just such an attack when three PRC corps and one Soviet corps tried to overrun them in the summer of ’52. Allied airpower devastated the Communist forces, and the war settled down into an uneasy stalemate.
Truman was personally hurt when Dwight Eisenhower declared as a Republican in 1951, believing that Eisenhower had deceived him on the matter. However, when Ike won, Truman insured that the changeover was complete and thorough.
Truman retired to his Missouri home, but for the rest of his life was often an informal advisor to Presidents of both parties.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower’s likeable public persona hid an iron will and a remarkable intelligence. However, his failure to show them more openly condemned him to being a one-term President.
Ike understood that the Korean War could spread, even after a yearlong standoff following the US capture of Pyongyang in early 1952. He quietly sent a back-channel offer allowing Soviet and Chinese troops to withdraw before escalating the war, but the aging – and quite possibly insane - Stalin angrily rejected the idea, while the Chinese rose to new heights of paranoiac invective. The Chinese launched a massive offensive just a few weeks later, (while for reasons unknown the four Soviet divisions remained in place) attempting to drive Allied forces back across the 38th Parallel. That was enough for Ike, who ordered three nuclear bombs used on the Chinese spearheads. The Chinese were grouped together far more tightly than anyone had realized, and most of one entire corps was wiped out. Within days, the Chinese were starting to fall back across the Yalu, while the Soviet units would stay for several months yet before quietly moving back to Vladivostok. Not long after that, Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Churchill set up the framework for what would eventually become the Atlantic Alliance.
Eisenhower did not do much ‘up-front’ work in front of the glare of the cameras, believing that quiet negotiation backed by the reliable threat of military force was much more effective. However, the Democrats portrayed this as a ‘do-nothing’ approach. He recognized that domestic matters were not his strong suit, so he appointed a very strong staff of domestic advisors who oversaw the final conversion of the US economy to a full-time war economy. However, Democratic politicians portrayed Eisenhower as a weak, distracted President who was controlled by his advisors. In addition, they accused Eisenhower of risking a Third World War so as to gain a marginal military advantage. Eisenhower was used to being, essentially, the first among equals, with the ability to give an order and have it followed. He was never quite able to understand that politics did not work the same way, and the result was frequent disagreements with Republican power brokers. The result was that even in friendly media, he was often portrayed as in over his head, when in reality he was making great strides. However, he was unable to effectively change the portrait of a likeable but slightly befuddled leader and lost a close election to Adlai Stevenson in November of 1954.
Eisenhower retired to his Gettysburg farm, where he later became a popular writer and commentator. His 1965 TV special, “Return To The Pas De Calais”, introduced him to a new generation and he continued to write and speak until his death in 1975. He never participated in any political activities again.
Adlai Stevenson
A public that wanted to see if diplomacy would be a viable option in dealing with the Soviets voted the Stevenson Administration in. What it got, according to one memorable comment, was ‘a ride on the Disoriented Express.”
The Democratic Party had held the White House from 1932 to 1952, and they wanted it back – badly. Stevenson had not been the first choice of the party faithful – that distinction went to Senator Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. of Massachusetts, or his brother, the youthful Governor of that state, John F. Kennedy. However, by early ’56, both Kennedys were out of the running – the Senator because of a scandal involving a Hollywood actress, and the Governor after a serious illness. The second choice, Senator Estes Kefauver, was very popular with the Democratic establishment but his widely televised anti-crime hearings had made it appear (however unfairly) that he was anti-Italian, a genuine problem when that voting bloc was so important. The only other candidate with any recognition at all was Stevenson. The national party pulled out all the stops in order to get him elected, but the Stevenson candidacy was highjacked by the national party, who forced party faithful on Stevenson for his cabinet.
To a great extent, Stevenson was simply out of his league. He was an excellent state politician, but he was never able to grasp the subtleties of national and international politics. His statements favoring diplomacy when dealing with the Soviets often came across as peace-at-any-price rhetoric, which deeply concerned the Allies, especially after Stevenson ordered a moratorium on any further purchases of or research on weapons. This was intended to be a ‘signal’ to the Soviets that they weren’t threatened and that they could deal with America. Stevenson’s SecWar, Robert MacNamara, and his SecState, Alger Hiss, both strongly backed the moratorium for their own reasons – MacNamara because he considered himself morally and intellectually superior to the military leadership, whom he felt “had to be brought under control”, especially USAF Chief of Staff GEN Curtis LeMay. MacNamara personally ordered the suspension of the US Army’s long-range missile program as well as the Navy’s first missile submarines, as well as the USAF’s B-58 bomber. Hiss wanted to prove that Truman and Eisenhower had been wrong in their dealings with the Soviets and that he could bring about a rapprochement.
Stevenson immediately extended his olive branches to the Soviets, who in turn launched a ‘peace offensive’ around the world – all the time planning a major attack in the Western Pacific. Every time the Soviets made a vaguely approving noise, Stevenson and Hiss would make larger and more grandiose plans for disarmament, while MacNamara was now beginning to outright cancel major programs as well as deny vital operational funding. The cabinet – many of whom had political ambitions of their own – refused to challenge MacNamara or Hiss as long as Stevenson’s poll numbers held.
When Stalin died in August of 1958, Stevenson personally attended the funeral. Meeting afterwards with Party Secretary Beria, he came home with a disarmament agreement so sweeping that had it been implemented, the US would have effectively decommissioned nearly half of its military and reduced its nuclear forces to a token level that would have been completely eliminated by 1966. In addition, US forces would have mostly withdrawn from the Perimeter, leaving the still-recovering Allies on their own. The Soviets, on the other hand, were not required to make any serious cuts in their conventional forces, and none at all in their nuclear forces – which in any event were not to be eliminated until after the US dismantled its last weapons. Even the President’s most ardent supporters began to feel very uneasy, especially when Stevenson stepped off Air Force One on his return, waving the agreement over his head like Chamberlain returning from Munich.
What saved things – but only just – were pictures from America’s first spy satellite, Lookout 1. The little satellite had been launched in early 1957, and MacNamara had been unable to prevent it – but he had systematically gutted the program thereafter. With its last film canister (and the only one of five recovered completely intact), Lookout 1 showed unmistakable proof of a Soviet buildup in the Western Pacific. MacNamara refused to even look at the pictures, and it was only then that SecAF Eaker and SecNav Turner demanded their Constitutional privilege of access to the President to show him. Stevenson was badly confused and refused to order any increase in readiness for fear of provoking the Soviets. After a Cabinet meeting described by one witness as ‘the most acrimonious in US history’, Stevenson sent CNO FADM Brian Shannon to Sakhalin Island to see what was going on.
Shannon arrived on December 31st, 1958, to find a confused and almost paralyzed command situation. Shannon immediately took operational command – disregarding a direct order from MacNamara – and tried to get things ready. He was successful, but just barely: the Soviets manufactured a ‘provocation’ that night and attacked in full force the next morning. US losses were heavy, in ships, men, and aircraft until things got turned around a few weeks later. Soviet losses, though never fully accounted for, were known to be staggering, including at least one battleship, two carriers, dozens of smaller vessels, thousands of aircraft, and tens of thousands of soldiers. Although the US – and the newly reconstituted Japanese military – were eventually victorious, a shocked and angry US public wanted to know exactly what had gone wrong.
At this point, Stevenson, MacNamara and Hiss convinced themselves that it had been the ‘aggressive posture’ of US forces and Shannon’s actions that had provoked the Soviets. Accordingly, MacNamara and Hiss convinced the President that he had to fire the service secretaries and the JCS in order to convince Moscow of their good intentions. Stevenson agreed and called everyone concerned to the White House on the night of March 21st, 1959. What followed became what has been known ever since as the White House Turkey Shoot.
The service secretaries and the JCS not only refused to resign, but turned the tables by laying out detailed evidence that proved beyond any question that someone in the cabinet was a Soviet spy. MacNamara became enraged and ordered the Secret Service detail to arrest the JCS. What happened next is still unclear but it is known that not only did the Secret Service detail refuse to do so, but GEN LeMay physically attacked MacNamara severely enough to put him in the hospital. The secretaries and the JCS made their positions very clear – MacNamara and Hiss were to resign at once, or the evidence went to the newspapers.
Only after reading the evidence on his own did President Stevenson realize exactly what happened, and he fired MacNamara and Hiss four days later. (Interestingly enough, Party Secretary Beria died of a stroke that day as well and was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev.) The Stevenson Administration went into a free-fall from which it never recovered. The economy went bad as well, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
Stevenson never publicly admitted that he might have been wrong about the Soviets, maintaining to the day he died in 1967 that “it must have been something we did”. He was barely renominated in 1960, fighting off a serious challenge by John F. Kennedy. On Election Night, Stevenson was buried under the largest landslide in US history as Richard Nixon took every state of the Union. Just after Nixon’s inauguration, a national party conference erupted into a full-blown split between the liberal and conservative wings of the Democratic Party. By the end of 1961, the Liberal Party had taken up the left-wing causes of the Democrats, while the New Democrats tried to reestablish their conservative credentials.
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Nixon and his VP, Barry Goldwater, were about as conservative a pair of candidates as the Republican Party could nominate. Nixon had been Eisenhower’s VP, and Goldwater’s credentials were impeccable – war hero and Arizona senator. However, Nixon’s attempts at getting anything done in his first year were badly crippled by the civil war that had broken out within the Democratic Party. The Democrats had held a special convention in Washington in April of 1961, officially to review the causes of their defeat, but in actuality to apportion blame. The convention quickly split between the more conservative local and state politicians and the much more liberal national politicians. The end result was the more liberal leaders establishing their own party, the American Liberal Party. The ALP was very left wing and in some cases outright socialist, while the remainder coalesced into a much more centrist party called the New Democrats. The result was that the Congressional delegations, especially from larger cities, tended to be ALP while Senators tended to be NDs – but either way they still couldn’t quite outnumber the Republicans. On the other hand, the Republicans had a simple majority, but always needed help from one of the other parties to get anything done.
In the meantime, the Soviets – now under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, who had taken over from Beria – were already working on their next challenge to the United States. This would take the form of a dual assault on the governments of Vietnam and Cuba, with the intent of establishing Communist dictatorships in both nations. The Vietnamese effort – despite vast amounts of Soviet assistance – never quite got off the ground, as it was being actively sabotaged by Communist Chinese agents who were promoting their own insurgency. The end result was a remarkably vicious and essentially harmless fight between the two Communist factions.
Cuba, however, was another story. With a population seething under rampant corruption, the situation was ripe for Soviet intervention. Led by former baseball player Fidel Castro, active Soviet assistance started in early 1962, and by the end of 1963 the island was literally aflame. Corrupt and inept leadership by dictator Fugelencio Battista put the island in real danger of falling. Nixon ordered the 82nd, 101st, and 19th Airborne Divisions into the island with orders to wipe out the insurgency. The results were so effective that by the fall of 1964, the insurgency had been backed up into the Sierra Maestre Mountains, and was in danger of being wiped out. Khrushchev, whose prestige and literal survival were on the line, ordered that Soviet forces be sent to the island to support Castro’s self-declared “People’s Republic Of Cuba”. The result was the Cuban War, the first trading of nuclear shots between the Free World and the Communist one since Korea. The Soviets lost most of their Atlantic Fleet, but the price was high for the US – the Bennington CVBG, the wreck of the 19th Airborne, and the years of tense standoff that followed.
Public opinion in the US backed Nixon to the hilt, and he was able to get huge amounts of defense and national security spending approved. Critics pointed out that it was only because people on the East Coast had been able to see the flashes of nuclear explosions out to sea. The ABM system was approved and operational in almost record time, and he began the rebuilding of the US Navy with hundreds of new ships and conversions of older ones. On the other hand, the Department of National Security was set up during this time, and the disliked – and often feared – Strategic Protection teams went into service.
Nixon was easily re-elected in 1964, but immediately after the election, reports began to surface of campaign fraud and ‘dirty tricks’ by the campaign leadership. National Security suppressed many of the reports, but by 1966 it was apparent that there had been at least some illegal actions on the part of the Nixon campaign, and at least some of it with Nixon’s knowledge. Some lower-level campaign managers were sent to prison in 1966, but the damage was done. The youthful, telegenic ND John F. Kennedy ran against Barry Goldwater in 1968 on a strong defense platform and promises of an honest, upright government, promises that were broken almost from the start. The election was close, and fraud on the part of the Kennedy campaign has been often alleged but never proven. Nixon left office widely regarded as a strong, capable President, but under a cloud of suspicion that has never been dispelled.
John F. Kennedy
It has often been said that Kennedy won not so much because people liked him, but because they disliked Richard Nixon. Whatever the truth of that statement, the Kennedy campaign was brilliantly planned and run. Kennedy was young, articulate, and had an impeccable war record (that later turned out to have been somewhat inflated) and his running mate, Georgia Congressman Jimmy Carter, was even younger, with a Christian sincerity that played well against the suspicions that were being raised about Richard Nixon. Election Night was expected to be a squeaker, but no one expected the races in California, Illinois, and Ohio to be as close as they were. It was nearly thirty-six hours after the election that a few extra votes came through from Chicago – just enough to put Kennedy and Carter over the top. From the very beginning, there was strong evidence that there had been electoral fraud in Chicago, but this wasn’t confirmed until 2002. Barry Goldwater would later privately say that he had the proof, but that America didn’t need such a divisive crisis.
Kennedy was sworn into office in January of 1969, and hit the ground running. The economy, booming after five years of heavy defense spending, had started to grow a little sluggish, and Kennedy made that his first priority. On the whole, he did very well in guiding the economy to a highly successful ‘guns and butter’ status. However, one of his campaign planks was running the huge US defense effort in a more ‘rational’ manner, and as a practical matter that meant trying to trim as much as possible from the defense budget without incurring the ire – or notice - of the public. To do that, Kennedy appointed exactly the wrong man for the job: Harold Brown.
Brown had been one of MacNamara’s whiz kids but had managed to avoid his boss’ disgrace in 1959. He kept writing and teaching, keeping his name in front of ND and ALP leaders until they came back into power. When Kennedy was elected, Brown’s name topped the short list for SecWar. At first, Brown simply stressed economy and savings, but as time went on it became apparent that he had much the same opinion of the military as his mentor, and worse still, believed that he could succeed where MacNamara had failed. Had events not drastically changed course, Brown would probably have been thoroughly reined in, if not quietly asked to seek new employment. However, history was about to take an unexpected course.
Unknown to all but a handful of the closest Kennedy family and advisors, the President suffered from Addison’s Disease – a disease of the adrenal glands with potentially life-threatening effects. Kennedy had known about it since the mid 50s, but had been able to maintain a normal life with cortisone injections. But in the years before recombinant DNA therapy, prolonged cortisone use – especially the variants used to treat Addison’s – caused severe problems of its own, and when combined with stress led to crippling illnesses. Kennedy was no exception, and although he began his Presidency in good shape, by early 1971 he was starting to have serious problems. At least three major newspapers – including the New York Times – knew the truth, but decided for reasons that are still unclear to conceal it from the public. Kennedy was barely able to hold out through the campaign, but by his second inauguration in January 1973, his appearance was so bad that it couldn’t be hidden any longer.
In the meantime, as Kennedy became more and more consumed with his campaign and his health, Brown began to get progressively more and more out of control. He was seriously discussing retiring the B-70 and its companion, the SC-70A, along with the Patton III tank and several Navy projects. His public opinion of senior officers also started to slip as well, and with the administration desperately trying to keep things quiet, he was allowed to run loose. The topper seemed to come just before the election, when there was a congressional fight underway over how much of a pay raise the military would receive that year. Brown, speaking at an ND fundraiser, stated that the troops needed to be less concerned about their pay and more concerned with getting the President re-elected. That finally did bring a quiet reprimand, but Brown only stayed quiet through the election.
Kennedy defeated Ronald Reagan by a comfortable margin, but the numbers had started to close in the last weeks of the campaign. But within days of the inauguration, a serious crisis was looming regarding the President’s health. It wasn’t eased by the stubborn refusal of the Administration to even discuss the problem, and hints that anyone bringing the matter up was verging on treason. But finally, in June of 1977, Kennedy nearly died after a severe reaction, and the Senate Republican leadership finally rammed through a motion to invoke the 25th Amendment. The Administration stonewalled on for another few weeks, but Kennedy’s health was rapidly deteriorating to the point where they could hold on no longer. On August 18th, 1977, John F. Kennedy became the first President of the United States to resign his office. James E. Carter – known to his friends as Jimmy – was sworn in a few minutes after Air Force One took off from Bolling AFB, headed for Boston. Kennedy’s health improved once he was out of office, but he stayed mostly in seclusion with his family with occasional public appearances and speeches until his death in 1982.
James E. Carter
In his superb book about Presidential mistakes, The Limits Of Genius, National Security Advisor Dr. Stuart Slade comments, “It may be indeed possible to argue that Jimmy Carter was a worse President than Adlai Stevenson, or vice versa – but in the end, it is merely arguing over the difference between miserable and atrocious.”
To Be Continued….
-
MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Addenum F: The B-70 Valkyrie in USAF Service (1959 - 1994)
The B-52 Stratofortress was just entering squadron service in 1954 when CINCSAC General Curtis LeMay directed that feasibility studies begin for a triple-sonic heavy bomber to enter service in the mid-1960s. The prototype B-58 was scheduled to fly in 1956, but the USAF was already having second thoughts about it (but not sufficient ones to halt the eventual deployment of nearly 200 aircraft) due to expected maintenance and range issues.
The plane LeMay asked for would be capable of sustained Mach 3.1 speed from takeoff to target - anywhere in the world, without refueling - and back to a home base in the continental US. It would be able to carry any weapon currently in the US inventor any forecast out to 1970, and (contrary to popular legend) LeMay made VERY sure that the RFP called for the carriage of conventional weapons. The weapons and speed requirements weren't all that far out of line, but it was the sustained M3 requirement that gave engineers nightmares. However, three builders - North American, Boeing, and Lockheed all submitted proposals on February 1, 1955.
The Lockheed proposal was for an aircraft that would be assisted in takeoff and outbound flight by two smaller aircraft attached to its wings, then detaching themselves to recover and be used again. Aside from making training expensive at best and impractical at worst, LeMay himself was said to have reviewed the proposal drawings and commented, "That's not a bomber - that's a three-ship formation." The Skunk Works was not amused, but there wasn't much they could do. The Boeing proposal was much more practical, but it was designed more like an airliner than a bomber, and utilized swing-wing technology as well. That concerned LeMay from a maintenance and reliability standpoint, so that design was set aside as well. That left the NAA design, and from the beginning it was seen as an impressive - but daunting - project.
NAA came up with a design that from the beginning looked very much like the final product - a massive delta wing mounted over six GE J93 engines, with a fuselage looking for all the world like a hooded cobra rising from the wing's upper surface, and two canards just aft of the cockpit. It was the first US bomber designed from the beginning with no defensive armament whatsoever - it would rely on its speed and altitude to get it away from threats. LeMay had some concerns from the beginning about maintenance issues as well as its size - the NAA bird would be the largest bomber ever flown, easily beating the B-36 and B-52. However, continued feasibility studies showed that these problems could be economically and practically addressed. With that in mind, LeMay set out to sell the plane to the USAF leadership and Congress. They turned out to be much easier to convince than the man who would have to sign the checks: SecWar Robert MacNamara.
Although the new aircraft - officially designated B-70A - was approved during Dwight Eisenhower's administration, MacNamara announced a review of every major project as soon as he took office, and his eye fell balefully on the B-70.
Two prototypes were under construction at NAA's Palmdale, CA facility, and NAA pulled out all the stops to save the project. It was only through overwhelming political influence that the B-70 survived, though MacNamara privately made it clear that the most minor of hiccups would result in him killing it, and to hell with politics. Fortunately, there were none, at least not officially - there are indications that there were fairly serious issues with the exotic 'zip fuels' (boron compounds) that were intended for the big J93s.
These were never completely overcome, and the B-70 would always have slight range problems for its entire career. On the whole however the program went well, and after the shock of the Sakhalin War, the B-70 project received all the support it could handle. The first prototype - 570001, or Air Vehicle 1 - flew in July of 1960 and was a strong performer, meeting all its test goals. 570002 (AV2) - was built with a full set of combat systems but was not a combat capable aircraft. Richard Nixon's election in 1960 guaranteed the B-70's production, and not only was she cleared for production in 1961 but the production run was increased as well.
Now christened Valkyrie, a total of 91 were ordered: the two prototypes (XB-70A), four service test/trainers (YB-70A), and eighty-five (instead of the originally planned seventy) production service aircraft. In 1963, Congress authorized seventeen more aircraft for a final total of 102. The first production aircraft went to the 449th BMW (VH) at Kinross Field, MI. Over the next five years, the following units received the Valkyrie:
649th Bomb Test Wing (BTW) Edwards Field, CA (2 x XB-70A)
21st Bombardment Training Sqdn (BTS) March Field, CA (4 x YB-70A)
449th BMW (VH) Kinross Field, MI (17 x B-70A)
416th BMW (VH) Griffiss Field, NY (17 x B-70A)
7th BMW (VH) Castle Field, CA (17 x B-70A)
341st BMW (VH) Malmstrom Field, MT (17 x B-70A)
319th BMS (VH) Fairchild Field, WA (17 x B-70A)
5th BMW (VH) Minot Field, ND (17 x B-70A)
In addition, 110 KC-135 tankers were refitted to carry the Valkyrie's special JP-6 boron fuel. These tankers were assigned to the same wings as the bombers, along with several that were assigned to other units along the Northern Tier and inside Canada to cover B-70 operations. These aircraft could handle both normal JP-4 and the specialized JP-6. (A proposed Valkyrie tanker, the KB-70A, did not make it past the drawing stage after computer studies indicated the potential for serious stability problems during refueling.)
The B-70 had a remarkably quiet service career, for it was regarded as SAC's ace in the hole - a situation that did not endear it to the rest of the command. SAC doctrine said that the B-70s would be used to hit high-value, time-critical targets such as command posts and mobile ICBM systems. As such, they did not practice the constant penetrate-and-shoot tactics the B-52 and B-58 crews worked on seven days a week. And for the first few years of the B-70s career, it did not pull airborne alert because it was feared that when the Soviets saw B-70s on their scopes, they might be able to infer which targets they were going after. This didn't change until the early 70s, when the B-70s mission changed dramatically.
In the years immediately preceding, evidence began to grow that Soviet SAM technology had succeeded in fielding missiles that had the ability to endanger the B-70. SAC did its best to ignore that evidence, but by 1976 it could no longer do so.
The Carter Administration, eager to cut anything it possibly could, immediately began plans to decommission the B-70 and it's planned successor, the Next Generation Bomber (NGB), which eventually became the B-88 Excalibur. However, as the Sakhalin War saved the B-70 at birth, it was saved once more by another war - this one in Iran.
Following the embarrassment of the Iran War, SecWar Brown only begrudgingly allowed the B-70 to continue, and as it became clear that the Carter Administration would not win re-election, the SAC lobbied hard for a low-level operation upgrade to keep the B-70 a viable combat aircraft into the 1990s. The B-70s had received a comprehensive electronics upgrade in the late 60s that brought it up to B model standard, and this one would be far more extensive. It would receive the EVS/OAS system that had already been fitted to the B-52, along with a specially designed low-level TFR system and winglets to insure high- speed stability at low altitude. The upgrade was originally called PAVE Valkyrie, but eventually the rebuilt aircraft were redesignated B-70C.
Testing showed the B-70 was able to pull off low-level missions as well as the B-52, and at a maximum speed of nearly Mach 2.8. The B-70 continued in this role for the rest of its career.
In 1985, a B-70C from Fairchild Field disappeared while on a low-level practice mission in Montana. Investigation showed that there had been a structural failure in the port wing, and further examination showed that the B-70s airframe - intended to last until 2000 - was aging faster than anyone had considered after the switch to low-level ops. There was considerable argument, however, over how serious the problem was - until a second aircraft suffered an in-flight structural failure in the port wing that nearly led to the loss of the plane. By this point, the B-70 had been assigned the critical role of knocking down the increasingly tough Soviet air defenses as well as its traditional role of command post and mobile weapon targeting, and could not be easily replaced. A quick refit insured the wing problem would be held off for at least five years, but after that a complete wing rebuild would be necessary, and it was clear that there would be little support for that, especially when the cost could endanger the B-88, just now finishing its final flight tests.
Reluctantly, the USAF decided to retire the B-70s by the end of FY96 and replace it with the B-88.
Although a B-70 helped win the 1991 War, it was felt that there was no possibility that they could ever be extended in service. The post-Long War drawdown had four of the six Valkyrie wings decommissioned by FY03. However, one of the programs that hadn't been cancelled was the AGM-289 Rattlesnake ALCM - a hypersonic stealth missile that had turned out to be remarkably useful during the brushfire wars that sprang up in the aftermath of the Long War. The B-52s were needed for ground support, and the B-88s were considered too valuable to risk in anything less than a nuclear war. The USAF pointed out that the a B-70 could carry thirty AGM-289s, and could deliver them anywhere on earth within 8 hours. It was too late to save five of the six wings, but the oldest B-70 outfit, the 449th BMW at Kinross Field, MI, got a complete wing rebuild (as did the SC-70s and C-143s to save money), and they continued in service until 2008, when they were finally decommissioned.
There were four alternate versions of the B-70 proposed by NAA, two of which actually entered service. The KB-70 tanker version was seriously considered, but studies indicated a likelihood of serious stability problems during refueling operations and it was dropped. In the late 70s, NAA proposed a 'special strategic transport' version that would utilize stealth design and RAM to enable high-speed, high-altitude insertion of special forces and covert operation units.
The Reagan Administration looked very favorably upon the idea, and ordered 8 SC-70As, also known as 'Black Beauties'. These aircraft operate from Beale Field, CA, with the 321st Strategic Transport Squadron (STS). In addition, four more were built to a more standard configuration - essentially a B-70A with a passenger cabin, and are used for time critical VIP transport as well as 'show-the-flag' missions, and designated VC-143A. Two are based at Andrews Field, DC, and two more at March Field, CA. An Air Force One version, the VC-144A, was turned down on the basis of cost and space
considerations.
SC-70A
VC-143A/VC-144A
Of the original B-70s, most have been scrapped. Ten remain in storage at Davis-Monthan Field, AZ, while the last service B-70C is at the USAF Museum at Wright Field, OH. AV1 is at the NASM, while AV2 is on outdoor display at Muroc Field, CA. One more is in disassembled storage at Barksdale Field, LA, where it will form the centerpiece of the Valkyrie Memorial at the 8th Air Force Museum there.
B-70 Variants
Designation - Purpose - Number Built
XB-70A: Test Aircraft (2)
YB-70A: Service Test (4)
B-70A: Service (96)
B-70B: Avionics upgrade (98)
B-70C: Low-level avionics and structural improvement (97)
KB-70A: Proposed tanker variant (0)
SC-70A: Special Transport Variant (8)
VC-143A: Proposed Air Force 1 variant (0)
VC-144A: Special personnel transport variant (4)
(Valkyrie artwork courtesy of www.edwardsflighttest.com)
The B-52 Stratofortress was just entering squadron service in 1954 when CINCSAC General Curtis LeMay directed that feasibility studies begin for a triple-sonic heavy bomber to enter service in the mid-1960s. The prototype B-58 was scheduled to fly in 1956, but the USAF was already having second thoughts about it (but not sufficient ones to halt the eventual deployment of nearly 200 aircraft) due to expected maintenance and range issues.
The plane LeMay asked for would be capable of sustained Mach 3.1 speed from takeoff to target - anywhere in the world, without refueling - and back to a home base in the continental US. It would be able to carry any weapon currently in the US inventor any forecast out to 1970, and (contrary to popular legend) LeMay made VERY sure that the RFP called for the carriage of conventional weapons. The weapons and speed requirements weren't all that far out of line, but it was the sustained M3 requirement that gave engineers nightmares. However, three builders - North American, Boeing, and Lockheed all submitted proposals on February 1, 1955.
The Lockheed proposal was for an aircraft that would be assisted in takeoff and outbound flight by two smaller aircraft attached to its wings, then detaching themselves to recover and be used again. Aside from making training expensive at best and impractical at worst, LeMay himself was said to have reviewed the proposal drawings and commented, "That's not a bomber - that's a three-ship formation." The Skunk Works was not amused, but there wasn't much they could do. The Boeing proposal was much more practical, but it was designed more like an airliner than a bomber, and utilized swing-wing technology as well. That concerned LeMay from a maintenance and reliability standpoint, so that design was set aside as well. That left the NAA design, and from the beginning it was seen as an impressive - but daunting - project.
NAA came up with a design that from the beginning looked very much like the final product - a massive delta wing mounted over six GE J93 engines, with a fuselage looking for all the world like a hooded cobra rising from the wing's upper surface, and two canards just aft of the cockpit. It was the first US bomber designed from the beginning with no defensive armament whatsoever - it would rely on its speed and altitude to get it away from threats. LeMay had some concerns from the beginning about maintenance issues as well as its size - the NAA bird would be the largest bomber ever flown, easily beating the B-36 and B-52. However, continued feasibility studies showed that these problems could be economically and practically addressed. With that in mind, LeMay set out to sell the plane to the USAF leadership and Congress. They turned out to be much easier to convince than the man who would have to sign the checks: SecWar Robert MacNamara.
Although the new aircraft - officially designated B-70A - was approved during Dwight Eisenhower's administration, MacNamara announced a review of every major project as soon as he took office, and his eye fell balefully on the B-70.
Two prototypes were under construction at NAA's Palmdale, CA facility, and NAA pulled out all the stops to save the project. It was only through overwhelming political influence that the B-70 survived, though MacNamara privately made it clear that the most minor of hiccups would result in him killing it, and to hell with politics. Fortunately, there were none, at least not officially - there are indications that there were fairly serious issues with the exotic 'zip fuels' (boron compounds) that were intended for the big J93s.
These were never completely overcome, and the B-70 would always have slight range problems for its entire career. On the whole however the program went well, and after the shock of the Sakhalin War, the B-70 project received all the support it could handle. The first prototype - 570001, or Air Vehicle 1 - flew in July of 1960 and was a strong performer, meeting all its test goals. 570002 (AV2) - was built with a full set of combat systems but was not a combat capable aircraft. Richard Nixon's election in 1960 guaranteed the B-70's production, and not only was she cleared for production in 1961 but the production run was increased as well.
Now christened Valkyrie, a total of 91 were ordered: the two prototypes (XB-70A), four service test/trainers (YB-70A), and eighty-five (instead of the originally planned seventy) production service aircraft. In 1963, Congress authorized seventeen more aircraft for a final total of 102. The first production aircraft went to the 449th BMW (VH) at Kinross Field, MI. Over the next five years, the following units received the Valkyrie:
649th Bomb Test Wing (BTW) Edwards Field, CA (2 x XB-70A)
21st Bombardment Training Sqdn (BTS) March Field, CA (4 x YB-70A)
449th BMW (VH) Kinross Field, MI (17 x B-70A)
416th BMW (VH) Griffiss Field, NY (17 x B-70A)
7th BMW (VH) Castle Field, CA (17 x B-70A)
341st BMW (VH) Malmstrom Field, MT (17 x B-70A)
319th BMS (VH) Fairchild Field, WA (17 x B-70A)
5th BMW (VH) Minot Field, ND (17 x B-70A)
In addition, 110 KC-135 tankers were refitted to carry the Valkyrie's special JP-6 boron fuel. These tankers were assigned to the same wings as the bombers, along with several that were assigned to other units along the Northern Tier and inside Canada to cover B-70 operations. These aircraft could handle both normal JP-4 and the specialized JP-6. (A proposed Valkyrie tanker, the KB-70A, did not make it past the drawing stage after computer studies indicated the potential for serious stability problems during refueling.)
The B-70 had a remarkably quiet service career, for it was regarded as SAC's ace in the hole - a situation that did not endear it to the rest of the command. SAC doctrine said that the B-70s would be used to hit high-value, time-critical targets such as command posts and mobile ICBM systems. As such, they did not practice the constant penetrate-and-shoot tactics the B-52 and B-58 crews worked on seven days a week. And for the first few years of the B-70s career, it did not pull airborne alert because it was feared that when the Soviets saw B-70s on their scopes, they might be able to infer which targets they were going after. This didn't change until the early 70s, when the B-70s mission changed dramatically.
In the years immediately preceding, evidence began to grow that Soviet SAM technology had succeeded in fielding missiles that had the ability to endanger the B-70. SAC did its best to ignore that evidence, but by 1976 it could no longer do so.
The Carter Administration, eager to cut anything it possibly could, immediately began plans to decommission the B-70 and it's planned successor, the Next Generation Bomber (NGB), which eventually became the B-88 Excalibur. However, as the Sakhalin War saved the B-70 at birth, it was saved once more by another war - this one in Iran.
Following the embarrassment of the Iran War, SecWar Brown only begrudgingly allowed the B-70 to continue, and as it became clear that the Carter Administration would not win re-election, the SAC lobbied hard for a low-level operation upgrade to keep the B-70 a viable combat aircraft into the 1990s. The B-70s had received a comprehensive electronics upgrade in the late 60s that brought it up to B model standard, and this one would be far more extensive. It would receive the EVS/OAS system that had already been fitted to the B-52, along with a specially designed low-level TFR system and winglets to insure high- speed stability at low altitude. The upgrade was originally called PAVE Valkyrie, but eventually the rebuilt aircraft were redesignated B-70C.
Testing showed the B-70 was able to pull off low-level missions as well as the B-52, and at a maximum speed of nearly Mach 2.8. The B-70 continued in this role for the rest of its career.
In 1985, a B-70C from Fairchild Field disappeared while on a low-level practice mission in Montana. Investigation showed that there had been a structural failure in the port wing, and further examination showed that the B-70s airframe - intended to last until 2000 - was aging faster than anyone had considered after the switch to low-level ops. There was considerable argument, however, over how serious the problem was - until a second aircraft suffered an in-flight structural failure in the port wing that nearly led to the loss of the plane. By this point, the B-70 had been assigned the critical role of knocking down the increasingly tough Soviet air defenses as well as its traditional role of command post and mobile weapon targeting, and could not be easily replaced. A quick refit insured the wing problem would be held off for at least five years, but after that a complete wing rebuild would be necessary, and it was clear that there would be little support for that, especially when the cost could endanger the B-88, just now finishing its final flight tests.
Reluctantly, the USAF decided to retire the B-70s by the end of FY96 and replace it with the B-88.
Although a B-70 helped win the 1991 War, it was felt that there was no possibility that they could ever be extended in service. The post-Long War drawdown had four of the six Valkyrie wings decommissioned by FY03. However, one of the programs that hadn't been cancelled was the AGM-289 Rattlesnake ALCM - a hypersonic stealth missile that had turned out to be remarkably useful during the brushfire wars that sprang up in the aftermath of the Long War. The B-52s were needed for ground support, and the B-88s were considered too valuable to risk in anything less than a nuclear war. The USAF pointed out that the a B-70 could carry thirty AGM-289s, and could deliver them anywhere on earth within 8 hours. It was too late to save five of the six wings, but the oldest B-70 outfit, the 449th BMW at Kinross Field, MI, got a complete wing rebuild (as did the SC-70s and C-143s to save money), and they continued in service until 2008, when they were finally decommissioned.
There were four alternate versions of the B-70 proposed by NAA, two of which actually entered service. The KB-70 tanker version was seriously considered, but studies indicated a likelihood of serious stability problems during refueling operations and it was dropped. In the late 70s, NAA proposed a 'special strategic transport' version that would utilize stealth design and RAM to enable high-speed, high-altitude insertion of special forces and covert operation units.
The Reagan Administration looked very favorably upon the idea, and ordered 8 SC-70As, also known as 'Black Beauties'. These aircraft operate from Beale Field, CA, with the 321st Strategic Transport Squadron (STS). In addition, four more were built to a more standard configuration - essentially a B-70A with a passenger cabin, and are used for time critical VIP transport as well as 'show-the-flag' missions, and designated VC-143A. Two are based at Andrews Field, DC, and two more at March Field, CA. An Air Force One version, the VC-144A, was turned down on the basis of cost and space
considerations.
SC-70A
VC-143A/VC-144A
Of the original B-70s, most have been scrapped. Ten remain in storage at Davis-Monthan Field, AZ, while the last service B-70C is at the USAF Museum at Wright Field, OH. AV1 is at the NASM, while AV2 is on outdoor display at Muroc Field, CA. One more is in disassembled storage at Barksdale Field, LA, where it will form the centerpiece of the Valkyrie Memorial at the 8th Air Force Museum there.
B-70 Variants
Designation - Purpose - Number Built
XB-70A: Test Aircraft (2)
YB-70A: Service Test (4)
B-70A: Service (96)
B-70B: Avionics upgrade (98)
B-70C: Low-level avionics and structural improvement (97)
KB-70A: Proposed tanker variant (0)
SC-70A: Special Transport Variant (8)
VC-143A: Proposed Air Force 1 variant (0)
VC-144A: Special personnel transport variant (4)
(Valkyrie artwork courtesy of www.edwardsflighttest.com)
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MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
US Five-Star General/Flag Officers
US Army
Eisenhower
Bradley
Patton
Hodges
Marshall
Kreuger
US Navy
Halsey
Leahy
King
Spruance
Shannon
Fletcher
Nimitz
USMC
Vandegrift
USAAF ( LATER USAF)
Arnold
Mitchell
Eaker
Spaatz
Doolittle
Quesada
US Army
Eisenhower
Bradley
Patton
Hodges
Marshall
Kreuger
US Navy
Halsey
Leahy
King
Spruance
Shannon
Fletcher
Nimitz
USMC
Vandegrift
USAAF ( LATER USAF)
Arnold
Mitchell
Eaker
Spaatz
Doolittle
Quesada
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MKSheppard
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:41 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
The Darlingtons, the USNs 40 knot commerce raiders.....
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Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
What did SAC leadership do to disgrace themselves?
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
To be revealed when Mike finishes Nightwatch.
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Simon Darkshade
- Posts: 1049
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:55 am
Re: TIPOTS Addenum(s)
Regarding the list of USN battleships, what is the 'surveying' that occurred to three of them on 1/1/1948? My initial thinking was being sunk in atomic testing, but it isn't that long after the Sagami Bay battle of 20th August 1947.