LeMay, Curtis Emerson(1906–90)

Air Force Officer, Chief of Strategic Air Command

Gen. Curtis E. LeMay was the commander most closely associated with the emergence of American strategic air power. The first chief of the Strategic Air Command, he organized the turn from precision daylight to nighttime incendiary bombing attacks on Japan in World War II. The phrase “bomb them into the stone age” is credited to him.

LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1906, to a family of small means. His toughness and ambition helped him work his way through Ohio State University. Upon graduation, he received a reserve commission, but he resigned that commission to attend the Army's flying school, Kelly Field, to realize a dream he had held from his earliest days. His performance as a flying cadet was so exceptional that the Army offered him a regular commission—a highly unusual honor at the beginning of the Depression. Throughout the 1930s, LeMay displayed extraordinary interest in expanding his horizons, becoming not only one of the foremost instrument pilots in the days of “by-the-seat-of-the-pants” flying, but also one of the pioneers in aerial navigation.

LeMay was not a lovable man. Because of an attack of Bell's palsy that paralyzed one side of his face early in his career, he consistently had a glowering look. Throughout his career he led by example. In wartime as well as peacetime, he would ask of his men nothing that he had not already done himself. He was also a ruthless and tireless trainer of those who served under him. Despite the difficulties with which the Depression encumbered America's military, LeMay's career flourished. In 1937 and 1938, he served as the lead navigator on a number of pioneering flights to South America. In May 1938 LeMay navigated a force of three B-17s to an interception of the Italian liner Rex nearly 800 miles off the Atlantic coast, an extraordinary feat given the technology of the time.

LeMay was promoted to captain in 1940 and his career advanced quickly. In early 1942 he received command of the 305th Bombardment Group—a group with no planes, no men, no maintenance facilities, and no crew chiefs. He created the 305th out of the rawest of material and then led it to Europe as one of the best-trained units in the 8th Air Force. LeMay consistently led the most dangerous missions. As he commented, “I don’t mind being called tough, since I find in this racket it's the tough guys who lead the survivors.”

On August 17, 1943, now commanding the 3rd Air Division, LeMay led the great Regensburg–Schweinfurt mission. The mission's intent was that the 3rd Air Division would attack Regensburg and then continue on to North Africa, leaving German fighter squadrons milling around to the west of the target. Then, after an interval long enough to force the German fighters back to the ground to refuel and rearm, a second bomber force would attack Schweinfurt [Page 418]without opposition. Unfortunately, plans went awry; heavy fog blanketed the bomber fields of England, and LeMay's bombers were the only ones trained and able to take off and assemble under such conditions. LeMay's group lost 24 of 146 bombers dispatched. But the second force assembled and left England so late that the Germans were ready and waiting when it reached Schweinfurt. They lost 36 bombers.

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