The story of four pioneering U.S. Army Air Force officers - Hap Arnold, Frank Andrews, Carl Spaatz, and Ira Eaker - who shaped strategic air power doctrine and fought against military conservatism in the formative years before World War II. Characteristics ISBN-10 0-385-13310-3 Book cover finish(es) Hardcover ( square back binding ) Special Features • Dust jacket Condition Good Author(s) DeWitt S. Copp Publisher Air Force Historical Foundation Number of pages 532 Published date 1980 Language(s) English Size 16 x 24 x 4,5 cm Categorie(s) • AVIATION MILITAIRE• BIOGRAPHIES• PRÉCURSEURS - PIONNIERS Description A FEW GREAT CAPTAINS is the story of the formative years of the most powerful striking force in the world, and of the four men who acted as godfathers to it: H. H. "Hap" Arnold, Frank M. Andrews, Carl Spaatz and Ira C. Eaker. Pioneers in the science of aeronautics, in whose service they daily risked death in rickety but thrilling contraptions, these men were also the theoreticians of strategic air power who fought a long and difficult battle against the jealous, shortsighted obstructionism of the ultraconservative military establishment. It was July 15, 1933. Behind the pomp and ceremony that would greet the ninety-six Italian fliers, led by General Italo Balbo, with waving flags, speeches, and celebrations reaching all the way to the White House, lay a significant fact: in a peaceful demonstration of aeronautical daring, a long-debated but little-accepted military theory had gained new credibility. Those who held this belief maintained that the airplane was a potential weapon of war that transcended all others—a strategic weapon whose long-range striking power could eliminate an enemy’s industrial might, limited only by the state of its technological development. Regrettably for the advocates of air power, this concept was not an accepted military axiom within either the Army or the Navy. The debate over the proper use of military air power had continued since the end of World War I. Shortly after Balbo led his armada on the longest aerial feat of its kind, the General Staff of the War Department, in its air plan recommendations, dismissed the underlying military significance of the spectacular flight, stating that it had no bearing on the future. This dismissal would persist in the years leading up to the beginning of World War II. Integral to the controversy was an equally explosive question: who should control Army air power—General Staff ground officers or airmen themselves? This book, the first of two, explores the lives and actions of a small group of air officers who believed they had the answer. Against this backdrop, the protagonists—Frank Andrews, Hap Arnold, Ira Eaker, Benny Foulois, Tooey Spaatz, and their compatriots—waged their battles for independent thought and command. They were officers who placed their careers and reputations on the line, and frequently— in the pursuit of greater aeronautical knowledge—their lives. What follows is their combined and interwoven story, tracing their careers from the early days of powered flight to the onset of World War II in September 1939.
