Editing Curtis LeMay (section)

===Strategic Air Command===
[[File:CINCSAC Gen. Curtis LeMay and Boeing test pilot Tex Johnston.jpg|thumb|General LeMay flying a [[Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker]] during his tenure as [[List of commanders-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command|Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command]]]]

In 1948, he returned to the U.S. to head the [[Strategic Air Command]] (SAC) at [[Offutt Air Force Base]], replacing Gen [[George Kenney]]. When LeMay took over command of SAC, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed B-29 bombardment groups left over from World War II. Less than half of the available aircraft were operational, and the crews were undertrained. Base and aircraft security standards were minimal. Upon inspecting a SAC hangar full of US nuclear strategic bombers, LeMay found a single Air Force sentry on duty, unarmed.<ref>Watson, George M., ''Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force'', Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, USAF (2001) p. 132: LeMay recorded the incident in a memo to staff the same day, stating "this afternoon I found a man guarding a hangar with a ham sandwich. There will be no more of that".</ref> After ordering a mock bombing exercise on [[Dayton, Ohio]], LeMay was shocked to learn that most of the strategic bombers assigned to the mission missed their targets by one mile or more. "We didn't have one crew, not one crew, in the entire command who could do a professional job", noted LeMay.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=[[Air & Space]] |title=History of Flight – B-36: Bomber at the Crossroads|first=Daniel |last=Ford|date=April 1, 1996|url=http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/B-36-Bomber-at-the-Crossroads.html?c=y&page=5}}</ref>

A meeting in November 1948, with Air Force Chief of Staff [[Hoyt Vandenberg]], found the two men agreeing the primary mission of SAC should be the capability of delivering 80% of the nation's atomic bombs in one mission. At the Dualism Conference in December 1948, the Air Force leadership rallied behind LeMay's position that the service's highest priority was to deliver the SAC atomic offensive "in one fell swoop telescoping mass and time".<ref>[[David Alan Rosenberg]], "The Origins of Overkill: Nuclear Weapons and American Strategy, 1945–1960", ''International Security'', 7/4, (1983): p 19.</ref> "To LeMay, demolishing everything was how you win a war."<ref>[[Fred Kaplan (journalist)|Fred Kaplan]], ''The Wizards of Armageddon'', (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1991), p 97.</ref> Towards this aim, LeMay delivered the first SAC Emergency War Plan in March 1949 which called for dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR within 30 days. LeMay predicted that [[World War III]] would last no longer than 30 days.<ref>[[Michio Kaku]], & Daniel Axelrod,<!--- not the redirect to the botanist ---> ''To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon Secret War Plans'', (Boston: South End Press, 1987), p 97.</ref> Air power strategists called this type of pre-emptive strike "killing a nation".<ref name="rhodes19950611">{{Cite magazine |last=Rhodes |first=Richard |date=1995-06-11 |title=The General and World War III |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/06/19/the-general-and-world-war-iii |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X |access-date=2023-11-30}}</ref> However, the Harmon committee released their unanimous report two months later stating such an attack would not end a war with the Soviets and their industry would quickly recover. This committee had been specifically created by the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] to study the effects of a massive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, within weeks, an ad hoc Joint Chiefs committee recommended tripling America's nuclear arsenal, and Air Force Chief of Staff Vandenberg called for enough bombs to attack 220 targets, up from the previous 70.<ref>Steven T. Ross, "American War Plans 1945–1950" Frank Cass & Co., 1996, pg. 106–107</ref>

Upon receiving his [[General (United States)|fourth star]] in 1951 at age 44, LeMay became the youngest American four-star general since [[Ulysses S. Grant]]. He would also become the longest serving person in that rank in American military history.<ref name="WarrenKozak.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.warrenkozak.com/basics.html |title=LeMay: The Life And Wars of General Curtis LeMay |access-date=May 8, 2009 |first=Warren |last=Kozak  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626215058/http://www.warrenkozak.com/basics.html |archive-date=June 26, 2009 }}</ref>

In 1954 LeMay remarked to pilot Hal Austin, whose plane had been damaged by a [[MiG-17]] while on a [[United States aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union|reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union]], "Well, maybe if we do this overflight right, we can get World War III started". Hal Austin assumed that LeMay was joking, but years later, after LeMay retired, Austin saw him again and "brought up the subject of the mission we had flown. And he remembered it like it was yesterday. We chatted about it a little bit. His comment again was, 'Well, we'd have been a hell of a lot better off if we'd got World War III started in those days'".{{r|rhodes19950611}}

In 1956 and 1957 LeMay implemented tests of 24-hour bomber and tanker alerts, keeping some bomber forces ready at all times. LeMay headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet force. LeMay's tenure was the longest over an American military command in nearly 100 years.<ref name=AFMagazine_200810>{{Cite journal|journal=[[Air Force Magazine]] |date=October 2008}}</ref>