LeMay initially started flying supplies into Berlin, but then decided that it was a job for a logistics expert and he found that person in Lt. General William H. Tunner, who took over the operational end of the Berlin Airlift.

Faced with these poor results, Curtis LeMay started a series of reforms in an effort to address the problems.

Soon after taking command, on 9 November, LeMay relocated SAC to Offutt AFB south of Omaha.

According to his service record, these commissions were revoked " by telephone " after an Army personnel officer, realizing that LeMay was holding officer and enlisted status simultaneously, called him to discuss the matter.

Thus, no serious effort was ever made to promote LeMay to the rank of General of the Air Force, and the matter was eventually dropped after his retirement from active service in 1965.

The General's character is patterned after the real SAC commander General Curtis LeMay.

With characteristic impatience, Arnold quickly relieved Wolfe, the B-29 commander in China, after less than a month of operations, and replaced him with LeMay.

Arnold's last wartime heart attack came on January 17, 1945, just days after he replaced Hansell with LeMay.

Wallace retracted the invitation, and ( after considering Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders ) chose Air Force General Curtis LeMay of California.

But when Group Captain Leonard Cheshire and Professor William Penney went to Tinian, they were not allowed by Groves and / or LeMay to go on the Hiroshima flight, and only after protests went in the observation plane Big Stink on the Nagasaki flight.

The two countries began coordinating their plans for a Soviet attack in Europe after the Czechoslovak coup d ' état of 1948, and later that year General Curtis LeMay, head of Strategic Air Command ( SAC ), asked Tedder to allow the basing of American atomic weapons in Britain.

He had nine children, who he named after famous friends who were named as godparents to the children: Emmett Dwight, for Gen. Emmett O ' Donnell and President Eisenhower ; Spencer Bedell, for Gen. Walter Bedell Smith ; Bradley Marshall, for Gen. Omar N. Bradley and Gen. George C. Marshall ; Curtis Gruenther, for Gen. Curtis E. LeMay and Gen. Albert M. Gruenther, and Hunter Bernhard, for Gen. Hunter Harris and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.

Air Force General Curtis LeMay presented a pre-invasion bombing plan to Kennedy in September, while spy flights and minor military harassment from US forces at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were the subject of continual Cuban diplomatic complaints to the US government.

Despite SAC's establishment of " hardened " underground command and control facilities at its headquarters at Offutt AFB, LeMay and his planners knew that a direct nuclear strike by Soviet forces employing hydrogen weapons would likely destroy the facility.

LeMay became known for his massive incendiary attacks against Japanese cities during the war using hundreds of planes flying at low altitudes.

His father, Erving LeMay, was at times an ironworker and general handyman, but he never held a job longer than a few months.

LeMay attended Columbus public schools, graduating from Columbus South High School, and studied civil engineering at Ohio State University.

For this first attack, LeMay ordered the defensive guns removed from 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with Model E-46 incendiary clusters, magnesium bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and napalm, and ordered the bombers to fly in streams at 5, 000 to 9, 000 feet over Tokyo.

The New York Times reported at the time, " Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day, the attack will have served its purpose.

LeMay piloted one of three specially modified B-29s flying from Japan to the U. S. in September 1945, in the process breaking several aviation records at that date, including the greatest USAAF takeoff weight, the longest USAAF non-stop flight, and the first ever non-stop Japan – Chicago flight.

Upon receiving his fourth star in 1951 at age 44, LeMay became the youngest four-star general in American history since Ulysses S. Grant and was the youngest four-star general in modern history as well as the longest serving in that rank.

In 1956 and 1957 LeMay implemented tests of 24-hour bomber and tanker alerts, keeping some bomber forces ready at all times.

In these documents, which were often the transcripts of speeches before groups such as the National War College or events such as the 1955 Joint Secretaries Conference at the Quantico Marine Corps Base, LeMay clearly advocated using SAC as a preemptive weapon, if and when such was necessary.

Though LeMay lost significant appropriation battles for the Skybolt ALBM and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress replacement, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie, he was largely successful at expanding Air Force budgets.

The memorandum from LeMay, Chief of Staff, USAF, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, January 4, 1964, illustrates LeMay's reasons for keeping bomber forces alongside ballistic missiles: " It is important to recognize, however, that ballistic missile forces represent both the U. S. and Soviet potential for strategic nuclear warfare at the highest, most indiscriminate level, and at a level least susceptible to control.

For the presidential race that year, LeMay originally supported Richard Nixon ; he turned down two requests by George Wallace to join his American Independent Party that year on the grounds that a third-party candidacy might hurt Nixon's chances at the polls ( by coincidence, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II ).

General LeMay died on October 1, 1990, at March Air Force Base in Riverside County, California, and is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The April 25, 1988 issue of The New Yorker carried an interview with retired Air Force Reserve Major General and former US Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater, who said he repeatedly asked his friend General LeMay if he ( Goldwater ) might have access to the secret " Blue Room " at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, alleged by numerous Goldwater constituents to contain UFO evidence.

Curtis LeMay ’ s first contact with military service occurred in September 1924 when he enrolled as a student in the ROTC program at Ohio State University.

Thus, for this short period in LeMay ’ s career, he was technically an officer and enlisted soldier at the same time, a practice no longer permitted in the U. S. military.

In Vancouver 2010, four athletes — Catriona LeMay Doan, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash and Nancy Greene — were given the honor of lighting the flame simultaneously ( indoor ) before Wayne Gretzky transferred the flame to an outdoor cauldron at Vancouver's waterfront.

The April 25, 1988 issue of The New Yorker carried an interview where Senator Barry Goldwater, who had a deep interest in UFOs, said he repeatedly asked his friend, Gen. Curtis LeMay, if there was any truth to the rumors that UFO evidence was stored in a secret room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

It was under the leadership of LeMay that SAC developed the technical capability, strategic planning, and operational readiness to carry out its strategic mission anywhere in the world.

When LeMay assumed command of SAC, his vision was to create a force of nuclear-armed long-range bombers with the capability to devastate the Soviet Union within a few days of the advent of war.

But the reality when LeMay assumed command was that SAC had only sixty nuclear capable aircraft, none of which had the long-range capabilities he desired.

Despite having a limited range, by the end of LeMay ’ s command in 1957, the B-47 had become the backbone of SAC, comprising over half of its total aircraft and eighty percent of its bomber capacity.

A key factor enabling the B-47 to become the mainstay of SAC ( and to fulfill LeMay ’ s desire for a long range bomber ) was the development of in-flight refueling.

During LeMay ’ s command, SAC was able to effect great changes in American nuclear strategy.

It was this uncertainty that LeMay entered into upon assuming command of SAC which emboldened him and SAC planners to attempt to unilaterally form American nuclear strategy.

This was done by LeMay in a 1951 meeting with high level Air Force staff, when he convinced them that unreasonable operational demands were being placed on SAC and, in order to alleviate the issue, SAC should be allowed to approve target selections before they were finalized.

While the Eisenhower administration approved of the strategy in general, LeMay continued to increase SAC ’ s independence by refusing to submit SAC war plans for review, believing that operational plans should be closely guarded, a view the Joint Chiefs of Staff eventually came to accept.

LeMay and SAC ’ s continuing efforts to assume greater control over nuclear strategy were vindicated on August 11, 1960, when Eisenhower approved a plan to create the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff ( dominated by SAC ) to prepare the National Strategic Target List and the Single Integrated Operation Plan ( SIOP ) for nuclear war.

But SAC did more than just provide a nuclear option during the Korean War, It also deployed four B-29 bomber wings that were used in tactical operations against enemy forces and logistics All of this led LeMay to express concern that “ too many splinters were being whittled off the stick ”, preventing him from being able to carry out his primary mission of strategic deterrence.

As a result, LeMay was relieved when the Korean War ended in 1953 and he was able to go back to building SAC ’ s arsenal and gaining control over nuclear strategy.

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.

Upon inspecting a SAC hangar full of US nuclear strategic bombers, LeMay found a single Air Force sentry on duty, armed only with a ham sandwich.

LeMay headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet force.

Several documents show LeMay advocating preemptive attack of the Soviet Union, had it become clear the Soviets were preparing to attack SAC or the US.

LeMay insisted on rigorous training and very high standards of performance for all SAC personnel, be they officers, enlisted men, aircrews, mechanics, or administrative staff, and reportedly commented, " I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the merely unfortunate.