Thomas S. Power

Thomas S. Power
General Thomas Sarsfield Power
Born	June 18, 1905 New York City, New York
Died	December 6, 1970(1970-12-06) (aged 65) near Palm Springs, California
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1929–1964
Rank	General
Commands	Strategic Air Command Air Research and Development Command
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Silver Star Legion of Merit (2) Distinguished Flying Cross Bronze Star Air Medal (2)

General Thomas Sarsfield Power (June 18, 1905 – December 6, 1970) was commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command and an active military flier for more than 30 years.

Early career

Born in New York City in 1905, General Power attended Barnard Preparatory School in New York and entered the Air Corps flying school February 17, 1928. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in February 1929.

His early service included assignments at most of the famed Air Corps fields of the day - Chanute Field, Illinois, as a student officer; Langley Field, Virginia, as commanding officer of the 2d Wing Headquarters Detachment; Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., for duty as an Army air mail operations pilot; Randolph Field, Texas, as a flying instructor; Maxwell Field, Alabama, to attend the Air Corps Tactical School, and completing his early career as engineering and armament officer at Nichols Field, Philippines.

World War II

During World War II, General Power first saw combat flying B-24 missions with the 304th Bomb Wing in North Africa and Italy. After returning to the United States in August 1944, he was named commander of the 314th Bomb Wing (Very Heavy) and moved his B-29s to Guam as part of the 21st Bomber Command. From Guam, General Power directed the first large-scale fire bomb raid on Tokyo, Japan, on March 9, 1945.

On August 1, 1945, General Carl Spaatz, then commanding general of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, moved General Power up on his staff as deputy chief of operations. He served in this capacity during the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Cold War

During the Operation Crossroads, the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, General Power was assigned as assistant deputy task force commander for air on Admiral William H. P. Blandy's staff. Then came assignments as deputy assistant chief of air staff for operations in Washington and a period of air attaché duty in London, prior to his transfer to the Strategic Air Command as vice commander in 1948. During the next six years, General Power assisted General Curtis E. LeMay, then commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command, in building up SAC. Powers was then appointed commander of the Air Research and Development Command in 1954, a position he held for three years.

When General LeMay was named vice chief of staff of the Air Force in 1957, General Power became commander in chief of SAC and was promoted to four-star rank. But, although Power was LeMay's protégé, LeMay himself was quoted as privately saying that Power was mentally "not stable" and a "sadist".

When RAND proposed a counterforce strategy, which would require SAC to restrain itself from striking Soviet cities in the beginning of a war, Power countered with:

Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Power purportedly raised the US Defense Condition to "Defcon 2," one step short of total nuclear war, some say without Presidential approval. Power also took the unprecedented action of broadcasting an alert message to global Strategic Air Command (SAC) nuclear forces in "the clear" (on non-scrambled, open radio channels) in order to accomplish two objectives: 1.) alert all US forces of the possibility of impending global nuclear war and 2.) alert the Soviet Union that SAC was fully prepared and on standby to deploy nuclear weapons, if called upon to do so by the President. The Soviets immediately began the process of the removal of the nearly-activated nuclear missiles in Cuba after the broadcast, while US President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy struggled while continuing to pursue negotiation over weak diplomatic telecommunications channels before the implementation of the Moscow–Washington hotline.

Like his mentor General LeMay, Power believed that the only effective form of war strategy against enemy nations run by dictators in possession of nuclear weapons was Mutually Assured Destruction. Power continued supervision of this strategy, both in the development and deployment of the necessary weaponry, and the willingness to use these weapons in case of impending threat. Like LeMay, Power emphasized the value of bomber aircraft, which (unlike missiles) can be recalled in the event of an error in technical threat detection, and offer a strategic recourse short of total war.

Power retired from the Air Force on November 30, 1964 and died of a heart attack December 6, 1970. He was a rated command pilot and aircraft observer, and was America's last general officer with no post-secondary education.

Awards and recognitions

General Power was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

•   Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
•   Silver Star
•   Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster
•   Distinguished Flying Cross
•   Bronze Star
•   Air Medal
•   Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster
•   French Croix de Guerre with Palm.

In popular culture

Power, a confirmed and unapologetic proponent of the LeMay school of staunch and successful militaristic anti-communism, was caricatured to create the "General Ripper" character in the film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

External links

• Thomas S. Power Papers at Syracuse University

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=6801