Strategic Air Command

LeMay, the more accomplished and visible of the two, rose to become Air Force chief of staff after commanding Strategic Air Command and leading the strategic bombing campaign against Japan in World War II. He was constantly at odds with McNamara, President John F. Kennedy and Joint Chiefs Chairman Maxwell Taylor over the Cuban missile crisis and the war in Vietnam.

B-52 bombers, the backbone of the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command, were produced here, too.

“For generations, servicemembers from the Midwest have answered the call of duty and served in our nation’s military. Yet, the Midwest – especially since the post-Cold War reduction in the Strategic Air Command – is home to few active-duty military installations,” they wrote.

“For generations, servicemembers from the Midwest have answered the call of duty and served in our nation’s military. Yet, the Midwest – especially since the post-Cold War reduction in the Strategic Air Command – is home to few active-duty military installations,” they wrote.

He later served as a flight instructor at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama and at Lockbourne Air Force Base near Columbus, Ohio, which by then was integrated, and qualified as a Strategic Air Command B-47 bomber pilot.