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West Point graduates played a central role in developing U.S. military air and space power from the earliest days of mechanized flight through the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947, and continuing through the Persian Gulf War. These graduates served at a time when the world's greatest wave of technological advancement occurred: in aviation, nuclear weapons, rocketry, ICBMs, computers, satellite systems in inner space and man in outer space.
This history traces the advancement of weapons and space technology that became the hallmark of the U.S. Air Force, and the pivotal role that West Point graduates played in integrating them into a wide variety of Air Force systems and programs. Many became aircraft commanders, test pilots, astronauts and, later in their careers, general officers who helped shape and implement technologies still in use today.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Foreword by Richard P. Hallion
Preface by Charles F.G. Kuyk, Jr.
Abbreviations
¿1.¿The Early Years of U.S. Army Aviation (1903-47)
¿2.¿Path to Independence
¿3.¿The Class of 1950
¿4.¿Cultural Transitions
¿5.¿Focus on Advancing Technology
¿6.¿Flight Tests and Test Pilots
¿7.¿Aerial Reconnaissance
¿8.¿Military Airlift
¿9.¿ICBMs
10.¿Space
11.¿U.S. Air Force Academy
12.¿Leadership
Epilogue
Chronology of Key Events
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Charles F.G. Kuyk, Jr., is a veteran of 36 years of military service, from Private to Major General. He served with the Marines in World War II, as a B-29 combat pilot in Korea, a nuclear bomber pilot during the Cold War, an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, a commander and pilot of an EB-66 electronic counter measures (ECM) squadron during the Vietnam War, commander of the C-5 Wing during the airlift support of the Arab-Israeli war, Commander of the numbered Air Force for the western half of the world and as a general officer at the Pentagon defining future Air Force requirements.Charles F.G. Kuyk III is a former ICBM and project control officer with the U.S. Air Force, and a retired forensic accountant. He served at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming as an ICBM Deputy Commander and later as a project control officer at the Space and Missile Systems Organization in El Segundo, California.
