 Today, the man in the street has a simple solution to our military problems. A solution he feels is right up there in the skies. He thinks that if we get enough planes, carrying enough bombs, preferably atom bombs, no aggressor will dare strike. He believes that long-range heavy bombers for launching paralyzing attacks against enemy industry, plus interceptor and fighter planes for our own defense, is complete air power. And so the man on the street is depending largely on what the military dictionary terms, strategic air power. But to the men planning and creating America's air strength, the man on the street is only half right. Our best military minds know that strategic and defensive air power are not enough to take and hold aggressor territory. We require tactical air power, the kind that works hand-in-hand with the Army and Navy. Since in the final analysis, this is the only way to win a war, a great part of the United States Air Force is devoted to tactical air power. Historic Langley Field, Virginia, cradle of the air age, has been given the mission of serving as headquarters for the Tactical Air Command. Here in joint planning conferences with the Army and Navy are worked out in detail the principles and techniques of tactical air power. Principles and techniques adding up to five distinct types of air combat missions, achieving air superiority, close air support, interdiction, ill reconnaissance, troop carrier and air supply, just a lot of words to the layman, but to the pilots who fly the missions, these words hold real meaning. Achieving air superiority means just what it says, getting the upper hand in the skies over the battle area. We fighter pilots did just that time and again in World War II to prove that mastery of the air is necessary for the success of ground operations. To gain air superiority, we knocked a lot of enemy planes out of the air, whittled their air force down the side, impossible we flattened them in their own backyard, tried the enemy completely out of the sky, but we made it difficult, if not impossible, for them to mount air offensive against our surface forces. Since air superiority was ours, we continued daily tactical operations to keep it that way. Now we worked the air over, the reconnaissance planes were busy too, but aiming cameras instead of guns. Out in the Pacific, we recon pilots were always glad to sit down on the landing script because we carried no guns. Our only protection was speed. We went in fast and came out fast with mighty important information. It was our business to fly deep behind enemy lines to find their weak points as well as their strong points and record it all on film. The exposed negatives we brought back were rushed to laboratories for development to become exhibit A for ground, naval and air forces in planning future campaigns. Yes, we got the pictures, the kind that had a lot to do with our victories in World War II. Here showing troop concentrations, fortifications, roads and bridges, rail centers, warehouses and other key installations. On the basis of our reconnaissance, the crews of the tactical bombers went out to plaster the targets spotted for them. According to the manuals, that plaster and we bomber pilots did in Europe was known as interdiction. The idea was to isolate the battlefield, to seal it off as much as possible and prevent the enemy from getting supplies and reinforcements to their troops in the battle area. The way we did in those weeks before D-Day. Interdiction targets included enemy highways, marshland yards, bridges, supply depots, unison dumps. First to confuse the enemy, we fanned out our attacks over a wide area. Later when there wasn't much they could do about it, even if they guessed what we were up to, we concentrated on the specific area our ground troops planned to attack. We couldn't always completely isolate the battlefield, but we did interrupt enemy supply, transportation and communication to make it easier for our ground troops when they moved in. Ground troops moved in, we fighter pilots were right in there to give them a helping hand. Take a situation where the GIs were attacking and having a tough time of it. Once they let us know where the hotspots were, we dropped over to scrape and bomb the enemy positions. But we did make it possible to annex enemy territory faster and with fewer losses. And when battle plans called for airborne troops and supplies, that was another mission for the tactical air command. Troop carrier and air supply, that was our job. We transport pilots, flew the Sky Trains on schedule to deliver the troops wherever they would do the most good, behind the enemy lines or when necessary to reinforce our main armies. In an emergency when normal means of supply were not available, we delivered by air equipment and supplies needed by our surface forces to carry on the fight. Yes, as World War II proved, the goal of tactical air is to help our surface forces fight and win. Day throughout the country, Air Force bases are moving in high gear to implement a comprehensive plan of tactical air operations. A vast organization is at work, speeding the development of essential material, trained manpower and advanced techniques in an effort involving hundreds of specialized skills. The design of better airplanes is being fostered by the men who actually use them. And behind the men who fly the planes is a core of technicians who attend to the thousands of jobs that go to make up the tactical air machine. In every phase, realistic thinking and planning is evident. The constant aim is for higher efficiency. Be typified by the use of radar devices which make it possible to guide our planes day or night in any kind of weather. In anticipation of tomorrow's troop carrier requirements, new and faster air transport is being developed. Take the famous packet. We transport pilots call it the flying box car. Looks like one and carries almost as big a load. And even the packet is a baby compared with the mammoth globe master. In its 10,000 cubic feet of cargo space, you can load 25 tons of military vehicles, mobile field guns or tanks. As a troop carrier, the globe master will accommodate 200 troops in their field equipment. This must be what General Forrest had in mind when he said, get their firstess with the mostess. Mobile reconnaissance planes fitted with high-powered cameras and radar are going a lot daily to work out recon problems under simulated battle conditions. Born of the latest aeronautical technology, the new RF-80s can travel at near-sonic speed. This new speed, coupled with the ability to fly at high altitudes, forms an unbeatable combination. Information that can live in the air, carry out vital intelligence missions, and survive. The aim is to obtain more and better information. Information that can be of use to surface and air forces. For example, reconnaissance information given to a tactical bomber group becomes the basis for planning a mission of interdiction. The method for isolating the battle area is worked out in minute detail. The means for translating method into action are the pilots and crews who man the all-purpose bombers. Typical of the new aircraft being created for tactical bombing is the B-45 tornado. For jet engines, they deliver all the power we need to lift a big bomb load and get to the target in a hurry. Of course, the bombs we have now pack a much bigger wallop, and the size of the bomb load still surprises some of the old timers. There is no sitting dock. I know I fly. It's not only fast and maneuverable, but carries enough guns and armament to give a good account of itself in any combat mission, flying, strafing, or bombing. Practice makes perfect. General crews carry out practice bombing exercises, duplicating actual tactical missions. The constant aim is for greater accuracy at advanced speeds. Speed is the word most often used to describe a fighter plane, but it only begins to tell about the performance of the newest tactical air fighters. There weren't many of us fighter pilots who expected to be flying jets faster than the speed of sound, yet with all that speed, we keep carrying more and more armament. Guns. Rockets. Thunder jet. Frankly, its smoothness and stability in flight was a big surprise even to an old hand like me. You get the feeling you're on a stationary platform when you aim guns, rockets, or bombs. It's like shooting ducks from your own front porch. Trained and special techniques are only the raw materials for winning wars. It takes sound and realistic principles, planned, studied, and practiced in full-scale maneuvers with surface forces to fuse all the elements of tactical air into effective, coordinated battle operations. In the popular view, the airmen are supposed to have the glamorous job. Just as in football, it's the high-flying backfield men who make the touchdowns and bask in the limelight. Tactical air command sees it, it's the ground troops who carry the ball for the touchdowns, and it's the Air Force and Navy who do the blocking to help pave the way for them. So that's exactly the way it's going to work in this maneuver. First, a team work repeatedly proves its value in carefully controlled maneuvers over simulated battlegrounds and beachhands, and though the ground troops may not realize it, they are basking in the limelight. For the prime purpose of tactical air power in battle, as in these maneuvers, is to help them advance and take territory, and the ground troops know they can look to the skies for tactical air support. Hello, bluebird leader. This is Arrow. I see you. Lector, left. One, eight, five, two miles. Concentration of tanks behind red. Over. Ready to take more aggressive territory, thanks to air ground teamwork. Timed with the push forward, tactical air transports literally rain supplies and troops to help the main body of surface forces carry on to victory. As the evidence of our nation's air power is there in the skies for all to see, to understand its true strength, the man in the street must look to the skies for more than a big show of heavy bombers designed for long range strategic attacks and for more than interceptor and fighter planes to defend our shores. Let the man in the street take a page from the book of our military leaders. Let him look for the bombers and fighters, reconnaissance planes and transports of tactical air power. For upon the combination of strategic, defensive and tactical air power rests the security of our nation.