ARMED FORCES: The New Dimension

(See Cover) Much is required of those to whom much is given. So viewed, the ability speedily to put forth the nation's power . . . is one of the clear duties involved in the Christian word "watchfulness"—readiness for the call that may come, whether expectedly or not.

—Alfred Thayer Mahan Rear Admiral (1899)

Somewhere, some time after MIG alley, the change came. For years the U.S. had glimpsed promises of a new U.S. Air Force in the making: a solitary jet streaking the far sky with a white contrail, reports of victorious dogfights between U.S. Sabre jets and the MIG-15 in Korea, a thundering atomic-bomb test or the anguished plea of an Air Force spokesman in Washington for more funds. But the Air Force had lacked that elusive quality that glues the Army, Navy and Marine Corps into cohesive units. Then, by the beginning of this year, it was suddenly clear that all of the experiments, all of the fighting, all of the training had coalesced. The U.S. had more than jets and bombs and intrepid pilots; it had, in the U.S. Air Force, the world's most powerful modern fighting outfit.

Specifically the Air Force could claim:

¶ An existing force of no wings, with plans laid down for a buildup to 137 wings by 1957.

¶An all-jet fighter and interceptor force; a bomber force of 40 wings with a backbone of jet B-47 bombers and the intercontinental 6-36s—with complete conversion to jet bombers scheduled by 1958.

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¶Fleets of aerial tankers based strategically around the free world, actually refueling fighters and bombers aloft at the rate of one every five minutes around the clock.

¶Operational guided-missile squadrons, stationed in Germany (TIME, Jan. 25), ready to use the ground-to-ground Mata dor as necessary.

¶Major bases strung around the periphery of Communist Europe and Asia.

The change in the Air Force was the sum of all of these and a new character, too. For one thing, the great new speeds, altitudes and precisions of jet flying had given the Air Force a stamp of its own — a skill to rival the technical proficiency of the Navy. For another, the new Air Force was a rich mixture of two generations of flying men: combat-tested elders teamed with youngsters born under the sign of Mach. 1.

Rearguard Disbanded. Underlying the big change was a new attitude of mature, professional self-confidence. It showed itself along the muddy fighter bases behind the lines in Korea, at bomber bases in North Africa, in Alaska, Greenland and Britain, at training bases in Arizona—and in the Pentagon itself. The attitude was best symbolized by a blue-clad West Pointer who wears the four stars of the Chief of Staff of the U.S Air Force—a broad-shouldered airman with grey curly hair parted down the middle, black eyebrows, a strong nose and a big jaw—named Nathan Farragut Twining.