In 1948 and 1949 Charles A. Lindbergh, at the request of USAF Headquarters, Washington D.C. toured a variety of Air Force bases, throughout the world on an inspection trip. His purpose was to evaluate the current status of personnel, equipment, base facilities, and the overall capabilities of the USAF in view of the evolving Cold War threat from the Soviet Union.

In his book Autobiography of Values, published in 1977 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, he speaks about his impressions and findings in Chapter 8, ‘Inheritance of Power’. General Johnson’s experience with Lindbergh was a part of that story. I will include three quotations and two photographs from that chapter that reflect some of his thoughts and conclusions on this subject.

From page 220: “Work with the Strategic Air Command seemed to me one of the most important of my postwar military assignments. I believed the security of the United States depended on SAC’s retaliatory ability. And I was certain that the security of Western civilization was closely bound to the security of the United States. Surely, ‘brush-fire’ wars would continue, requiring the use of relatively conventional weapons and tactics, but they would be fought under an ‘atomic umbrella’ that the major powers held over the world.”

From pages 222 and 223: “I visited Strategic Air Force bases from Labrador to Okinawa, lived with the officers, flew with B-29 and B-50 squadrons, listened to Air Force men and women discuss problems of the lives they led.”

“All of these recommendations were adopted effectively except the one related to basic training. SAC pilots did not approve of the idea of flying basic trainers, and in fact demonstrated an extraordinary inability to fly them. Walker Air Force Base, in New Mexico, had been selected as the place to try out my recommendation in this respect. Several AT-6s were sent there for the purpose. They were cracked up so fast that AT-6 instructors were included with their replacements. Even then, the accident rate with basic trainers continued so high that the project was abandoned.”