The Navy was preparing another sidereal promotion list: as a result of the new five-star rank, which lifts the whole naval ceiling, some admirals were due to be boosted a little higher. But nowhere on the star-spangled list was there the name of a naval aviator. Nor, probably, would there be. Airmen were still the Navy’s younger sons.
Naval aviators thought they knew precisely whom to blame for this slight. Never in public, but frequently in tight-lipped private conversation, they have pointed the finger at Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, boss of everything which flies, or floats or walks or rolls under Navy insignia. “Ernie”‘ King, they feel, has never given aviation the recognition it rates as the punch of the modern U.S. Navy.
Though Admiral King himself wears the wings of a naval aviator (won at 48), airmen point out that it has been a long time since he has flown a plane; to naval air’s young Turks, he is still a ”battleship admiral.”
As one piece of evidence, they point to the make-up of his general staff. The nearest thing to an aviator among the higher-ups of King’s general staff is Vice Admiral Frederick J. Home, vice chief of naval operations, who is rated as a naval observer (strictly a nonpilot).
In nonflying Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz’ Pacific Fleet, the policy is for top nonflying combat admirals to have airmen chiefs of staff.* Except for their comparatively low rank (which is Admiral King’s affair), naval flyers in the Pacific have hardly a complaint.
The Army Way. When they see the prestige enjoyed by flyers in the Army, and reflect on Admiral King’s insistence on seniority in promotion (which is tough on younger flying officers), naval airmen grow even hotter under the collar. Among top-rankers on General Marshall’s staff is the Air Forces’ Major General Clayton L. Bissell, acting chief of G2. Another airman, Lieut. General Joseph T. McNarney, was Marshall’s deputy before he was in command of a theater.
Air Forcemen agree that the only reason there are not more airmen on the Army general staff today is that General “Hap” Arnold has not been able to release enough starred officers from his busy air forces. Marshall’s fixed policy is to make the ratio of top air general officers and ground officers equal.
And although there were no airmen on the Army’s promotion list last week either, the omission was only temporary. Army airmen were confident that they would continue to get the Ground Army’s recognition. None had forgotten that George Marshall’s recognition of the importance of the Air Forces has given the outfit a unique autonomy, and had even started Hap Arnold up to his five-star rank.
* And vice versa: flying admirals have non-flying chiefs of staff.
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