an Army general, had become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He wanted
to be popular with the other services and said he would be "objective- in the roles
and missions fight. As a result, he backed the Air Force and Navy. His protege,
General Harold K. Johnson, replaced Wheeler as the chief of staff of the Army and
followed in his footsteps. Besides, many of Johnson's best friends were armor
officers who opposed air mobility. Nevertheless, a number of highly professional
and courageous officers continued to back the concept. Given the unpopularity of
air mobility in the Army, they did so at considerable risk to their careers. I refer
to officers like Jack Norton, Harry Kinnard, Jack Tolson, Bob Williams, Bill
Terrell, and others.
Q ..
Didn't President Kennedy pay the 82d Airborne a visit at about that time?
A ..
Yes, President Kennedy came to Fort Bragg to inspect the division for a check on
our state of readiness and to get a briefing on the air-mobility tests. General
Conway, as I mentioned, was a highly imaginative officer. He divided the division
into five groups, each group in a different uniform to show how versatile the
division was to take on assignments in any part of the globe. One group was in
standard fatigues, ready to fight in Europe. A second group was in jungle
camouflage fatigues, ready to deploy to Vietnam. A third group was in desert
camouflage fatigues, ready to go to a desert operation, A fourth group was in
winter uniforms, the kind we dressed in during the Korean War. And the fifth
group was dressed in white ski suits and carried skis, showing that we were ready
to fight in the Arctic. It was a hot day and those dressed in jungle or desert suits
were quite comfortable. However, the groups dressed in winter clothing were very
uncomfortable. General Bruce Palmer, with his face made up with camouflage
paint, was the commander of troops. One of his proudest moments was to have his
photo taken with President Kennedy and have it splashed across the U.S. papers.
One of the interesting events was that Conway quickly chartered a commercial
plane and within several hours after the President returned to Washington, he
personally delivered the fur coat Mrs. Kennedy had forgotten. He also presented
her with 50 long-stemmed American Beauty roses, representing the 50 states of the
82d, "All American" Division. When General Conway was promoted a year or
so later, we chided him on having used this incident to get him a third star.
The air-mobility tests proved to be highly fascinating. We not only had a fine
group of officers to work with, but were fortunate in having General Howze
leading us. Howze was very energetic, a helicopter pilot and a Civil War buff.
He was ideally suited for the job. We were also fortunate that General Art
Trudeau was the chief of the Army's research and development division. Trudeau
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