Robert F. Dorr is the author of Mission to Berlin, a history of American B-17 Flying Fortress crews in World War II. He is an Air Force veteran (1957-60), a retired senior U.S. diplomat (1964-89), and an author (1955-present) of more than 70 books, as well as magazine articles and newspaper columns. He writes a weekly commentary for Air Force Times newspaper and a monthly feature for Aerospace America magazine. He lives in Oakton, Va., with his family and Labrador retriever. Contact him at robert.f.dorr@cox.net.
Today’s Air Force Special Operations Forces had their beginnings in the jungles of Burma during World War II. There, the upstart 1st Air Commando Group waged an unconventional and unorthodox …
What does Nicaragua mean to a Marine?
Plenty. Here, in 1928 and again in 1932, the most famous Marine of all, Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, won two of his five …
In Pentagon talk, it used to be called air defense. Today it’s commonly known as the Air Sovereignty Alert (ASA) mission.
It’s the modern-day term for protecting the skies of …
The United States Air Force is changing.
While airmen perform superbly in Iraq and Afghanistan and in air sovereignty operations defending U.S. skies, the Air Force is making dramatic shifts …
When test pilot Russ Scott took off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. on Aug. 30, 1982, he was making the maiden flight of a sleek and beautiful fighter, the …
During the Cold War when the West was oncerned about the Soviet Union’s undersea fleet, McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC), which later merged with Boeing, offered the U.S. Navy an anti-submarine …
During World War II in Europe, the German Tiger tank was a respected and feared fighting machine, but it was not always a match for the robust Republic P-47D Thunderbolt …
In Afghanistan in February, a U. S. Air Force B-1B Lancer monitored hostile militants who reconnoitered, approached, and then attacked U.S. ground troops. Coordinating with the friendly ground commander, the …
A naval disaster that evolved into a mass rescue captured the attention of the American public while the nation approached the end of the Great Depression and the start of …
It would be unthinkable today, but during World War II the burgeoning U.S. aircraft industry was able to design, develop, and test numerous warplanes that were not needed and never …
