“Virtually no space development can be found today that Power’s SR studies did not first consider or anticipate over a half century ago.”

By Brent D. Ziarnick

REGARDLESS OF THE political controversy surrounding its establishment in 2019, the United States Space Force can trace its origins as far back as the end of the Second World War. And one man looms as a large, seemingly solitary, figure in space history: U.S. Air Force General Bernard Schriever.

Widely touted as the “father of the Air Force space and missile program,” Schriever was the first commander of the Western Development Division (WDD) and managed the development of the Atlas and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

But Schriever was not the head of the Air Force’s ICBM and space program; the commander of the Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) from 1954 to 1957 – and Schriever’s own boss – General Thomas Sarsfield Power, was.

If remembered today at all, Power is primarily known for being in the shadow of Curtis LeMay as the general’s deputy and right-hand “hatchet man” at Strategic Air Command.  LeMay may have demanded excellence from his men, but many thought Power took a sadistic joy in firing commanders and destroying careers for the slimmest of reasons.

In reality, Power was a bold and innovative air commander in his own right. He masterminded and personally led the first low-level firebombing raid over Tokyo in World War Two, instituted the famed “Chrome Dome” airborne alerts made (in)famous by movies such as Dr. Strangelove, established the iconic Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff and the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), and commanded SAC through the Cuban Missile Crisis, among many other accomplishments. But if Power is only dimly remembered in the nuclear realm, his massive contributions to the Air Force space program has been completely forgotten.

Contrary to popular belief, Schriever was not a space advocate; it was the ICBM that was his obsession. Indeed, Schriever pushed back against the Air Force when it wanted to put the WS-117L satellite program under his WDD organization, as it would divert his focus away from ballistic missiles. But Power overruled Schriever and in 1955, WDD became responsible for space as well as missiles, making it Air Force’s first space organization. Forcing Schriever into the space business made Power a critical Air Force space leader, but that was merely one example of his impact.

Determined to beat the Soviet Union in the widening space race, Power started the System Requirement (SR) program that encouraged military contractors to explore many advanced space concepts. Among these were manned spacecraft, space stations, lunar bases, and even an entire Earth Orbital Space Force for 1980. Virtually no space development can be found today that Power’s SR studies did not first consider or anticipate over a half century ago.

From his experience at ARDC, Power began to look at space fundamentally different than Schriever. As SAC commander, Power published the SAC space policy in 1958, a first in the Air Force. Power viewed space as an avenue for scientific competition and political prestige, as many did, but he also emphasized that space was a “warfighting domain,” to use today’s terminology. However, perhaps Power’s most groundbreaking ideas came with his emphasis on the economic potential of space, presaging today’s calls for the U.S. Space Force to support American space commerce by over 60 years. Contrary to Schriever’s narrow view, Power thought space was far more important to the Air Force than simply the ICBM and the satellite.

Power contrasted Schriever’s technical myopia on the ICBM with an expansive operational space vision where an American aerospace force flew in space as easily as it did in that air. As SAC commander, Power advocated for the Dyna-Soar “Dynamic Soaring” hypersonic spaceplane – a precursor to the Space Shuttle – and especially Project Orion, a plan to use nuclear explosions to propel manned spacecraft the size of World War Two-era naval light cruisers into orbit to create a constant SAC “spaceborne” alert. Not satisfied with just the ICBM, Power wanted technology that could take man anywhere in the solar system – for any reason scientific, commercial, or military. Power’s efforts culminated in presenting President Kennedy a “Corvette-sized” model of the Orion spacecraft filled with dozens of smaller spacecraft. Power wanted Orion flying by 1980; Kennedy was not impressed. The president thought Power’s battleship outrageous, expensive, and better suited to NASA if it ever flew at all.

Faced with a hostile Department of Defense under Robert McNamara neither Dyna-Soar nor Orion ever got off the ground and no SAC, or any other Air Force, personnel ever flew into space. The Air Force’s only space program of sorts involved launching small satellites from Schriever’s ICBMs.

Yet, Schriever’s technocratic obsession with ICBMs virtually ensured the eventual creation of the Space Force. The weakness of the ICBM as a launch vehicle ensured little space development could take place and that America would slowly lose its space advantage as others caught up. However, Schriever’s myopia also shackled the service’s intellectual development to consider nothing beyond satellites and never look to the advantages of the space domain itself. Alternatively, Power’s operational vision that embraced space technology beyond the ICBM and satellite would have obviated any need for a Space Force at all.  But Power’s vision is also the exact spirit the Space Force needs to mature into the robust and powerful space service America needs.

If the Space Force is to have any future, it must embrace General Thomas Power’s vision of a bold American future in space. Before it can do so, more Americans need to remember Power and his remarkable career.

Brent D. Ziarnick is an Assistant Professor at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. His latest book To Rule the Skies: General Thomas S. Power and the Rise of Strategic Air Command in the Cold War (Naval Institute Press, 2021) is the first full-length biography of General Power.