American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
I. (Hawaiian Islands) time. Met by Parker, Towers and Ruffner,
Chief of Staff. 153 Went to Richardson’s house to stay over
night. Conference with Parker’s staff and then Richardson’s
staff, Ruffner and G-4. Dinner with Parker, bed at 9:30.
Sunday, June 24, 1945 [Honolulu, Hawaii to Hamilton Field,
California]
Up at 8:00, breakfast and then to Towers office for presentation.
Nimitz is on West Coast for conference with King. 154
Towers takes McCain’s place, Hoover takes Towers place. 155
Press conference; gave talk from notes, mimeo distributed had
a very bad statement re taking British Islands for bases. I
asked the local PRO [Public Relations Officer] to pass on it
before mimeographing and before distribution. He apparently
did not read very well. After conference asked that all messages
going out be censored and any objectionable matter be
removed. Chief of Staff and PRO both agreed that such would
be done. I should have read release prior to being mimeographed
and distributed. 156
Lunch with Towers; rest for two hours. Ruffner came over
with Nimitz’ disapproval of Giles request for: (a) Reception
Center for replacement crews; 157 (b) Headquarters for Strategic
Air Forces. In view of port congestion and difficulties of getting
supplies over beaches, limited space available on islands,
possibility of not getting construction complete before either
forward movement or completion, I agreed with Nimitz: [that]
(a) The Reception Center does not belong on Guam; (b) The
Headquarters, Strategic Air Force, should be streamlined and
not be so large, 250 officers, 1,500 enlisted men. The Headquarters
must be cut down.
I wrote letter to Giles telling him to transfer Hickam to ATC,
transfer a streamlined headquarters to Guam, transfer
LeMay’s headquarters to Saipan, cut out the champagne and
angel food and go back to beer and pretzels until the war is
over. 158 Gave copy of letter to Ruffner and original to Parker for
delivery to Giles.
Dinner at Richardson’s house with Richardson’s staff and my
staff. Arrived at plane 7:15, took off for San Francisco 7:25 P.M.,
342