Killers' Convention

To the oven-hot flatlands of southwest Texas last week traveled some 90 U.S. professional men to listen to learned lectures, to watch exhibitions of technique, to talk shop. They looked like any other group of scientists or educators, except that they wore khaki. In a sense they were educators: The deans and professors of the science of aerial warfare. Their profession: killing Japs and Nazis on the wing. Their special field: the high and delicate art of fixed gunnery, practiced in fighter planes while moving several hundred miles an hour.

Some of the delegates came from such far places as Chico, Calif, and Quonset Point, R.I. Among them were some of the most famed hot pilots of hot ships. Marine Corps Major Joe Foss (26 Jap victims; Congressional Medal) arrived in a Grumman F4F. Major John Smith (19 victories; Congressional Medal) came in a Corsair. Navy Lieut. Stanley Vejtasa (ten victories; Navy Cross with two stars) dropped down in an F6F. Major Vincent ("Squeak") Burnett, champion stunt flyer and specialist in B-26 bombers, dusted in with one of the sleek Marauders.

Handmade Talk. Sponsored by the Air Forces Training Command, this convention was a joint affair, with Navy and Marine experts on hand to exchange opinion with Army flyers. Daytime was given over to lectures and demonstrations. After dinner the men sat around and talked, with many a gesture. (Combat flyers illustrate aircraft maneuvers by poising their hands one above the other, making their points with swoops and waves.)

The talk was mainly of deflection and approach angles. Deflection is what a duck hunter calls "lead": the aim ahead of a moving target. Guns are fixed, the plane itself must be aimed. The plane and its target are both moving fast (sometimes one-sixth the speed of the bullets fired.) The whole process must be automatic. Said Joe Foss: "When you're in a fight you've got to think of shooting and nothing else. If you have to think about flying . . . well, you get killed." About deflection: "Best way to get a Jap fighter is to shoot him from a hundred feet, no deflection."

The convention took time for practice as well as theory. Cadets flew for the hard-cased professionals. They entertained each other with exhibitions of combat and flying technique which brought grunts from the toughest.

Time and Training. By the close of the conference there had been plenty of argument, a good deal of agreement, some conclusions unanimous or purely personal. Some of the conclusions: U.S. fighter planes are the world's best. They have one common fault: decreased pilot visibility, inevitably sacrificed for bigger engines, better performance. Cadets could use more training, but could hardly crowd more into their schedules. The cadet now is "as busy as a one-legged man at a fanny-kicking contest." One young major summarized the problem : "Of course we'd like to turn out every one of these kids as a super pilot, a ready-made ace, a gunnery expert, as good on instruments as airlines pilots. But what the country wants and needs right now is a mass supply of capable pilots -- as good as or a little better than the Axis pilots -- to get in there in a hurry and win the war fast." For themselves, the professors tactfully suggested that advanced instructors be allowed to go on combat duty after a reasonable period of service in the U.S.

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