The Finish Flag

In the Strategic Air Command, a favorite bull-session yarn tells of a new sergeant at Omaha's Offutt Air Force Base who stopped on a stroll around the post to watch a middle-aged airman at work on a snappy sports car. "Let me give you a lift," he said finally. "I don't see how you ever got to be a sergeant handling a wrench that way." The man in overalls was General Curtis E. LeMay, SAC's commander (who is actually a first-class mechanic). By last week one phase of Curt LeMay's passion for sports cars had been noted and frowned upon in Washington.

Pool Tables & TV. For nearly two years, LeMay sponsored sports-car races on SAC air bases, giving a new push to auto racing in the U.S. and at the same time relaxing his command's normally tense pace. Up to 65,000 paying spectators turned up for the shows. LeMay wistfully refrained from driving in the races, but friends jockeyed his $4,500 Cadillac-Allard around the courses. LeMay's purposes in promoting the races: 1) to give his high-grade tinkerers a useful hobby, and 2) to raise money (the races have netted about $335,000) for such niceties as innerspring mattresses, window fans, pool tables and TV sets for enlisted men's quarters on SAC bases. All this, LeMay reasoned, might help the Air Force re-enlistment rate.*

Economy-minded Kansas Congressman Errett P. Scrivner, 56, chairman of the Subcommittee on Air Force Appropriations, had a different view. He heard, he said, that Government supplies were being expended at the races. Moreover, some airmen complained that they were forced to take blocks of tickets and to work "voluntary" extra duty. Republican Scrivner, an old artillery file (he served in World War I in the 129th Field Artillery, Captain Harry Truman's outfit), asked the General Accounting Office to investigate. Last week he released its report, a sharp strafing of LeMay's position.

Man-Hours & Money. The GAO found that "there appears to be a strong undercurrent of opposition" among airmen; it reckoned that the military labor cost for each race averaged $23,000 for duty time and $115,000 for total time. Last year's race at Offutt alone took 117,239 man-hours of work in duty jobs and voluntary service. Besides, the GAO said, some supplies were used but not fully paid for.

Congressman Scrivner, who drives an Oldsmobile 98 (his top speed: 65 m.p.h.) had already won his campaign: while the investigation was still on, the Air Force had quietly dropped the finish flag on the races, canceling all that had not been contracted for. Curt LeMay had long since sold his Cad-Allard and was driving in a more sedate sports car of his own building--an old Indianapolis frame, a sleek plastic body, a souped-up Cadillac engine with Hydra Matic transmission.

*Though it costs an average $14,000 to train a new enlisted man, the re-enlistment rate has dropped from 66% in 1952 to 33% this year. The trouble: low pay and declining fringe benefits (e.g., medical care for families, post exchanges and commissary privileges) are overcome by good pay on the outside for Air Force-trained technicians.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.