The Vital Era

In the past century, few have done more to establish the Air Force and its logistics enterprise as we know it today than Maj Gen Hugh J. Knerr; fewer still are as unique. An early aviator, Knerr established the first airlift mission and led the procurement effort for the B-17 with Gen Frank Andrews before WWII. After which he led a campaign for the autonomous air force that put him at odds with the War Dept and the White House. During WWII, Knerr led logistics planning efforts to mobilize the Eighth Air Force in European Theater of Operations (ETO) and later amassed theaterwide authority of logistics, aligning the entire logistics effort of the Army Air Forces (AAF) in the ETO. Among many career accomplishments, Knerr ended his career as the USAF’s first Inspector General establishing the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and is accredited with designing the USAF’s dress blue uniform. Little known fact, Knerr’s aviation interests began as a child at the mouth of the wellspring, building kites and scrubbing toilets for the Wright Brothers at their bicycle shop. His memoirs penned in the months preceding his death in 1971, now published, give a personal insight into this formative period of the Air Force and offer the perspective only one of its architects could tell. Further, his pursuit of innovation, disruption of barriers, and challenges to the status quo are exceptionally relevant to present day Air Force as it seeks to accelerate change.