This post covers a never-before-seen declassified July 1947 letter to General Hoyt Vandenberg from General George Stratemeyer, Commanding General of Air Defense Command (ADC)—the one and only Air Force Command solely focused on US continental defense in 1947 (unlike SAC and TAC). Roswell, at its core, raised existential continental defense issues for the Air Force. ADC, therefore, would have logically played a key role responding to what was ultimately viewed in the Pentagon as the first Pear...

This post covers a July 1947 letter to General Hoyt Vandenberg from General George Stratemeyer, Commanding General of Air Defense Command (ADC)—the one and only Air Force Command solely focused on US continental defense in 1947 (unlike SAC and TAC). Roswell, at its core, raised existential continental defense issues for the Air Force. ADC, therefore, would have logically played a key role responding to what was ultimately viewed in the Pentagon as the first Pearl Harbor-type “surprise attack”...