Quote of the Day - Results

This outfit has been getting a lot of publicity without having really accomplished a hell of a lot in bombing results. - Curtis LeMay to his public relations officer before committing the XXI Bomber Command to a low-level nighttime fire raid against Tokyo.

NASA needs a Curtis LeMay. Especially after the Spaceliner kerfuffle.

LeMay is best known for his command of the XX Air Force in the Pacific. He took command of the faltering B-29 offensive against Japan in January 1945. Within six months he transformed the B-29 from an interesting, but ineffective high-tech toy to a war-winning weapon. He did it by focusing on the results he wanted and doing what it took to achieve them. If achieving results meant defying conventional wisdom or ignoring accepted doctrine, he did it. And he got the desired results. Between March 1945 and July 1945 LeMay and his B-29s destroyed Japan's industrial capability and left its population starving. It wasn't pretty, but it ended World War II without the need for a ground invasion of Japan.

It was not the first nor the last time LeMay had been the Army Air Force's (and later Air Force's) fixer. He turned around a bombardment group in the European Theater before being sent to command the XX Bomber Command operating B-29s out of China. At the time he was sent, it had failed to deliver results. He changed that, increasing the mission rate and reducing the mechanical failure rate. When the XXI operating out of the Marianas faltered, he was promoted to take charge of all B-29s and lead the air offensive against Japan.

After the war, he directed the Berlin Airlift, another successful use of air power. After that, he took command of the Strategic Air Command. It was then a good old boys club, with low operational rates and poorly trained crews. He turned that organization around into one of the most efficient Air Force organizations of its day. Arguably it prevented World War III because it seemed too tough to challenge. Had they remained a gang that couldn't shoot straight, Russia might have been tempted to attack us.

He was by no means a nice man. He was one mean son of a gun. (He would not have used the word gun.) He kicked tail and took names. If you delivered, you were golden. If you were incompetent, you were out. Simple failure was not cause for dismissal. If there were good reasons for that failure, you would be forgiven. Continued failure, especially if it was due to your own mistakes, meant you were gone. SAC was a hard-nosed organization while he was in charge.

Moreover, he constantly challenged the orthodoxy of military doctrine. Throughout his career he looked for better, faster ways to get results.

This is what NASA needs today. Someone to go in and shake up the old boy and old girl network. Someone who will focus on results, not process (except insofar as process delivers results), and certainly someone who does not give a rip for feelings. Someone who will flush out the time servers and replace them with those who want to get to space, to get to the Moon and Mars, and do it quickly. Someone who will not tolerate the lackadaisical attitudes that led to the Starliner debacle and the seeming inability of any launch contractor — except SpaceX — to maintain a reasonable flight rate. (Remove SpaceX from the tally of US launches and the US has only 15 launches this year - less than half of China's 38.)

The question is where would we find our new LeMay. The most obvious possibility would be Elon Musk. That is how he runs SpaceX. He would be crazy to leave SpaceX and Starlink, though. It is more successful than NASA and (at this point) more likely to get him to Mars before he dies. He is the only one in the space industry I can think of who would do the necessary kicking tail and taking names. The rest would likely go along to get along.

It does not have to be someone from the space sector, though. You don't necessarily have to be a rocket scientist to lead NASA. But you do need to know and understand technology. And be hard-nosed while knowing when to bend. Perhaps someone ex-military, who left prior to the Obama purges of militarily competent but ideologically unacceptable officers. But we need someone.

Or NASA can continue on as it is today, content in the knowledge that while China may be beating it, NASA still manages to outperform Russia, India and Japan.