Tactical Air Command

So this was a competition where all different units from all over ACC would come together.

Back then it was Tactical Air Command.

But they would all come together, and it was a huge show at Nellis.

And everybody would – you got graded on maintenance.

The first was in Texas during my early years in the Air Force.

I had just been named Airman of the Year at Bergstrom Air Force Base, home of Tactical Air Command operations and a hub for Air Force intelligence and support units.

That recognition alone was humbling enough, but what followed was extraordinary—an incentive flight in an OA-37 Dragonfly.

The OA-37 was small, fast, and aggressive, a light attack aircraft that served as a forward air control platform.

He loved all the aircraft he flew, and he realized a significant improvement in this third generation aircraft compared to the Hun, but also the incoming fourth generation of F-15s and F-16s.

The third great influence on Horner, as you mentioned, Bill, who sponsored him, who mentored him, and the name is General Wilbur Creech, Bill Creech, who was the very powerful commander of tactical air command from 78 to 84.

And if Vietnam taught Horner how not to fight in an air war, Creech helped him or taught him how to build and train and lead a modern air force.

So Creech inherited a tactical air command from General Robert Dixon that still suffered from many of the problems of the post-Vietnam era with poor readiness, declining morale, inadequate training, and a centralized management that often separated authority and responsibility.

So his response amounted to a revolution in the way that tactical air command and tactical air forces operated.

And at the heart was this simple principle of giving people responsibility, to give them the authority to carry it out and to hold them accountable to the resource.

Creech pushed for authority, downworked, strengthened wing commanders, demanded rigorous standards, and insisted that commanders take ownership of the people, aircraft maintenance, training, and combat readiness.

And just your biography focuses on Horner, but there's a lot of really important information, interesting information.