- Gordon P. Saville
-
Gordon Philip Saville 
Major General Gordon Philip SavilleBorn September 14, 1902
Macon, GeorgiaDied November 31, 1984 (aged 82)
Lackland Air Force BaseAllegiance 
United StatesService/branch 
U.S. Army Reserve
U.S. Army Air Corps
U.S. Army Air Forces
United States Air ForceYears of service 1923–1951 Rank 
Major GeneralCommands held XII Fighter Command
First Tactical Air Force
III Tactical Air Command
Air Defense CommandBattles/wars World War II Awards Distinguished Flying Cross[1]
Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Bronze Star Medal
Legion of Merit
Air MedalGordon Philip Saville (September 14, 1902 – January 31, 1984)[2] was a United States Air Force (USAF) major general who was an outspoken proponent of tactical aviation amidst a brotherhood of airmen who promoted strategic bombing. With Benjamin S. Kelsey, Saville co-wrote the technical specifications which led to the P-38 Lightning and the P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft. Saville was a technical- and scientific-minded leader who helped pioneer advanced mathematics for operations research, and computer systems for centralized coordination of air defense.
Contents
Early career
Gordon Philip Savllle was born at Macon, Georgia, on September 14, 1902.[1] He attended the University of Washington, Antioch College, and then the University of California and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve on November 5, 1923, in the infantry,[2] seeing active duty in August 1924 and August 1925.[1]
Saville became a flying cadet with the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) in March 1926 and entered the primary flying school at Brooks Field, Texas. In September of that year he was transferred to the advanced flying school at Kelly Field, Texas, from which he graduated on February 28, 1927,[1] gaining a commission as second lieutenant in the Air Reserve.[2] He was assigned to the Fifth Observation Squadron at Mitchel Field, New York and in June 1927 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Air Corps of the Regular Army.[2]
Saville became adjutant of Crissy Field in San Francisco, in December 1928, and two years later transferred to Mather Field, California, where he was appointed adjutant of the field, and the 20th Pursuit Group. In 1932 he went to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, with the 20th Pursuit Group.[2]
Tactics and theory
Saville entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, in August 1933 and after graduating in May 1934[1] remained at the school as an instructor in the Maps and Photographs Section.[3] In July 1935 at the temporary rank of captain he was named recorder of the Air Corps Board at Maxwell Field, in addition to his duties as fighter aviation instructor.[2]
In February 1937, Saville paired with Lieutenant Benjamin S. Kelsey, Project Officer for Fighters at the USAAC, to find a way to get around the USAAC's 500-pound (225 kg) limit on the weight of fighter aircraft armament. Together, they settled on the term "interceptor", creating a new name for fighters, not a new mission. They issued a specification for two new heavily armed fighters via Circular Proposal X-608 and Circular Proposal X-609.[4] These were requests for fighters having "the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude".[5] Specifications called for at least 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of heavy armament including a cannon, one or two liquid-cooled Allison V-1710 engines each with a General Electric turbo-supercharger, tricycle landing gear, a level airspeed of at least 360 miles per hour (580 km/h) at altitude, and a climb to 20,000 feet (6,100 m) within 6 minutes[6]—the toughest set of specifications USAAC had presented to that date.[7] From these specifications a competition was held, and eventually the single-engine fighter became the Bell Aircraft P-39 Airacobra, and the twin-engine fighter became the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Saville's rank of captain became permanent in June 1937.[1]
Saville entered the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in September 1938 and graduated the following June.[1] He then was assigned to Washington, D.C., as assistant to the chief of the Plans Division in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps. He became assistant intelligence and operations officer of the Air Defense Command at Mitchel Field, N.Y., in March 1940.[2]
In October 1940, Saville went to London for temporary duty as a military air observer, and returned to Mitchel Field after two months to become executive officer at the temporary rank of major of the First Interceptor Command. He was promoted to the permanent rank of major in February, 1941.[1] In August 1941 he returned to London and served there until December 1941.[2]
World War II
After the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Saville was assigned to United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) headquarters in Washington as director of air defense. He was made lieutenant colonel on January 5, 1942.[1] In tackling the problem of air defense of the Panama Canal Zone, he brought together civilian mathematicians and military defense experts to organize the first operations research group in the Air Corps, following two such groups formed by the Navy.[8] Saville was promoted to brigadier general on November 2.[1] In March 1943 he became director of tactical development at the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Orlando, Florida,[2] where he reorganized the Army Air Forces Board by July 2, 1943. Saville's structure put tactical and strategic development on equal footing, and tied together the efforts of the Chief of Air Staff for Operations, Commitments, and Requirements (OC&R), the Proving Ground Command and the School of Applied Tactics.[9]
Later that month he was ordered to the North African theater where he became chief of staff of the Mediterranean Air Command. Under Carl Andrew Spaatz, Saville argued against the plans for Operation Tidal Wave in August, the air attack on oil refineries in Ploieşti. After the operation resulted in heavy American casualties with little effect on oil production, Saville described it as a "goddamned thing... ridiculous and suicidal."[10] In October 1943 he was appointed commander of the XII Fighter Command and in January 1944 was named deputy commander of the XII Air Support Command in the Mediterranean. There, Saville achieved close coordination between air power and the infantry. Saville was promoted to major general on June 30, 1944.[1] He assumed command of the First Tactical Air Force in January 1945.[2]
The following month Saville returned to the United States for temporary assignment to Army Air Forces headquarters, and in March 1945 became commander of the III Tactical Air Command at Barksdale Field. Two months later he was appointed deputy commander of Air Transport Command at Washington.[2]
Postwar
In January 1947 he became chief of the Air Section of the Joint Brazil-United States Military Commission, with station at the American Embassy at Rio de Janeiro.[2]
Saville returned to the United States in July 1948 for assignment to Air Defense Command (ADC) headquarters at Mitchel Air Force Base, N.Y., and the following November was named commanding general of ADC[2] where he worked to combine it with Tactical Air Command to form the backbone of the Continental Air Command organization.
Saville was appointed head of the newly established Directorate of Requirements in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at U.S. Air Force headquarters in September 1949. The following January he became deputy chief of staff for development, a new staff section at U.S. Air Force headquarters.[2]
Saville and Muir S. Fairchild went to Congress in 1950 and obtained $114 million for the development of an electronic computer-based air defense system, a project headed by George E. Valley who was a physicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[11] The computer, named Whirlwind, helped the USAF develop the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system.
Saville retired from the USAF in July 1951.[12]
Saville's ashes are interred at Arlington National Cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=34240974.
Recognition
Saville was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal and the Air Medal.[2]
Saville was rated a Command Pilot, Combat Observer, Aircraft Observer and Technical Observer.
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Official Army Register, 1946. Page 603. "Saville, Gordon P." (O17006) Retrieved on November 17, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o USAF Biography: Major General Gordon P. Saville. Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
- ^ Finney, Robert T. (1998) Air Force History and Museums Program. History of the Air Corps Tactical School 1920–1940. Third imprint. Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
- ^ Bodie 1991, p. 19.
- ^ Bodie 1991, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Retrieved: 21 January 2007.
- ^ Bodie 1991, p. 14. Brigadier General Benjamin S. Kelsey recalled in 1977 that he and Lieutenant Saville drew up the specification in 1937 using the word "interceptor" as a way to bypass the inflexible Army Air Corps requirement for pursuit aircraft to carry no more than 500 lb (225 kg) of armament including ammunition. Kelsey was looking for a minimum of 1,000 lb (450 kg) of armament.
- ^ McArthur, Charles W. Operations analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II, pp. 5. AMS Bookstore, 1990. ISBN 0821801589
- ^ Futrell, 1989, p. 137.
- ^ Orange, Vincent. Tedder: Quietly in Command, p. 231. Routledge, 2004. ISBN 0714648175
- ^ Green, Tom. Bright Boys: 1938–1958. "Whirlwind finally earns its wings... sort of." Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
- ^ Air Force Historical Research Agency. Saville, Gordon Philip papers. 1920–1951. Retrieved on November 19, 2009.
- Bibliography
- Bodie, Warren M. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning: The Definitive Story of Lockheed's P-38 Fighter. Hayesville, North Carolina: Widewing Publications, 2001, 1991. ISBN 0-96293-595-6.
- Futrell, Robert Frank. Ideas, Concepts, Doctrine: Basic Thinking in the United States Air Force 1907–1960 DIANE Publishing, 1989. ISBN 1585660299
- Neufeld, Jacob, and the United States Air Force. The development of ballistic missiles in the United States Air Force, 1945–1960. Office of Air Force History. DIANE Publishing, 1990. ISBN 0912799625
- Schaffel, Kenneth (Summer 1987). "A Minority of One: Major General Gordon P. Saville." American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Volume XXXII.
External links
Categories:- 1902 births
- 1984 deaths
- University of Washington alumni
- Antioch College alumni
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- American aviators
- Aerial warfare pioneers
- United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni
- Air Corps Tactical School alumni
- United States Air Force generals
- American military personnel of World War II
- Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
- Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
- Recipients of the Legion of Merit
- Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal
- Recipients of the Air Medal
- People from Macon, Georgia
- United States Army Air Forces generals
- United States Army Air Forces pilots
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