West Point ’41: The Class That Went to War and Shaped America

17 | Shifting Gears

189 17 Shifting Gears After the war, West Point ’41 classmates began preparing for peace, a promise that had seemed fleeting back when they graduated but now took on new meaning. While World War II had fulfilled their service requirements, almost all graduates who survived the war continued on in their service, seeking to become career officers. Most were still under the age of thirty, yet many were put on fast tracks at the Pentagon. The seeds of their innovation, sown at the academy, could now take root in an era of military entrepreneurship. Some, like Ed Rowny, strategized with the visionaries of the day, participating in “dream sessions” that brainstormed on America’s future. These sessions were the idea of General Lauris Norstad—the “brainy, blue-eyed wonder” as Time magazine later called him.1 Norstad was in charge of the Operations Plans Division (OPD) of the War Department General Staff, of which Rowny was part. It was a lean division—about eighty-five officers—formed at the outset of World War II when General Marshall decided that Army staff, numbering in the thousands, was too large and bureaucratic to plan and run the war. Marshall superimposed the OPD over the existing Army war staff, and it had since overseen the conduct of World War II. Norstad, a brilliant Army and Air Force aviator and broad-gauge thinker, was appointed to head OPD postwar. He believed science would play a major role in the future of the military and invited some of the greatest innovators of the day—global strategists, scientists, and members of top think tanks—to participate in his dream sessions. Officers like Rowny would gather every Wednesday afternoon in a conference room with little more than a blackboard before them, to speculate on the future. As sparks flew, the group usually ignored the scheduled finishing time of five and debated until close to midnight. No one wanted to leave for fear of missing out on a groundbreaking concept. Discussions of Stalin’s expansionist goals segued into how to put ballistic missiles into Kazel-Wilcox - West Point.indb 189 3/19/2014 5:40:15 PM 190 ★ west point ’41 space as part of an intercontinental ballistic missile force. One solution was putting ablative layers on a missile nose cone, to protect what was inside, with layers burning off in succession as the cone passed through atmospheres . This led to the question, “Well, if we can stick a missile inside, why not a man?” Thus was born the idea, in 1946, of sending a man to the moon within twenty-five years. A naval officer invited to attend the dream sessions, Captain William Raborn, posed the idea of firing ballistic missiles from submarines. One member of the group labeled this idea “dumb,” insisting water would rush into the tube when the missile was fired. Raborn introduced the concept of employing a French innovation where a volume of gas would be inserted behind the projectile, allowing the hatch to close before water rushed in. Raborn’s idea was the precursor to the Polaris, the world’s first­ submarine-launched nuclear missile, and he later became the first director of the Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile Program. Other ideas in dream sessions included peaceful uses for atomic energy, like powering cities during blackouts. Not every idea proved successful, but these dream sessions invigorated Ed Rowny into innovative speculation about the future. Many from the ’41 class, however, remained on in Europe, involved in far less provocative issues. Stern was still there waiting for word on a new assignment. There was a little mix-up as General Alexander Bolling explained to him, “I have two sets of orders for you, Stern. I have orders from the theater for you to join a quartermaster group.” “But I’m not a quartermaster,” protested Stern, who ranked that specialty down with cavalry. “Well,” Bolling continued, “it seems there was some confusion, and Washington issued another set of orders, obviously unaware of the quartermaster appointment.” “To where?” asked Stern. “I have a second set of orders for you to become a student at the French War College.” Stern’s eyes widened at the prospect of Paris compared to tracking buttons and buckets. “Here’s what I suggest you do,” said Bolling. “Pack up all you own, get in a car, and get to Paris as fast as you can before the quartermaster can grab you.” Herb Stern was so motivated to hightail it out...