LeMay의 성품을 보여주는 일화

When he requested landing instructions (in bad weather), the flight controller there said, “You can’t land here.”

LeMay said he had a green instrument-flying car and intended to land.

“If you do,” the controller warned, “you’ll lose your green card.”

LeMay, in a fury, finally banked the plane toward Andrews, several miles away, but before leaving the environs of Bolling, he picked up his microphone once more, identified himself to the controller, and said, “When I get back to Bolling, I want you and your commanding officer and the base commander to be there to meet me.”

In due course, LeMay and Waterman arrived at Bolling from Andrews by automobile to find a roomful of officers and men waiting at attention. Some of them, Waterman recalls, were so frightened their knees were knocking.

“Where’s the man who said I couldn’t land here?” LeMay demanded.

A sergeant with a worried look on his face stepped forward.

LeMay walked up to him, looked him over, then, as if he had undergone a sudden change of heart, shook his hand. Turning to his commanding officer, he said, “I want his man promoted. The Air Force needs more like him.”

 

- 여기서 green card는 군 조종사가 악천후의 계기 비행(IFR: Instrument flying)으로 착륙할 수 있음을 인증하는 계기비행 자격증을 뜻하는 군대 내부 용어.

- 관제사 군인은 규정에 따라 착륙 불가하다는 입장을 밝혔음. LeMay는 당시 최고 사령관이었고 물론 그걸 밝히지 않은 채 착륙을 시도함. 근데 안 된다고 하니 화가 났다가, 규정을 제대로 지킨 군인을 승진시키라고 한 것.

- environs: 주변 (지역)

- to find a roomful of officers and men waiting at attention: to부정사의 결과 용법이 잘 보임.