We love the Navy, but Where's the Air Force ?

We love the Navy, but Where's the Air Force ? I can speak freely and with some basis in both experience and authority --- take your pick. I was in the U.S. Air Force for some extended period of time and was Honorably Discharged with the rank of Captain, USAF Reserve.

This week I had placed a custom-made U.S. Postage stamp on a letter I was mailing at the local Post Office --- it showed a Navy blimp touching down near its hangar, with a caption that read "U.S. Navy Airship". The Postal clerk was surprised to see an airship with a Navy descriptor.

I patiently explained that the infamous Hindenburg disaster by no means spelled the end of the Airship, how blimps had figured prominently in keeping our merchant convoys in World War II free of attacks by Nazi submarines, especially off the Atlantic Coast of the United States.  I went on to recount -- probably to the annoyance of the lines of people waiting (not so patiently) to buy stamps --that by the end of WW II there were 15 blimp squadrons patrolling millions of square miles of water against the very real threat of submarine attack.

Not only did they provide a splendid margin of safety (records indicate that only one airship was lost through enemy action during this time), but no ship escorted by a blimp was ever sunk. ... and escort service was not the only service they provided in their more than 35,000 operational flights in the Atlantic and the more than 20,000 such flights in the Pacific.

They were active in search-and-rescue efforts, dropping rations and medical supplies, and performed photographic calibration and torpedo recovery service.
When they brought the rescued aircrews aboard, they were able to provide them with hot food, a rare and very welcome treat in those frigid North Atlantic waters.

The clerk was astounded ! Despite being a history buff, he had never heard about any of this in school. Have we dropped the ball in teaching ? Don't get me started on that track !

OK ! Given all that, why was only the Navy operating airships ? Why isn't the Air Force currently placing major effort into the many possible uses of airships ?

Even more to the point, why isn't the Air Force placing as much (or more) effort into the development and deployment of LTA airships, hybrid craft, and all the vital technological underpinnings (I've decided that "infrastructure" is overused) . The necessary underpinnings include ducted fan steering and driving motors; the development and operation of unmanned airships; fuel cell development and use; and so on.

Even the Army with its Long Range Intelligence, Reconaissance, and Surveillance efforts is putting more emphasis and funding into LTA craft than the Air Force. Is it the old Fighter Pilot Syndrome ? If you don't know what that is, I MAY explicate in some future BLOG. I will say that one of the most prominent tags on an Air Force service record was "Flying" OR "Non-Flying" ,
so much so that the enlisted men in my squadron used to joke about making up their "M1A1 Non-Flying Beds" for Saturday inspection.

Where are the Airships of the Air Force ???

(signed)
An Old Non-Fighter-Non-Pilot