Gordon Philip Saville (September 14, 1902 – January 31, 1984). Retrieved on November 19, 2009. was a United States Air Force major general who was the top authority on US air defense from 1940 to 1951. Blunt and direct in manner, Saville had been an outspoken proponent of tactical aviation in the 1930s against a brotherhood of airmen who promoted strategic bombing.
Saville succeeded Claire L. Chennault as America's leading fighter aircraft tactician. With Benjamin S. Kelsey, Saville co-wrote the technical specifications which led to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the Bell P-39 Airacobra fighters. In 1949 he selected the North American F-86 Sabre as America's main defense fighter, and in 1950 he approved a guided air-to-air missile system that would be carried aboard the proposed supersonic 1954 interceptor; the missile produced was the AIM-4 Falcon.
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. He advocated the expansion of radar installations to create an unbroken air defense network. He explored the concept of a military aircraft designed around an integrated electronics fire-control system built by various subcontractors. Oral history interview of Donald Jacobs by Martin Collins. Summary of tape contents. After retiring from the military, Saville worked in the defense industry.
Early career Gordon Philip Saville was born in Macon, Georgia, on September 14, 1902.Official Army Register, 1946. Page 603. "Saville, Gordon P." (O17006) Retrieved on November 17, 2009. His Regular Army officer father propelled Saville's older brother to enroll at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he urged Saville to accept an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. However, Saville wanted to fly so he rejected formal military schools. Instead, 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, seeing active duty in August 1924 and August 1925. While on reserve duty at Crissy Field in San Francisco, Saville watched Army Air Service pilots training on military aircraft. He determined that he would join them or leave the military.Schaffel, 1987
Saville became a flying cadet with the Army Air Service in March 1926, and entered the primary flying school at Brooks Field, Texas. During this time his service branch reformed as the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). 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, gaining a commission as second lieutenant in the Air Reserve. 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. At Mitchel, Saville served ably as adjutant to Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Foulois, but Foulois was unhappy with Saville's absence during weekend train trips to Connecticut to see Ina Isola Hards, his girlfriend. Hards was an honors graduate of Wellesley College where she had performed in theatre plays and had served as class officer. Foulois' wife successfully addressed the problem by inviting Miss Hards to stay at the Foulois home on weekends. Saville married Hards in the Church of Transfiguration in New York City in September 1928; her father, Ira A. Hards, producer of the Mae West Broadway play Diamond Lil, walked her down the aisle. As a wedding present, Foulois granted Saville's request for a transfer back to Crissy Field.
Saville was made adjutant of Crissy Field in December 1928. He and his wife produced a daughter in July 1930, Ina Gordon Saville. Later that year Saville transferred to Mather Field, California, where he was appointed adjutant of the field and of the 20th Pursuit Group. The Savilles had a son, Edward A. Saville, in October 1931. In 1932, Saville and family traveled to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, along with the 20th Pursuit Group.
Tactics and theory At Foulois' recommendation, Saville entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, in August 1933. Saville graduated in May 1934, at the top of his class, and remained at the school as an instructor in the Maps and Photographs Section.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. At ACTS, Saville joined Claire L. Chennault in favoring an air defense strategy hinging on a strong fighter force. Saville argued against the so-called Bomber Mafia; he did not believe that fleets of bombers were unstoppable, and he considered close coordination between ground units and tactical air power a key part of Army doctrine. 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. Saville removed a degree of independent command from fighter squadron leaders who previously could ignore instructions radioed from the ground. Backed by Brigadier General Henry Conger Pratt, Saville's unpopular control methods proved their worth, as ground controllers were often in possession of better information than squadron leaders in flight.Schaffel, 1991, pp. 15–16 From 1935 to 1937, as Chennault was eased out by the bomber advocates, Saville took his place as the top fighter proponent. Saville avoided Chennault's fate by refraining from disputing the bomber's important role in offensive operations. He felt that the fighter aircraft was undervalued in its defensive role.
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 arbitrary 500-pound (225 kg) limit on the weight of fighter aircraft armament. The two men settled on the term "interceptor", creating a new Army classification 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.Bodie 1991, p. 19 These were requests for fighters having "the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude".Bodie 1991, pp. 16–17 Specifications called for at least 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 at altitude, and a climb to within 6 minutesLockheed P-38 Lightning. Retrieved: 21 January 2007.—the toughest set of specifications USAAC had presented to that date.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. 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 was made permanent in June 1937.
Saville entered the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in September 1938, and graduated the following June. 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 assumed the role of assistant intelligence and operations officer of the Air Defense Command (ADC) at Mitchel Field in March 1940. Led by Brigadier General James E. Chaney, the ADC was tasked with testing various air defense measures to determine what worked. Chaney was unfamiliar with air defense, and he made Saville the coordinator of all projects. This was the first time Saville was able to test and implement his theories on a large scale.Schaffel, 1991, pp. 24–25 New SCR-270 radar units were tried out and incorporated into the command scheme, giving greater reach to ground controllers. Army maneuvers held at Watertown, New York, in August 1940 allowed Saville to prove that fighter aircraft could protect a domestic target from air attack long before anti-aircraft artillery could fire, a result that Chaney said "astonished" high-ranking Army observers.Schaffel, 1991, p. 27
In October 1940, Saville flew to London with Chaney for temporary duty as a military air observer studying British air defenses, and returned to Mitchel Field after two months to become executive officer at the temporary rank of major of the First Interceptor Command. He began drafting a comprehensive air defense doctrine which combined features of the British system with those advocated by Chennault and himself. Saville was promoted to the permanent rank of major in February, 1941, and from March 25 to April 12, he conducted an intensive course in air defense given to 60 fighter group staff, including Kenneth P. Bergquist, posted to Hawaii's fighter wing.Schaffel, 1991, p. 32 In August 1941, he returned to London and observed British air defense measures until December 1941. During this time, Saville's Air Defense Doctrine draft was reviewed by the USAAC, but it was not approved or published.Saville's Air Defense Doctrine is on file at the National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Army Air Forces, AAG 381, Air Defense Doctrines. Saville's proposed defense involved rigorous round-the-clock coordination between ground observers, radar installations, and centralized command posts to filter reports to defense forces consisting of anti-aircraft artillery batteries, barrage balloons, and fighter wings. Unusually, Saville proposed that fighter wings involved in air defense be completely separate from fighter wings making attacks on enemy air forces.Futrell, 1989, p. 107
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 the country's air defenses, which he considered inadequate. Because of the greatly increased civilian interest in air defense, much of Saville's unpublished air defense doctrine was copied into the War Department's Training Circulars No. 70 and 71, published nine and eleven days after Pearl Harbor, respectively. These training materials emphasized regional command and control of air defenses. Fighter group commanders were to direct the efforts of anti-aircraft artillery officers—one of Saville's suggestions that had been a sticking point, resisted by artillerists. Before these plans were implemented, British radar pioneer Robert Watson-Watt surveyed West Coast defenses and found them "dangerously unsatisfactory", a confirmation of Saville's assessment. Saville found Watson-Watt's report "a damning indictment of our whole warning service."
Saville was made lieutenant colonel on January 5, 1942. 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.McArthur, Charles W. Operations analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II, pp. 5. AMS Bookstore, 1990. Saville was promoted to brigadier general on November 2.