<p>As the Kennedy administration took office, the Atlas and Titan ICBMs were installed. In all, 12 Atlas squadrons (126 missiles), six Titan I squadrons (54 missiles), and four Thor squadrons (660 missiles) were deployed. Soon afterward, it was acknowledged that no real 'missile gap' separated the hard-working US Air Force from the menacing Russians. In 1961, Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) and Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) replaced the old Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) and Air Materiel Command (AMC).
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<p>General Schriever had achieved a long-sought goal—to consolidate research, development and acquisition. Schriever, then head of ARDC, retained command of AFSC. The first steps were taken to develop a new ICBM—the Minuteman—which, being solid-fueled, offered greater simplicity, safety and ease of operation than the first-generation, liquid-fueled rockets. The early missiles were soon retired. Only the Titan II, an advanced ICBM that entered service later (in 1963) survived with liquid fuel as its lifeblood.
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<p>In the early to mid-1960s, news headlines (and the impending influence of television) warned that Americans were going to have to fight in the Belgian Congo, Laos and Vietnam. President Kennedy revived the United States' dormant special operations forces, including the Air Force's proud Air Commandos, who flew prop-driven warplanes and attired themselves in jungle garb and Anzac campaign hats.
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<p>In 1961, insurgents in Laos shot down a USAF C-47 radio-intercept aircraft, killing half a dozen men who became the first Air Force casualties of the decade and the first in South East Asia. The event seemed to forecast a new world. Although American housewives and schoolchildren were busily constructing family bomb shelters and taking lessons on what to do when they first spotted the blinding flash of a nuclear detonation, a few USAF officers in the Pentagon were predicting that 'limited war' was the wave of the future. But LeMay and the bomber generals were peering not toward Stanleyville or Hanoi, but toward Moscow. These men determined the size and shape of the Air Force and, at their urging, bombers and missiles sucked up Congressional funding.
