Man Lost

A memorandum that passed down through the Air Force recently warned: "Our No. 1 problem within the Air Force is the current and future shortage of trained, experienced men . . . During this year we may lose as many as 200,000 men. Among them will be veteran pilots and experienced staff officers." The memo could have included top air commanders, for last week the head of the Strategic Air Command's combat-ready Eighth Air Force, 43-year-old Major General John B. Montgomery, resigned from the service. A non-West Pointer (Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C.), Montgomery was a colonel at 32, a general at 35, had a fine combat record as well as a reputation as a staff idea man during World War II. When General LeMay took command of the Strategic Air Command he sought the brightest young officers in the Air Force. One of the first he picked was Montgomery, who became Director of Operations for the crucial years of SAC training and growth from 1949 to 1953, when he took over his last command.

Montgomery admitted that "financial reasons are the main consideration" for his resignation. The $14,000 a year he is getting as a major general is much less than he can draw in private industry.

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