During the early years of the Cold War, the so-called “Bomber Mafia” of Strategic Air Command (SAC) ruled the proverbial roost of the United States Air Force, thanks in no small part to SAC’s senior leader, the hard-charging, cigar-chomping, no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 October 1, 1990).