Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

by Robert Coram

The FWS is more than a post–graduate school for fighter pilots. And it is more than the top finishing school in the Air Force. The FWS is the temple of fighter aviation. It is for those who believe that fighter aviation is a sacred calling. As is true in most temples of learning, not all who enter complete the course. Those who graduate and march out the front door are awarded respect and honor. Those who “bust out” find that a promising career has ended. The danger of “busting out” adds a certain frisson of trepidation when the highly prized invitation comes to join the FWS. If the FWS is a temple and if its graduates are priests, then FWS instructors are high priests. They are grand masters of a three-dimensional, high-speed death dance, the most rapidly changing form of combat ever devised. An FWS instructor has all the outward appearances of a mortal. But he wears the patch. In Boyd’s day the instructors wore a large badge-shaped patch on the breast of their green flight suits, and in the center of the patch was a crosshair sitting atop a bull’s-eye. Across the top of the patch in bold letters was the title: INSTRUCTOR. In most places of higher learning, an instructor is at the bottom of the academic pecking order. But at Nellis there is no more prestigious title. An FWS instructor may go on to become a general; many have. But ask him what gave him the most pride—becoming an FWS instructor or being promoted to general—and he will not hesitate. A general wears stars. Bu...