On September 19, 2019, a group of retired Air Force pilots received a presentation from Alan Armstrong on his book, Preemptive Strike – The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
The pilots were from the United States Air Force Class 55U and 56A. Some of the pilots who graduated in Class 56A had begun in Class 55U. The pilots in 55U graduated on August 31, 1955. As the years went by, these pilots flew some of the most sophisticated and challenging aircraft in the Air Force inventory including: (1) the Convair B-36 Peacemaker which was a strategic bomber with a wing span of 230 feet, the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever built; (2) the Boeing B-47 Stratojet which was the mainstay of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War with the Soviet Union; (3) the F-86D Sabre Jet which was a transonic all weather interceptor; and (4) the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo which was a supersonic jet fighter that could fly approximately 1,200 miles per hours that first served as a fighter and later as reconnaissance aircraft until 1979.
All of these old pilots were in their 80’s. However, they were extremely alert, energetic and some are still flying. They had no difficulty in appreciating the premise of Preemptive Strike, that is, that America had ambitions to bomb the Japanese Empire before the attack on Pearl Harbor – and the Japanese knew it. There was an engaging session of questions and answers after the presentation.