An historical perspective on operations research in the United States Air Force

The following paper is an electronically scanned version of an in-office manuscript prepared by Dr. LeRoy A. Brothers in September 1952, at which time he was Chief of the Operations Analysis Division in the Office of the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. The paper provides a complete discussion of the origins, development and successful application of operations analysis in the Air Force up to the middle of the Korean War. Roy Brothers' formal career in OR only spanned the brief period 1943–1958, taking him from the faculty at Drexel Institute first into operations analysis dealing with targets and weapons for the war in the Far East and the US Strategic Bombing Survey operations in Japan, and then to civilian time as a coordinator of strategic, tactical and defense studies at Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Dr. Brothers returned to Drexel in Fall 1958 as Dean of the School of Science and Engineering. But, despite his relatively short career in OR, his contributions to OR were significant. Throughout his time with the Air Force, he showed outstanding insights regarding the role of quantitative methods in national defense decision making, and was an exemplary leader of the kinds of interdisciplinary teams of civilian and career staff so necessary for military problem solving. In 1955, LeRoy A. Brothers served as the fourth President of the Operations Research Society of America, and his term was marked by special foci on understanding the major ingredients of successful OR project work and the dvelopment of appropriate paradigms for OR education. We believe that Dr. Brothers' words are especially germane for today's community of practicing military operations research analysts.