# Did Curtis LeMay ever admit to being afraid?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-curtis-lemay-ever-admit-to-being-afraid/749493>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 19, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-curtis-lemay-ever-admit-to-being-afraid/749493 "2016-03-19T05:38:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-curtis-lemay-ever-admit-to-being-afraid/749493/1 "2016-03-19T05:38:19Z")

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Every single documentary that I have seen about the Air Campaigns has had grizzled old veterans saying\* 'If they say they weren’t scared, they’re lying. \*

So, has the cigar chomping hero ever admitted to being afraid?

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**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-curtis-lemay-ever-admit-to-being-afraid/749493/2 "2016-03-19T07:38:17Z")

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> [@chacoguy](#):
>
> Every single documentary that I have seen about the Air Campaigns has had grizzled old veterans saying\* 'If they say they weren’t scared, they’re lying. \*
> 
> So, has the cigar chomping hero ever admitted to being afraid?

It reads more than a bit hagiographic, but Warren Kozak’s, _[Curtis LeMay: Strategist and Tactician](http://www.amazon.com/Curtis-LeMay-Strategist-Tactician-Generals/dp/1621572994)_, at pages 111-112, goes into a bit of detail about your question. From the book:

> [@](#):
>
> "Curtis LeMay finally put to rest one worry—the question of how he would deal with his own fears in combat. The man around him who only saw a very calm and supremely confident commander never guessed that he was as nervous as anyone. This was the first time in his entire life that anybody had ever taken a shot at him. He had survived.
> 
> ```
> LeMay had created his own way of dealing with fear. He found that if he focused his mind on his mission, his many responsibilities, and his men, as well as the cascade of details surrounding the twelve hours in the air, he could sublimate his anxieties. All the way there and back, he kept telling himself one thing: stick to the bombing, that's all that counts....Everything else, even his own life, was secondary. A co-pilot who flew with him described an extraordinary transformation that would take place just before each takeoff: "He bites down on his cigar and manages to turn from anxious to angry in just a few seconds." He turned his fear into fury...."
> 
> ```

As I wrote, hagiography. But I don’t doubt that a large part of that account is true, and stems from LeMay’s will and how he chose to view the world.