Success Quote by Stuart Symington

The cold comfort of this line is how casually it converts human risk into a spreadsheet problem. Symington is conceding the obvious - unescorted bombers get chewed up - and then brushing past it with managerial confidence: accept higher losses, keep the formation tight, finish the mission. It’s the language of a businessman trying to sound like a wartime pragmatist, smoothing a brutal trade-off into something that resembles operational common sense.

The intent feels twofold. On the surface, it’s an argument for feasibility: even without fighter protection, a disciplined system can still deliver results. Underneath, it’s a defense of doctrine and institutional momentum. “Flying in formation” isn’t just a tactic; it’s a belief that organization and technology can substitute for the messy unpredictability of combat. The phrase “get the job done” is tellingly vague, as if destruction at a distance is just another deliverable.

Context matters because debates over strategic bombing in the mid-20th century weren’t only about battlefield outcomes; they were about budgets, prestige, and the promise that airpower could win wars efficiently. Symington, who moved between business and government power circles, speaks in a register that treats loss as a cost center and success as throughput. The subtext is the moral anesthetic of bureaucracy: if the plan is coherent and the output is achieved, the blood price becomes a tolerable variable rather than the central fact.