U.S. Army Major General. Namesake of Cairns Army Airfield, Fort Rucker, Alabama, where he died in a helicopter crash.
Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 22, 1958
Died. Major General Bogardus Snowden Cairns, U.S.A., 48, developer of the armed helicopter, commandant of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.; in the crash of a light helicopter; at Fort Rucker. "Bugs" Cairns's career told the modern history of cavalry. After West Point ('32), he started out on horseback, had switched to tanks by World War II; last year at Fort Rucker, he took over the whirring, still-experimental cavalry of the sky. The general loved his "choppers," once said: "Like Wellington's cavalry, the helicopter can strike like a wolfpack and bite. It can slice and run, pull back and hit the other side. A chopper can be as low as a man on a horse, too."
Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 22, 1958
Died. Major General Bogardus Snowden Cairns, U.S.A., 48, developer of the armed helicopter, commandant of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.; in the crash of a light helicopter; at Fort Rucker. "Bugs" Cairns's career told the modern history of cavalry. After West Point ('32), he started out on horseback, had switched to tanks by World War II; last year at Fort Rucker, he took over the whirring, still-experimental cavalry of the sky. The general loved his "choppers," once said: "Like Wellington's cavalry, the helicopter can strike like a wolfpack and bite. It can slice and run, pull back and hit the other side. A chopper can be as low as a man on a horse, too."
U.S. Army Major General. Namesake of Cairns Army Airfield, Fort Rucker, Alabama, where he died in a helicopter crash.
Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 22, 1958
Died. Major General Bogardus Snowden Cairns, U.S.A., 48, developer of the armed helicopter, commandant of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.; in the crash of a light helicopter; at Fort Rucker. "Bugs" Cairns's career told the modern history of cavalry. After West Point ('32), he started out on horseback, had switched to tanks by World War II; last year at Fort Rucker, he took over the whirring, still-experimental cavalry of the sky. The general loved his "choppers," once said: "Like Wellington's cavalry, the helicopter can strike like a wolfpack and bite. It can slice and run, pull back and hit the other side. A chopper can be as low as a man on a horse, too."
Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 22, 1958
Died. Major General Bogardus Snowden Cairns, U.S.A., 48, developer of the armed helicopter, commandant of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.; in the crash of a light helicopter; at Fort Rucker. "Bugs" Cairns's career told the modern history of cavalry. After West Point ('32), he started out on horseback, had switched to tanks by World War II; last year at Fort Rucker, he took over the whirring, still-experimental cavalry of the sky. The general loved his "choppers," once said: "Like Wellington's cavalry, the helicopter can strike like a wolfpack and bite. It can slice and run, pull back and hit the other side. A chopper can be as low as a man on a horse, too."
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