General Carl "Tooey" Spatz was the first chief of staff of the separate air force. I asked him why, in his opinion, he was a successful leader. He responded: "I drink good whiskey and I get other people to do my work." There is more than humor in this thought. He meant he delegated authority to others. His assistant vice chief of staff was Maj. Gen. William F. "Bozo" McKee. In an interview, McKee related Spaatz's policy of decision making: I'll tell you a significant story about General Spaatz, and then you can see why he was so successful. When General Spaatz was chief of staff, Harvey S. Vandenberg was vice chief and I was assistant vice chief. By that time I had gotten to know Spaatz quite well. It was a Saturday morning, and Vandenburg was gone. I had three papers that had to be signed by the chief of staff, or at least I thought they had to be signed by the chief of staff. So I took these three papers in to General Spaatz shortly after eleven o'clock that morning. I said to him, "Sir, I've got three papers here that require your signature as chief." "I was a major general at the time, and General Spaatz looked up to me, and he said, "Bozo, didn't you just get promoted?" I said, "Yes, sir." "Who promoted you?" "You did, sir." "Why in the hell do you think I promoted you?" "Sir, I don't know." "Well, I'll tell you. I promoted you to sign papers like these. Do any of these papers have to do with war starting tomorrow?" "No, sir." "Then you sign them. If you make a mistake, I'll forgive you once. If you make a mistake two times, you're fired. Furthermore, I'm in a hurry because I'm due to meet some friends at eleven forty-five and I've got to go. So you sign those papers." I went back to the desk and read those papers three more times with great care before I signed them, and that was the last I heard of it. The reason I tell this story is that General Spaatz, when he had confidence in somebody, believed in the world's simplest fundamental of leadership--that is, to give your subordinates authority. Spell it out and then let them discharge it.