Robert M. Webster  Robert Morris Webster (October 19, 1892 – March 1, 1972) was a United States Air Force major general who was an early advocate of daylight precision bombing as a war-winning strategy. A rated command pilot, he commanded a number of large air units during and after World War II and served as a senior military representative of the United States in foreign relations. Webster was born in Boston on October 19, 1892. He enlisted as a flying cadet on February 21, 1918. He attended the School of Military Aeronautics at Princeton University from March to June 1918 and was then assigned to Chanute Field, Illinois. He attended the Aerial Gunnery School at Carlstrom Field, Florida from October 1918 to February 1919. Webster was trained at the Instructors School at Kelly Field, Texas and was then assigned to the District Ordnance Office in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as an Army Reserve officer. Webster was commissioned lieutenant in the United States Army Air Service in July 1920. In January 1921, Webster went to the Long Island Air Reserve Depot in New York. In March, he returned to Carlstrom Field, then moved to Brooks Field, Texas, in July 1922. After the formation of the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) in July, Webster was assigned to the Philippines in October 1926—he served with the Second Observation Squadron at Nichols Field, and a month later was assigned to the Fourth Composite Group there. In December 1928, Webster became an instructor with the Connecticut National Guard at Hartford. Webster entered the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) at Maxwell Field, Alabama, in August 1933. He graduated the following June and remained to serve as an instructor at the rank of captain. Webster taught within the Air Force Section of the school. For the next three years, Webster worked with other ACTS instructors—Harold L. George, Donald Wilson, Muir S. Fairchild, Haywood S. Hansell and Laurence S. Kuter—to determine how best to use precision bombing techniques that were under development to destroy small, vital enemy targets during the opening phase of a war, so as to hinder the enemy's potential to wage a lengthy war. Fairchild and Webster studied the interconnections between various industrial sectors of the United States to determine the most vulnerable nodes relative to attacking an enemy's industrial base. The two men compiled a list of critical targets that could incapacitate an enemy; targets that were organized with regard to available weapons. Webster wrote to a number of New York city and state agencies such as the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the Consolidated Gas Company and the New York City Board of Water Supply to determine the vulnerabilities of a large metropolitan area such as New York City.