To Americans who remember crouching under their desk during grade-school air-raid drills, the Strategic Air Command--which kept nuke-carrying bombers airborne round the clock--was a special icon of the cold-war mythology. But last week Air Force Secretary Donald Rice announced that SAC will be eliminated under a sweeping reorganization of the service. Its nuclear missiles and bombers will join the Tactical Air Command's conventional aircraft to form a single Air Combat Command. "Desert Storm demonstrated that the line between strategic and tactical air power has become blurred," says a report released by Rice's office. "The organization needs to catch up."

There are other reasons for the change. One is money; by 1997, the Air Force will have about one-third less fighter wings, missiles and bombers than it has now. Rice is also cutting 700 Pentagon jobs. Finally, with the decline of the Soviet threat, new weapons like the B-2 Stealth bomber will have to be sold--if they are--with the argument that they give the U.S. an edge in conventional as well as strategic warfare.