The USAF provided at least some of its Generals with S&W M39s.
The story I heard was that USAF (while under General Le May) was the main driving forces behind S&W developing the 9mm for the military. Never were enough model 39's, so the AF issued 38 spe. M&Ps revolvers to the ground troops, and models 39's to aircrews. The first run (maybe 500) were all steel, and (never issued to the aircrew) , were pretty good autos. The second run had the alloy frame, and were issued the aircrews, and were a POS...