You’re correct about Army Air Corps and the “whiz kids” were definitely Vietnam...but, as a Captain, he did conduct statistical analysis on bombing raids for LeMay during WWII, mostly in the Pacific theater. I could tell you what I think about the SOB but my momma taught not to speak harshly about the departed...thankfully.
Yes he was a technocrat all along. But the quote has him in charge of a team of "whiz kids" for the AAC, and that's blatantly false -- in fact it's beyond that, it's impossible.
From the article:
...in the postwar era, when Harvard Business School grad Robert McNamara and his "whiz kids" became famous for using mathematical modeling, game theory and complex statistical analysis for the Army Air Corps...