The United States Air Force Doctrine Essay

Throughout the history of Air Defense Artillery (ADA), innovative steps were made for the technological advance in weaponry to defend our skies and ground forces. The diverse history and continuous research and development of air defense systems played a vital role in the safety of ground troops and foreign civilians during the Persian Gulf crisis. Though not always in the forefront of battle, ADA had its own vital roles that it played from the time of its birth, and it was no different during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield when necessity helped to bring about the evolution of the PAC-II Patriot missile.

     The history of the United States military is a very prestige, brave, heroic, and memorable one at that. Starting on September 3, 1793 the United States was officially it’s own nation and it’s own military. At that time many other countries didn’t believe that we would succeed but, now we are one of the strongest, freest, and most prestige country to possible ever be developed.

Winston Churchill once said, “Not to have an adequate Air Force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence” (Quotes about Everything). In this sense, the military is important to America, especially the Air Force. The Air Force provides security and safety to the people. Military lifestyles are usually not everybody’s first choice in the beginning. Particularly, the U.S. Air Force is not always is not always the first branch that comes to mind when thinking of the future. Most of the time, people come to conclusion of enlisting in any branch of the military because of an uncertainty of their future. “…I had no career or education goals, no plans; it’s just where my path took me”

a) Economies of scale—the top three carriers (Federal Express, UPS, and Airborne Express) serve slightly more than 85% of the domestic express mail market. All three carriers deliver a high volume of packages, and thus, are able to spread fixed costs over more units. Also, each carrier has integrated technological systems that improved operational efficiency. In addition, intensive training programs of employees increase service and delivery efficiency.

It can be argued that General Henry “Hap” Arnold is the father of the United States Air Force. His experiences, wisdom, and foresight are what made him, in every way, a visionary leader. Due to his efforts developing air mindedness during the first part of the 20th century, he shaped what is today the greatest Air Force on the planet. I will begin by explaining his effective use of transformational leadership and the impact it has on the development of airpower. Then I will explain how his acceptance of diversity impacted the war effort during WWII and the future of the United States Air Force. First, we must know what shaped him into the leader he eventually became.

I am Joseph Maruska, I am currently a Major in the United States Air Force. This essay will introduce you to my personal command philosophy. It will also summarize and analyze a brief interview recently conducted with a current squadron commander using my own leadership philosophy as a guide. Throughout this essay I will draw upon my own personal experiences and thoughts, lessons discussed throughout the Leadership and Command Course, as well the discussion with a current squadron commander. Leadership and command styles come in many different forms and there is not necessarily a correct or incorrect way to lead depending on your organization or current turn of events. This essay is simply my thoughts after being in the Air Force for the last eleven years.

The American Army 's history, composition, and structure predisposed the leadership to a rigid fixation on conventional warfare. In contrast to the British army-as-force-projection model, the American Army found its first task a matter of national survival. This historical trend - the continued perception of the Army fighting a war of annihilation - helped in many ways to keep the Army purely focused on its military objectives. Unconditional surrender was the name of the game, and smaller political goals were seen at best as derivative to, and at worst, preventative of the fabled 'total victory '. The varied composition of personnel which make up the US army also ensured a degree of formality, and a deference to rank. The structure, born of open-combat wars at large scale, was constituted around large divisions, which often rotated officers and manpower in and out. In short, everything within the Army was organized -rigidly- around the principle of a large scale conventional war. What worked against the Germans would work against the Russians.

America's society today is going through rough times; times where America is looking to its military protect and represent them. This military needs fight for every freedom the American people have, as well as to be its voice across seas to those it interacts with, to be its eyes seeing what the real situation is, to be its ears in hearing all that cannot be heard from the television sets of American homes, and to be its brain in understanding what is actually going on and why. However, this is not what is happening as this country is at war. The soldiers are fighting and protecting, but the people of America have different political and moral views than that of its protectors. These people are not on the front line, and they are not

There has never been a moment in my life that wasn’t colored with thoughts of other people. My earliest memories are of butchering hogs on the farm, loading all the meat into huge coolers in the back of my mom’s truck to give away to the families of the disabled children she cared for. When I was 15 I started volunteering in a local nursing home and my senior year of high school I took half days so I could start pursuing a nursing degree through the local community college. So it seemed only natural that I continued the tradition of service before self by joining the United States Air Force. I can’t even express how much I loved my job and I was good at it. I truly thought I had found my path. So it was like mourning a death when an adverse reaction to a vaccine left me with a rare disorder, a pacemaker and a medical retirement. The loss of my career, the demise of my health and the havoc both wrought on my life led me down a dark road. It wasn’t until I realized that the silver lining in the situation was having the freedom and financial independence to spend my time finding ways to help other people. If anything helping other people became my salvation and my sanity. So when I ran across this contest I couldn’t help but think how incredibly well timed it was as Virginia is exactly the place I had planned on moving back to in 2.5 years when the love of my life’s military career finally came to a close. My mind immediately began racing with thoughts of all the

As President Ronald Reagan famously said, “History has taught us only too well, that tyrants are tempted only when the forces of freedom are weak, not when they’re strong.”

An event that occurred in my life that will help me succeed at Colorado Christian University is the day I joined the U.S. Army. This event means more than anything to me because it’s something that not very many people do that I did and got the courage to do. So far the Army has taught me many techniques and ways to be successful in everything you do. From personal courage, discipline, and integrity you learn that you can do anything you want by just pushing yourself and finding deep within what it is your dreams and lifelong goals are.

American airpower’s dependence on technology and its influence on future employment are best described with the words of General H. H. Arnold shortly after the Second World War: “The first essential of air power necessary for peace and security is the preeminence in research . . . . We must count on scientific advances requiring us to replace about one-fifth of existing Air Forces equipment each year and we must be sure that these additions are the most advanced in the whole world.” Furthermore, General N. F. Twining believed Air Force not to be bound to any fixed doctrine or concept, but its doctrine grows out of scientific achievement. Therefore, influence of technology on American airpower is evident since its beginnings and especially after the 1947 and the establishment of the independent United States Air Force (USAF) service. Technology continued to have the impact on American airpower after the 1947 through numerous technological achievements and inventions, but some of the major ones had substantial influence in American aerial warfare. Jet engine improvements and missile technology changed viewpoint on strategic bomber, and precision targeting technology and Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) system enabled accurate weapon delivery. Moreover, the invention of the stealth technology brought invisibility to the radar technology.

Billy Mitchell’s impact on America military aviation development is unquestionably profound but his progressive radical approach in convincing others about the significance of air power led other to articulate, “Mitchell had allowed his vision of the potential of aviation to cost him his perspective.” Believing in his results from combat in WWI Mitchell set out to prove the importance of the air domain challenging the establishment on the significance of air power. Mitchell started out with a balanced approach regarding of this “new instrument of warfare” but as time progressed he and his pupils in the Air Service departed from a vision of a balanced force to one concentrated solely on strategic bombing leading up to WWII. Billy

Since 1991, airpower has been utilized to achieve U.S. National Strategic objectives in a multitude of operations. Per JP 3-17, Air mobility operations are a rapid means to project and sustain power across the globe in support of US national interests and a critical enabler to the US National Military Strategy.4 The Air Force has proven to not only be superior in this aspect but have proven to be solid air power providers at every facet. The utilization of air power during these operations has allowed our capabilities to be used successfully within an ever changing, dynamic battle space in efforts to deter and defeat our enemies simultaneously world-wide. We have done this through counterterrorist operations, humanitarian assistance, and

Giulio Douhet, in his seminal treatise on air power titled The Command of the Air, argued, “A man who wants to make a good instrument must first have a precise understanding of what the instrument is to be used for; and he who intends to build a good instrument of war must first ask himself what the next war will be like.” The United States (US) military establishment has been asking itself this exact question for hundreds of years, in an attempt to be better postured for the future. From the Civil War, through the American Indian Wars, and up until World War II (WWII) the American military’s way of war consisted of fighting traditional, or conventional, wars focused on total annihilation of an enemy. Since that time, there has been a gradual shift from the traditional framework towards one that can properly address non-traditional, or irregular wars. While the US maintains a capability to conduct conventional warfare, the preponderance of operations where the US military has been engaged since WWII have been irregular wars. Therefore, this question articulated by Douhet, as to understanding the character of the next war in order to properly plan, train, and equip, is certainly germane to the current discussion of regular war versus irregular war. In today’s fiscally constrained environment, the questions remains, which will dominate the future and therefore, garner further funding and priority. Based on the current threats and the US role as a superpower, the US