Throughout the brief history of military aviation and the United States Air Force, there have been many great leaders. Several, such as Mitchell, Foulois, Spaatz, and Arnold, built the foundation for military aviation and championed an independent air force. Others, such as LeMay, Quesada, and Schriever, shaped the Air Force and developed specific elements of air and space power.1 While these leaders tend to be revered and studied by military professionals attending Air Force advanced education programs, Lt Gen William H. Tunner and his contributions to the airlift element of airpower do not receive similar attention and are typically underappreciated. Thus, a question arises: Was Tunner a successful Air Force leader? This question is answered using a framework that builds upon current Air Force leadership doctrine to examine and critique Tunner's military career during the interwar years, World War II, and early Cold War. Gen Curtis LeMay described Tunner as “the transportation expert to end transportation experts.”2 As a graduate of the US Military Academy in 1928, Tunner pursued a career in aviation and gained valuable experience as an Army Air Corps pilot, leader, and staff officer during the interwar period. In 1941, this experience landed him a job on the staff of the newly formed Ferrying Command, which held the critical responsibility of moving aircraft from US factories to American and Allied combat units overseas. A year later, when Ferrying Command was expanded and reorganized into Air Transport Command (ATC), Tunner was chosen to command Ferrying Division. These early experiences and leadership opportunities provided Tunner with a strong foundation in air mobility.
The US National Space Policy released by the president in 2006 states that the US government should "develop space professionals." As an integral part of that endeavor, "AU-18, Space Primer," provides to the joint war fighter an unclassified resource for understanding the capabilities, organizations, and operations of space forces. This primer is a useful tool both for individuals who are not "space aware"-unacquainted with space capabilities, organizations, and operations-and for those who are "space aware," especially individuals associated with the space community, but not familiar with space capabilities, organizations, and operations outside their particular areas of expertise. It is your guide and your invitation to all the excitement and opportunity of space.Last published in 1993, this updated version of the Space Primer has been made possible by combined efforts of the Air Command and Staff College's academic year 2008 "Jointspacemindedness" and "Operational Space" research seminars, as well as select members of the academic year 2009 "Advanced Space" research seminar.
This is an era of exponential growth especially in technologies. Air Forces are the most technology intensive fighting arms. An ideal Air Force would constantly embrace and adopt new technologies to retain it's cutting edge and all dominant status in battle space. Failure to do so may spell it's doom when faced with more current Air Force. Along with new technology there is a need to reorganise many aspects in the organisation. These include, but are not limited to, command and control setup, inter-service integration, HR function, organisational culture and attitude etc etc. This study focuses on the reorganisation already due and suggests ideas for the future.
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