This exhaustive study of 40 years of Air Force high-tech weaponry challenges myths about U.S. military prowess. With a panoramic sweep and shocking frankness unrivaled in the current literature, Ken Werrell reveals the true extent of the Air Force's technological transformation. Chasing the Silver Bullet traces in unprecedented detail the evolution of the Air Force's entire inventory since the Korean War and offers sage analysis of the strategies and doctrine that fashioned the hardware.

Airpower is credited with success in Afghanistan, Desert Storm, and Serbia, but in Vietnam all of America's aerial might could not defeat a vastly outnumbered Third World force on bicycles. With a panoramic sweep and shocking frankness unrivaled in the current literature, Ken Werrell, one of today's most experienced airpower historians, reveals the true extent of the technological evolution that fueled this transformation. Chasing the Silver Bullet traces in unprecedented detail the evolution of the Air Force's entire inventory since the Korean War, from the ill-fated F-105 fighter-bomber to the F-117 stealth fighter, but one of its chief contributions is its analysis of the strategies and doctrine that fashioned the hardware. Werrell's exhaustive research and sage analysis challenge the Air Force's mantra that precision-guided munitions delivered from long-range, stealthy aircraft are America's true war heroes. Desert Storm gave us the wrong impression about airpower technology and Werrell corrects that mistake with this landmark study, rendering superficial all other books about Desert Storm and current capabilities. Objective, even-handed, and unimpressed with the bells and whistles of new technology, Werrell understands how airpower works.

Teaching pastor at the influential New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Daniel Grothe explains the Bible's blueprint for becoming the kind of person who can deal with all of life's challenges. Some people have learned how to live. They can handle all that life brings. They are composed. They radiate strength. They are whole, with lives worth emulating, and when they speak people listen. They are, in a word, wise. How did these people get wisdom? And perhaps more importantly, how can we? In his long-awaited first book, Daniel Grothe of New Life church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shows us how to get wisdom for ourselves by examining what the Bible has to say about it and by providing practical steps for acquiring it, among them: learning to ask for help, loving Scripture, going to Church, living quietly, and, above all, seeking those who are themselves wise. Drawing upon Scripture and upon his own experience learning from his friend and mentor Eugene Peterson, Grothe shows how our lives can be secured by the resource that will keep us from collapsing under the onslaught of the difficulties of life. Wisdom is available to us. It takes work to pursue it. Chasing Wisdom reveals how.

Welcome to the systems age, where software professionals are no longer building software—we're building systems of software. Change is continuously deployed across software ecosystems coordinated by responsive infrastructure. In this world of increasing relational complexity, we need to think differently. Many of our challenges are systemic. This book shows you how systems thinking can guide you through the complexity of modern systems. Rather than relying on traditional reductionistic approaches, author Diana Montalion shows you how to expand your skill set so we can think, communicate, and act as healthy systems. Systems thinking is a practice that improves your effectiveness and enables you to lead impactful change. Through a series of practices and real-world scenarios, you'll learn to shift your perspective in order to design, develop, and deliver better outcomes. You'll learn: How linear thinking limits your ability to solve system challenges Common obstacles to systems thinking and how to move past them New skills and practices that will transform how you think, learn, and lead Methods for thinking well with others and creating sound recommendations How to measure success in the midst of complexity and uncertainty

How did American fighter pilots respond to the challenges posed by increasing automation? Spurred by their commanders during the Korean War to be “tigers,” aggressive and tenacious American fighter pilots charged headlong into packs of fireball-spewing enemy MiGs, relying on their keen eyesight, piloting finesse, and steady trigger fingers to achieve victory. But by the 1980s, American fighter pilots vanquished their foes by focusing on a four-inch-square cockpit display, manipulating electromagnetic waves, and launching rocket-propelled guided missiles from miles away. In this new era of automated, long-range air combat, can fighter pilots still be considered tigers? Aimed at scholars of technology and airpower aficionados alike, Steven A. Fino’s Tiger Check offers a detailed study of air-to-air combat focusing on three of the US Air Force’s most famed aircraft: the F-86E Sabre, the F-4C Phantom II, and the F-15A Eagle. Fino argues that increasing fire control automation altered what fighter pilots actually did during air-to-air combat. Drawing on an array of sources, as well as his own decade of experience as an F-15C fighter pilot, Fino unpacks not just the technological black box of fighter fire control equipment, but also fighter pilots’ attitudes toward their profession and their evolving aircraft. He describes how pilots grappled with the new technologies, acutely aware that the very systems that promised to simplify their jobs while increasing their lethality in the air also threatened to rob them of the quintessential—albeit mythic—fighter pilot experience. Finally, Fino explains that these new systems often required new, unique skills that took time for the pilots to identify and then develop. Eschewing the typical “great machine” or “great pilot” perspectives that dominate aviation historiography, Tiger Check provides a richer perspective on humans and machines working and evolving together in the air. The book illuminates the complex interactions between human and machine that accompany advancing automation in the workplace.

We spend our lives chasing what we think will make us happy: money, relationships, careers, a bigger house, a better body. But the chase doesn’t end until we stop chasing things outside of ourselves and start chasing who we came here to be. Standing by to help is the Other Side, a team of spiritual guides dedicated to giving us the confidence and clarity to live out our mission. Following a near-death experience at age nine, Monica Lawson has been able to hear, see, feel, and know the Other Side. She now inspires clients from all walks of life on how to connect with their spiritual team. One of those people is Elizabeth Kendig, a recovering perfectionist who found peace and purpose after putting the lessons in this book into practice. Together they will teach you how to do the same. They will teach you how to chase you.

No nation in recent history has placed greater emphasis on the role of technology in planning and waging war than the United States. In World War II the wholesale mobilization of American science and technology culminated in the detonation of the atomic bomb. Competition with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, combined with the U.S. Navy's culture of distributed command and the rapid growth of information technology, spawned the concept of network-centric warfare. And America's post-Cold War conflicts in Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan have highlighted America's edge. From the atom bomb to the spy satellites of the Cold War, the strategic limitations of the Vietnam War, and the technological triumphs of the Gulf war, Thomas G. Mahnken follows the development and integration of new technologies into the military and emphasizes their influence on the organization, mission, and culture of the armed services. In some cases, advancements in technology have forced different branches of the military to develop competing or superior weaponry, but more often than not the armed services have molded technology to suit their own purposes, remaining resilient in the face of technological challenges. Mahnken concludes with an examination of the reemergence of the traditional American way of war, which uses massive force to engage the enemy. Tying together six decades of debate concerning U.S. military affairs, he discusses how the armed forces might exploit the unique opportunities of the information revolution in the future.