This book is about what Airmen have in common - our heritage, capacity, and future potential. It also illustrates that while we're on the leading edge, we're also part of the sweep of military history. Understanding the way that our predecessors handled their challenges can equip us to better serve our nation. The number one aim of this book is to supply Airmen with useful thoughts that might help them meet their known responsibilities and the unknown challenges their service will bring. We can learn from both the failures and the successes of soldiers, sailors, marines, and Airmen; the ancient past; and yesterday's headlines. This book is a revision of one published in 1990. Just as in the 1990 edition, the quotations are arranged by subject matter to present multiple views of each topic.

This is a book of quotations and comments about air power, war, and military matters. But it would be a great mistake to simply read the quotes and take them literally. Each selection presents a picture that you can look at again and again. Taken together, different views of the same subject matter are like a drafter's plans; they can make either an interesting multiple-view description of the subject or a puzzle. Even a hundred books couldn't give a complete picture of air power and war. What this book attempts to do is present a mosaic - a big, grainy picture of military air power that gains value as you step back from it and achieve perspective. And like a mosaic, this picture fills in only as you fit each piece with the others. Readers who are just embarking on a serious study of the military profession will find food for thought here; the more advanced student should find a feast. You are invited to read, reflect, enjoy, and appreciate, so you may apply your understanding when called to do so. Col. Dennis M. Drew, United States Air Force Director, Airpower Research Institute

Colonel Westenhoff provides a collection of quotations about the utility and potential of airpower. The book is divided into the following sections: Airpower, War Technology, the Principles of War, and Command. This digest is organized to be a handy reference.

This is a book of quotations and comments about air power, war, and military matters. But it would be a great mistake to simply read the quotes and take them literally. Each selection presents a picture that you can look at again and again. Taken together, different views of the same subject matter are like a drafter's plans: they can make either an interesting multiple-view description of the subject or a puzzle. Even a hundred books couldn't give a complete picture of air power and war. What this book attempts to do is present a mosaic a big, grainy picture of military air power that gains value as you step back from it and achieve perspective. And like a mosaic, this picture fills in only as you fit each piece with the others.

Col Charles M. Westenhoff, USAF, retired, has compiled a thought-provoking collection of ideas from an array of luminaries--including contemporary and legendary generals, innovative tacticians and strategists, world leaders, and philosophers. The quotations were chosen for their value to Airmen and the profession of arms. The aim of this book is to supply Airmen with useful thoughts that might help them meet their known responsibilities and the unknown challenges their service will bring. Gen T. Michael Moseley, chief of staff, USAF, notes that 3understanding the way that our predecessors handled their challenges can equip us to better serve our nation.4.

The aim of this pocket-size and shorter version of Military Airpower: A Revised Digest of Airpower Opinions and Thoughts is to supply Airmen with useful thoughts that might help them meet their known responsibilities and the unknown challenges their service will bring.

For nearly two decades the United States Air Force (USAF) oriented the bulk of its thinking, acquisition, planning, and training on the threat of a Soviet blitzkrieg across the inter German border. The Air Force fielded a powerful conventional arm well rehearsed in the tactics required to operate over a central European battlefield. Then, in a matter of days, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait altered key assumptions that had been developed over the previous decade and a half. The USAF faced a different foe employing a different military doctrine in an unexpected environment. Instead of disrupting a fast paced land offensive, the combat wings of the United States Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF) were ordered to attack a large, well fortified, and dispersed Iraqi ground force. The heart of that ground force was the Republican Guard Forces Command (RGFC). CENTAF's mission dictated the need to develop an unfamiliar repertoire of tactics and procedures to meet theater objectives. How effectively did CENTAF adjust air operations against the Republican Guard to the changing realities of combat? Answering that question is central to this study, and the answer resides in evaluation of the innovations developed by CENTAF to improve its operational and tactical performance against the Republican Guard. Effectiveness and timeliness are the primary criteria used for evaluating innovations.