Ricochets & Replies - Winter 2002

We encourage your comments via letters to the editor or comment cards. All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor, Aerospace Power Journal, 401 Chennault Circle, Maxwell AFB AL 36112-6428. You can also send your comments by E-mail to aspj@maxwell.af.mil . We reserve the right to edit the material for overall length.

BOOK REVIEW KUDOS

I was happy to read Dr. David R. Mets’s review of Around the World in 175 Days: The First Round- the-World Flight by Carroll V. Glines (summer 2002). I recently read this book and enjoyed it tremendously. However, I gently take issue with Dr. Mets’s assertion that this book is primarily a recreational read. After reading Around the World, I reread portions of Maurer Maurer’s Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919–1939 to confirm my impression that the real hero of the world flight was Gen Mason Patrick. During his tenure as chief of the Air Service, General Patrick sponsored a number of experiments and demonstrations- long-range flights, early experiments with aerial refueling, establishment of an airways system, communications and navigation aids, and so forth- that foreshadowed the capabilities which make the US Air Force the world-spanning force it is today. The world flight was the most ambitious of these efforts. Its planning, preparation, and execution provided lessons in logistics, meteorology, and navigation that proved as important to the Army Air Forces’ World War II and postwar successes as Billy Mitchell’s bombing demonstrations and the later doctrinal developments of the Air Corps Tactical School. With the current emphasis on global reach, air and space warriors should be able to return to the roots that make that reach possible, and Glines’s book is a valuable addition to that objective.

CORRECTION

I would like to make a minor correction to your editorial in the summer 2002 issue of Aerospace Power Journal. The Christmas bombings of Hanoi occurred in 1972, not 1973. I certainly appreciate all the hard work that goes into the production of such a great periodical. Although it’s been nearly 10 years since I last wore the blue suit or green bag, APJ and Chronicles keep me engaged.

RIVET JOINT CONFUSION?

Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth’s article “Kosovo and the Continuing SEAD Challenge” (summer 2002) rehashes inaccurate snippets from his book The Transformation of American Air Power (Cornell University Press, 2000). He asserts again that “another unconfirmed report suggested that the RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft monitoring enemy SAM activity may have failed to locate the SA-3 battery thought to have downed the F-117 and may not have relayed timely indications of enemy SAM activity to the appropriate C² authorities” (12–13). Continuing, he assumes that Gen Richard Hawley’s comment “when you have a lot of unlocated threats, you are at risk even in a stealth airplane” (13) somehow equates to an admission of poor performance by the outstanding Rivet Joint crews.

As a contributor to the powerful chief of staff of the Air Force’s reading list and true airpower advocate, Dr. Lambeth should consider focusing on accuracy rather than insinuation. For instance, although he mentions the “RC-135 Rivet Joint” on two occasions early in the piece, within seven paragraphs he calls it the “EC-135 Rivet Joint,” a platform that- to para- phrase his words- can somehow, from similar altitudes, mitigate line-of-sight “shortfalls” for the E-8 JSTARS (14).

Furthermore, the photograph on page 11 clearly portrays the RC-135 Rivet Joint, but the one on page 15 clearly does not. The latter appears to be an EC-18/EC-135- but it is not a Rivet Joint.

Editor’s Reply: The ASPJ staff tries to select photographs that match aircraft and type to enhance the presentation of each article. Occasionally we grab the wrong photo- or occasionally we do not have one of the exact aircraft we need and must substitute an image that comes close to the particular configuration. The latter was the case in Dr. Lambeth’s article. The photo on page 11 correctly captures the aircraft in question. However, Maj “Sweet” Tart’s eagle eyes detected something amiss in the photo on page 15, which shows the EC-135E Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft (ARIA) no. 374- nicknamed “Bird of Prey”- en route to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, from Edwards AFB, California. We aimed to illustrate the “hog-style” nose- but we missed. Good catch by Major Tart.

DOING A NOBLE JOB NOBLY

After 12 years of teaching ethics at the Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, I have learned a few lessons from the lieutenant colonels and colonels I’ve taught. These officers go on to positions of great responsibility in the US Air Force, and many spend considerable time during their year at the war college reflecting upon what they’ve committed their professional lives to. A pretty decent pay check? Extensive travel and educational opportunities? Medical benefits? Commissary or BX privileges? Retirement income? As the officers I have taught reflect upon their careers (usually about 18 years of service at that point), all of these things matter, for there are tangible benefits attached to being a senior officer in the Air Force, but those benefits rarely cause a person to devote a lifetime to serving the country.

There are also the “warm and fuzzy” feelings, I’m told, about the prestige of wearing an honored uniform, of having close friendships and sharing the camaraderie of the profession of arms, and, especially, of having the chance to lead and command. There are nomaterial considerations here- just the pride and fulfillment of doing a noble job nobly. And that’s what it means, I think, to be an Air Force professional- whatever rank you encounter.

Would you believe that many airmen are romantic or sentimental? They cling to certain pictures or letters or plaques that remind them, not so much of previous assignments, as of buddies they’ve known. They cherish scraps of paper, often kept in their wallets, which have their favorite quotations. They have little desk mementos with inspirational inscriptions- sometimes humorous, sometimes risqué, sometimes very deeply moving. If you get to know them and maybe have a couple of beers with them, they’ll tell you, quietly and privately, that they have loved the airmen they have flown with and served with. There’s nothing mawkish about this in their view. And there’s nothing wrong with it in my view. For they have done a noble job nobly.

You know what? I can’t explain that feeling. I’m a little envious because I have only a glimmer of it from my own short (four years) and very undistinguished tour of military service a long time ago. But I’m a baseball coach, and I know that sports can bring a bonding to team members that, well, maybe only a poet can explain. That’s what my students often have- only multiplied. And that’s the chief reason, truth be told, that they love the Air Force- the feeling of doing a noble job nobly.

Political scientists and sociologists can explain what a profession means in dull, desiccated language, which serves useful academic ends. The professional airmen I know, however, seem largely to agree upon a single word to describe who they are and what they do- vocation. Just as someone is called to the priesthood or ministry, so do Air Force pros think they, too, are called to a life of service before self. In the end, they are professionals precisely because they love their country, their service, and their people. They are doing a noble job nobly.

They don’t brag about it; they don’t even mention it (unless I almost pry it out of them). They live it. They love what they do, and they do what they love. I urge those of you who have not yet committed to the profession to work to deserve that privilege of service, for privilege is exactly what it is- the privilege of service, the privilege of doing a noble job nobly. It’s hard to explain that phrase “privilege of service.” But if you’ve played baseball or basketball or football or volleyball, you have a glimmer of its meaning, for you know what it means to work together toward victory. If you’re a true Air Force professional, you feel a calling to serve and to do a noble job nobly.

When the officers I know retire- and I’ve been to many, many retirements- I often think of the scriptural verse that says, Well done, good and faithful servant (Matt. 25:21). These airmen have done a noble job nobly. They have been true professionals.

Over the top? Too maudlin? Excessively dreamy? Not to the people I’ve been honored to know for 12 years. And not, I hope, to the members of the air and space forces I will be privileged to know in the future.

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

Ricochets and Replies

BOOK REVIEW KUDOS

CORRECTION

RIVET JOINT CONFUSION?

DOING A NOBLE JOB NOBLY