Published Airpower Journal
- Fall 1997
LT COL JAMES W. SPENCER, EDITOR
THIS EDITION concludes our yearlong celebration of publishing—for 50 years—the best ideas in the Air Force. Twelve other editors and I have shared the honor of serving as caretakers of the Air Force’s professional dialogue. Allow me a moment’s reflection to mark the passage of time.
Gen Muir S. Fairchild’s vision to stimulate reading, writing, and reflection on the part of Air Force members assumed the physical form of Air University Quarterly Review in the spring of 1947. Gen Curtis E. LeMay expanded its size, and the bimonthly publication Air University Review debuted in 1963. Although some wags characterized the end of Air University Review and the advent of Airpower Journal as the Air Force’s “unilateral disarmament in the war of ideas,” the facts show, at best, a retrenchment of the professional dialogue. Available publishing space for potential contributors was cut in half, and the editorial focus was narrowed—allowing publication of ideas only at the operational-art level of warfare.
The Journal remains a creative work in progress. Everything we’ve accomplished in the most recent past has been aimed at providing you an open forum to debate the best ideas on how to improve our policies, apportion our resources, and employ our forces. Dealing with us has given many of you a first impression of how the publishing world works. A number of you have successfully submitted articles for publication, while others have suffered the disappointment of rejection. Although we’ve tried to “ramp up” the flow of ideas and the number of articles, many of you are discovering that it’s tough to get published. As of press time, our acceptance rate for feature articles is approximately 12 percent. You could write us a letter.
Did you notice that there weren’t any letters to the editor in the summer issue? That’s tantamount to reporting that we’re “C-3” (not combat ready) for ability to accomplish our mission. Letters are the life of our debate; without them, we fail. You seem to be more inclined to write articles for publication than letters to debate those ideas already posted. Our on-line publication (airchronicles) offers an even greater opportunity for publishing your ideas. Yet, many of you remain reticent to do so. In discussions with other journal editors throughout the Department of Defense, I’ve discovered that APJ is not alone. The pipeline of letters simply dries up from time to time. Are you unwilling to comment on what you read here? Are we meeting your needs for relevant professional discussion?
The liveliest debate we’ve run in the last dozen years has been about the debate itself. Perhaps the greatest challenge remains dealing with perceptual scars from the era when officialdom spoke volumes about free and open debate in a government publication. We sense that questions about just how free a forum we are have deterred some of the best and the brightest from contributing. In lieu of regurgitating that debate here, I encourage you to read the following items, which chronicle the greatest problem to beset the Journal’s mission effectiveness to date:
Perceptual problems with the professional journal are the toughest and take the longest to solve. What can we do to encourage the young Mitchells out there? Have we really cultivated a generation of Air Force leaders who have so closely embraced technology that they can’t even articulate the doctrine that guides its use or the plan for its contribution to the joint force commander? With the specter of a one-major-regional-conflict, $150 billion defense budget framing the next Quadrennial Defense Review, are we really disarmed entering the next “war of ideas”?
Nothing we can publish speaks more to our collective future than Col Timothy E. Kline’s “Where Have All the Mitchells Gone?” which first appeared in the May–June 1982 issue of Air University Review and is reprinted in this edition. His article kicks off a recurring section, sponsored by the Air Staff’s Strategy and Policy Division (AF/XPXS), that seeks to rekindle the flame of strategic thinking among airmen. Working in concert with Airpower Journal, AF/XPXS looks forward to mentoring new Mitchells. If you’ve missed the announcements in previous editions, just call us for more information. Enjoy Colonel Kline’s article; it could easily have been written in 1997. (In all fairness, I’d opine that suffering a “shootdown” meant something different in 1982 than it does in 1997.)
Look at the cover. Notice anything different? Four-color processing is a huge upgrade for us, and our graphics staff at Air University Press is hard at work designing the best for the professional flagship publication of the Air Force. Look for other improvements as we enter our next 50 years. Our electronic-publishing initiatives continue to grow and expand in the dynamic Internet medium. The many people who ask us for reprints are surprised to discover that they’re immediately available on-line.
Perhaps the future is leading us in a new direction. If the official nature of Air Force Recurring Publication 10-1, Airpower Journal, continues to discourage the best and brightest from offering needed criticism, then perhaps we need to remove our service’s dialogue from officialdom. Coupled notionally with the Aerospace Education Foundation, a fledgling USAF Academy Press, and privatized elements of Air University Press and CADRE, perhaps a new USAF Institute Press could emerge to stimulate debate the same way US Naval Institute Proceedings and Marine Corps Gazette manage their lively forums. Maybe giving up our official publication status might cure some perceptual ills and encourage what we all need: an open forum for exchanging ideas. As the incumbent caretaker, help me convince you we have that forum today in Airpower Journal. Write us a letter.
The best and the brightest ideas await the boundless future. Happy birthday, US Air Force and your professional dialogue!
Disclaimer
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.
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