Rapid Ascent: Airmindedness Published July 18, 2024 By Dr. Paul Johstono Wild Blue Yonder--Maxwell AFB -- In 1948, the AFM 35-15 Air Force Leadership set out principles and techniques for early Cold War commanders to build cohesive and efficient organization to face the challenges of the post World War II security landscape. Its values are timeless, but it was aimed at an audience familiar with references and examples that no longer reflect the experiences of a 21st century Department of the Air Force. Its preface, by CSAF General Hoyt Vandenburg, insists “leadership techniques must change as the habits and thinking of the people comprising our units change,” so we created an updated resource with our contemporary context in mind. At the suggestion of Air University leadership, we drew upon the expertise of AU faculty to offer a quick primer on six foundational concepts of the Human Domain. This is the second in a six part series. Airmindedness has represented a departure from the ground-based warrior's mentality since the days when a smooth stone felled a princely champion from well beyond the reach of his spear. The complaint of a captured Spartiate, member of that mythologized warrior class, that "that missile would be worth a great deal that could distinguish the brave man from the rest" captures the capacity of the air domain to frustrate strengths rooted to the ground.[1] Airmindedness seeks to go over not through, to exploit opportunities and gain asymmetric, even decisive, advantages. Airmindedness begins with enthusiasm for the air domain. It opens opportunities. It is transcendent. And it has always meant trouble. The airminded are technical experts and skillful. Their expertise may fly in the face of established norms about status and hierarchy. The airminded are also curious and daring. Their boldness may overturn traditions. Cultivating airmindedness is an essential aspect of what makes the United States Air Force distinct, and how the Air Force seeks to multiply its strategic impact through the air domain. The will to fly was (and in many cases still is) the will to conquer, to overcome all obstacles in the effort to gain control over the natural conditions of environment. -- M.J. Bernard Davy, Air Power and Civilization (1941) The Greeks told a story about a father and son, Daedalus and Icarus, who lived on the island of Crete in the Bronze Age. Daedalus’ expertise and skill at craft helped him discover a path to manned flight. His innovation enabled him and his son to escape imprisonment at the hands of King Minos. During their escape, Icarus’ thrill and wonder at flight took him too close to the sun, his wings fell apart, and he perished. Airmindedness combines expertise and skill, wonder and daring, to bring bold visions to fruition and enhance our national stability, security, and prosperity. When the Wright brothers finally succeeded at Kitty Hawk, observer John Daniels wrote of Orville and Wilbur, “it wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith.”[2] This attitude conveys the essence of airmindedness, with its unconstrained perspective and marriage of expertise and passion. As civilian aviation accelerated into this new frontier, Air Service personnel constantly pushed the envelope of their own capabilities. Airmen pioneered transcontinental flights, and in 1924 a team of aviators circumnavigated the globe. Their flight was a triumph of skill, technical ability, teamwork, and effective planning, made possible by America’s burgeoning aircraft industry. Claire Chennault’s demonstration team, Three Men on the Flying Trapeze, amazed crowds and honed aerial pursuit tactics. Jimmy Doolittle was one of several Air Service aviators who racked up wins in air races. Question Mark, a modified Atlantic-Fokker C-2A aircraft commanded by Major Carl. A. Spaatz, in 1929 pioneered mid-air refueling, keeping a plane airborne for over 150 hours. The Air Service, then Air Corps, demonstrated that airmindedness was not only exploring the frontiers of the air domain; they also sought out ways to be useful to the conduct of terrestrial business, like aerial surveys of incompletely mapped regions of America, providing airmail service, and fighting wildfires in the American West. Airmen competed to win the Mackay award for flight of the year, and often won for dramatically new, different, and useful feats. In the 1920s, airmindedness, or the fascination with aviation and the sky, transcended social boundaries and offered new horizons for women and African Americans. This era marked a pivotal moment in history when both groups challenged societal norms and embarked on journeys that defied gravity and prejudice. For women, the 1920s brought a wave of feminism and newfound independence. Aviation became a symbol of empowerment, as pioneering female aviators like Amelia Earhart, Katherine Sui Fun Cheung and Bessie Coleman soared into the skies. These daring women broke barriers, proving that the sky was no longer just a man's domain. Their accomplishments inspired generations to come, igniting the dream of flight in the hearts of countless women. African Americans, too, found a path to "airmindedness" in the 1920s, despite facing racial discrimination. Bessie Coleman learned French to attend a French flight school to fulfill her dream of flying, earned her pilot’s license abroad, then flew barnstorming stunt shows, gave public talks, and raised money to open an unsegregated flight school in the United States. The Tuskegee Airmen, who answered the nation’s call in WWII, were a testament to the enduring legacy of African Americans in aviation. Hundreds of fliers proved their skill, moral courage, and patriotism while facing the Luftwaffe in the air and while facing adversity within the ranks. Jimmy Doolittle trained other pilots during World War I. He performed aerial acrobatics, won numerous air races and became something of a celebrity officer with a rebel’s reputation. He was vital to innovations in instrumentation and instrument flying. He bounced in and out of the Air Service then Air Corps then Air Forces, but his airmindedness was central to his civilian career as well. He developed industry partnerships that were essential to bringing Hap’s airpower vision to fruition. His most famous operation, however, was the raid on Tokyo after Pearl Harbor. The efforts of Doolittle's Raiders are quintessential to airmindedness. The raid sought to use the range and flexibility of sea and air to launch a morale-flipping attack on Imperial Japan. Airframe innovations to increase range and launch the B-25 from a carrier were just as essential as the canny flying of the Raiders on their long, lonely flight across the pacific, over Japan and into China. With us air people, the future of our nation is indissolubly bound up in the development of air power. -Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell Paul "Pappy" Gunn began his storied career as an aviation mechanic before WWI, learned to fly on his own time, was an enlisted aviator in the Navy's "Top Hats" in the inter-war period, and when World War II began, was in retirement, running a small private airline in the Philippines. His daring initiative as a civilian, and then an officer in the Army Air Forces became legend. His maintenance expertise and ingenious adaptations to bomber-gunships significantly added to the effectiveness of George Kenney's air forces in support of the campaign in the Pacific. The newly founded Air Force's Manual for Leadership (AFM 35-15) spoke to airmindedness thus: "The ultimate mission of the air force is to be ready to win victory in air battle." [4] It spoke to the attributes airmindedness inspires in Air Force leaders in this way, emphasizing initiative and innovation, both directed toward the strategic aim of airmindedness, victory in air battle: “You are expected, however, to use initiative in conceiving more efficient ways in which the mission of readiness may be fulfilled and not merely await orders and directives. If you conceive of some new practice that is authorized, by all means execute it. If the new practice has promise but conflicts with regulations, it is your duty to recommend it to higher authority. You can never relinquish your responsibility to further the mission of readiness for victory in air battle.”[5] Airmen have fulfilled that mission in many places and times and in many ways, not only in air battles like Robin Old's Operation BOLO which knocked out a third of North Vietnam’s MiG-21 Fishbeds in the span of 12 minutes, but also in strategic, non-violent victories like the Berlin Airlift and theoretical conceptions of paralysis or concentric attack. But for all the examples of airminded excellence there are also cases where the Air Force and its Airmen have failed to embody an airminded outlook, strapped by conventional thinking, institutional constraints, groupthink, or stale vision. The Airminded Outlook Airmindedness is not just for aviators. Airmindedness describes an aspect of the Airman's ethos: habits, values and outlook Airmen bring every day to every new challenge. The attributes and variables of the air domain shape what is means to be airminded. The height, breath and openness of the air domain provide opportunities for flexibility, speed and range. The airminded seek to use expertise, skill, ingenuity, daring and enthusiasm to achieve meaningful effects on their environment. An airminded approach is, at its core, an attitude toward problem-solving. It can bear as significantly on the outlook and achievements of Airmen in force support or acquisitions, and so on, as on those in the flying community. The United States Air Force and its Airmen are not airminded by default. Airmindedness is a property held in tension. Its elevation of expertise and inclination for bold strokes are each counter-cultural tendencies, especially in large bureaucracies. It is entirely possible to have a robust Air Force and atrophy airmindedness. As the service looks ahead at the known and unknown challenges of the future operating environment, airmindedness is a significant element in achieving future successes. The service, units, and individuals can cultivate airmindedness in four complementary areas: encourage enthusiasm for air interests; develop and honor expertise, skill, and ingenuity; cultivate over-not- through ambitions; and finally, integrate airmindedness within a larger ethos of national service. I was very fortunate to find a tremendous leader in the targeting JAG that I worked alongside every day. Though as a JAG he did not have command authority, his leadership really resonated with me personally. His understanding of history and the cultural aspects of the theater were second to none…everything I could learn from him…I did my best to absorb. In fact, his ability to mentor and to teach was so formative in my growth over that deployment, we have continued to keep in touch. --Col. Kristen D. Thompson, USAF Encourage Enthusiasm for Air Interests. One does not have to enjoy flying or admire aviation to be airminded, but it does not hurt. These days the advance into the air has opened activity in the space domain and in cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum. Knowledge and affective appreciation of flight and air operations ought to be spread across the force. The service should hold up examples of airmindedness from American aviation history and identify Airmen who embody airmindedness in the present as well. Airmindedness includes an awareness of the ways in which air, cyber, space, and the electromagnetic spectrum have contributed to a globalized world which makes commerce, information, and human contact move at speeds and ranges unthinkable a generation ago, introducing both opportunities and threats to U.S. interests and national security. Develop and Honor Expertise, Skill and Ingenuity. In the realm of high technology, it is sometimes the case that the challenge is not pushing authority to the lowest competent level, as in Mission Command. Instead, it is recognizing that the greatest competence may be at a lower level. Skillful experts plug and play into high-performing teams on the basis of their competence and proficiency. Individual and small team excellence have always been characteristic of aviation pioneering. Because of the air domain, the Air Force has a greater propensity for individualism. This should not be discouraged but encouraged alongside the rapid formation of teams that can develop ingenious solutions to wicked problems. Airminded boldness depends on expertise, skill, and ingenuity, not to take foolhardy risks, but to develop smart, novel approaches through enterprising resourcefulness. At that time, I had only been in the Air Force for about five years...I joined the Air Force through ROTC as a way to pay for college and I didn’t really come from a family with extensive military background…all that is to say, I really did not know much about the Air Force in general and much less about its history. The early days of military aviation…was a time of experimentation and searching…But more importantly they were searching for a ‘theory of success.’ How should airpower be used, what unique contribution could it make to fighting and winning wars, what was different about these weapons and the domain of the air that required dedicated training, education, and expertise? It is through this lens and as an evolution of those lessons that I believe the USSF must propose, evaluate, and evolve its own ‘theory of success’-- General B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, US Space Force. AFA Keynote –"Guardians in the Fight.” (Address to Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium, Aurora, CO, 7 March 2023). Cultivate Over-not-Through Ambition. Going over not through seeks to nullify an adversary’s advantages or bypass obstacles present in the system or environment. The USAF Doctrine Update on Airmindedness identified the air domain as “inherently strategic.”[6] The air domain offers the potential to have strategic effects, but it requires airminded ambition and talent to be strategic. Airmen in the early days of the service fought for their independence as a service so they could pursue over-not-through solutions with strategic value. The Air Force has played a major role in the American nuclear deterrent for decades because of the ambition of some airminded professionals. However, an independent Air Force does not guarantee airmindedness. In many ways, independence has atrophied some of the boldness and daring of early Airmen. The rejuvenation of Air Force Mission Command should encourage resourceful initiative and risk tolerance, at the unit level, to seek out, through successes and failures, ambitious strategic contributions to a new century’s great challenges. Meanwhile, a cyber warrior parries attacks from a desperate enemy who needs to disrupt the cloud’s effectiveness but shows his hand with every attempt at cyber superiority. The enemy succeeds in corrupting data, but the cloud isolates the nature of the corruption and supplies visual feedback to grey-matter operators who decide to patch the tactical picture back together with old-fashioned radio communications. Meanwhile, our cyber warrior has successfully isolated the hack and goes on the counteroffensive with an attack ensuring that the enemy will have only a negligible chance of success on that front for the rest of the campaign. The connectivity of the cloud and the capabilities of the swarm prove essential for the effective use of traditional platforms.”—Blair & Helms, “The Swarm, The Cloud and the Importance of Getting There First,” ASPJ, 2013. Integrate Airmindedness within a Larger Ethos of National Service. The Air Force's mission to “fly, fight, and win, anytime and anywhere” is as broad as the air domain. It reflects the flexibility, range, and timing qualities of operating in the air, and its ambition to have strategic effect. But it also acknowledges that the service is “on call.” Airminded experts and innovators are military service members first and foremost, and their passion for their air should always be second to their passion for securing the promise and prosperity of our nation and upholding their oaths to our constitution Dr. Paul Johstono is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership at Air Command & Staff College, and Director of the ACSC core course on Leadership and the Profession of Arms. His background is in classics, military history, and public policy. He supports ACSC and AU curriculum and conversations around military ethics and ethos, strategy, and leadership. Textbox quotes from individual Air Force personnel collected and edited by Dr. Paul J. Springer as part of his study of leadership during the tenure of General David L. Goldfein. Many thanks to the volunteer participants whose comments and experiences helped to shape the contours of this project: Air University’s ACTS “Disciples” Lt. Col. Lyndsey Banks, CMSgt Jason Blair, TSgt Zachary Bennett, Col. Stephanie Boger, Lt. Col. Jose Crespo, Lt. Col. Christy Cruz Peeler, Col. Jerry Davisson, MSgt Ashley Evans, Lt. Col. Mitchell Foy, Maj. Ray Funke, CMSgt Steven Hart, Dr. Robert Hinck, Dr. John Hinck, CMSgt Joshua Lackey, Mr. Mark Logan, Lt. Col. William Mendel, Capt. Denny Miller, Ms. Rhonda Miller, TSgt Israel Navarro, Lt. Col. Amber Ortiz, SMSgt Joshua Penery, Lt. Col. Don Salvatore, Col. Eltressa Spencer, Dr. Susan Steen and the AY24 AU Resilience Research Task Force, Maj. Jonathan Tolman Arnold, Henry H., and Ira C. Eaker. This Flying Game. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1936. Benitez, Maj. Mike, "Airmindedness 2.0: We Need to Do Better Than 'Fly, Fight, and Win'." War on the Rocks, 18 August 2016. Blair, Maj. David and Capt. Nick Helms, “The Swarm, the Cloud and the Importance of Getting There First,” Air Power and Space Journal (July-August 2013): 14-38. Meilinger, Col. Philip S. ed. The Paths of Heaven: The Evolution of Airpower Theory. Air University Press: Maxwell AFB, 1997. Mitchell, William. Winged Defense: The Development and Possibilities of Modern Air Power - Economic and Military. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925. Trew, Lt. Col. Jason, "Rescuing Icarus: The Problems and Possibilities of 'Airmindedness'.” Air & Space Power Journal (Summer 2019): 48-60. USAF Doctrine Update on Airmindedness, 4 Jan 2013. [1] Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, 4.40.2. [2] Quoted in David McCullough, The Wright Brothers, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015), 108. [3] The ACTS motto, proficimus more irretenti, translates approximately this way, “We Make Progress Unhindered by Custom.” [4] AFM 35-15 (1948), 8, italics in the original. [5] AFM 35-15 (1948), 8, italics in the original. [6] USAF Doctrine Update on Airmindedness, 4 Jan 2013.