For Lieutenants Only! - Aerospace Power Chronicles' CGO Voices Web page offers Air Force lieutenants a forum to air their views - Column

Aerospace Power Journal, Summer, 2001 by Glenn Leinbach

IST LT GLENN LEINBACH [*]

HERE'S THE LOWDOWN, one lieutenant to another: it's our to help make the Air Force the best it can be. I know that most junior officers agree with me because in an formal poll taken at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, the majority of respondents agreed that our opinions matter and should be heard.

How can we voice our opinions? Well, my suggestion is writing for publication. But where? Aerospace Power Journal (APJ) is the "professional journal of the United States Air Force," but it isn't really geared toward the lieutenant or junior captain. How do I know that, you ask?

Company-grade officers (CGO) make up nearly 50 percent of the Air Force, yet of the 351 articles submitted to APJ from 1998 to 2000, only 29 were from CGOs (11 from lieutenants). Of those, only three were accepted. In a confidential poll conducted throughout the Maxwell CGO community, 65 percent of the respondents indicated--using a scale from one to five (low to high)--that a CGO's opinion was of "low/medium" (a two) to "medium" (a three) importance to the Air Force. If that is true, a disconnect exists between how important we feel our voices are and the number of times we have been able to express ourselves in a servicewide medium. When asked how often CGOs should contribute to a professional journal, 90 percent felt they should do so more often than is actually the case. While we operate at a more tactical level than do our senior officers, I find it hard to believe that our leadership would scoff at well-reasoned arguments promoting a mutually beneficial goal. In fact, I feel we can safely assume that t hey value our opinions more than we do.

APJ's "Mission Debrief" section mentions that "the Journal focuses on the operational and strategic levels of war." That focus most obviously includes flag to field-grade officers and just a few senior captains. Yet, since all officers--from the most junior lieutenant to the chief of staff--are expected to assume leadership roles in the Air Force, we need to engage in a common dialogue that emphasizes improving our war-fighting capability. The leadership required of us includes pursuit of a professional dialogue that engenders change, suggests improvements, and contributes to an officer corps engaged in becoming better informed through the exchange of ideas.

For too long, junior officers have not taken the responsibility to play a role in this process. This may be for good reason--if APJ is aimed at a different audience, why join the fray? But we should join the fray, though perhaps at a different level. We have the opportunity to do so on the new CGO Voices Web page, which is part of Aerospace Power Chronicles.

We have a fantastic opportunity here. Through this Web page, we can contribute to professional conversation in a meaningful way. This gives us a chance to provide well-reasoned, cogent opinions in an environment less imposing than a publication such as APJ. Perhaps, if we use this site as designed--as an avenue for providing thoughtful arguments and opinions from a CGO's perspective--we can increase our ability to contribute to the success of the Air Force. Whatever we think of the Aerospace Basic Course, we should remember that it had its origins in the suggestions of a lieutenant. We will have our senior leadership's attention if we use this site appropriately.

What are the rules of engagement? Most importantly, this site is not for complaining about the price of steak in the commissary. We have other avenues for that sort of thing. And this is not a pure "discussion board" although previous posts can certainly spur a response.

What is this site? It is a venue for thinking at a higher plane than the tactical level to which we are often consigned. Although we CGOs most likely operate tactically and our concerns and ideas most often rest there, the important thing is to try to relate those concerns to a broader level of interest. Before submitting something to CGO Voices, we should ask ourselves, "How does our concern affect Air Force senior leadership?" I hope all of us will see discussions here that we feel are important enough to share with our bosses or commanders. Using this page is also a way for us to sharpen our critical-thinking skills for the coming years. Ranking officers don't develop an ability to argue their positions by magic. They build such a skill over time; every CGO is welcomed and encouraged to do so on this new site.

How will it work? Although the format is subject to change, the staff plans to provide a monthly topic (wartime planning, operations tempo, deployments, the assignment process, leadership skills, and so forth) in an effort to generate discussion and promote a bit of guidance on shaping the direction of on-line participation. This is not to say that contributors must stick to the topic, but the site hopes to operate thematically. Respondents or contributors should forward text or any questions to the managing editor of Aerospace Power Chronicles at http://www.airpower. maxwell.af.mil. She and the editor of APJ will answer any inquiries and ensure that the submission generally fulfills the requirements outlined above. They will notify successful contributors and provide a projected date of on-line publication.