The best in professional air and space power thought - Flight Lines - Editorial

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2002 by Anthony C. Cain

RECENTLY, THE ASPJ staff received comments from readers, both officers and enlisted members, from all over the Air Force. Although we found all of the comments useful and appreciate the time and effort it took to complete the survey, the remarks contain recurring themes that the editorial staff must address.

"Let's face it--almost nobody reads Air and Space Power Journal. The articles are generally written by students doing some project; they are all full of academic rigor and written to get a decent grade, but people who have something to say in the field don't have time for that nonsense." Although this type of sentiment did not pervade the comments we received, it occurred often enough to communicate a general lack of understanding about the Journal's role in the professional growth of our service. ASPJ began with the foundation of the Air Force in 1947 as the Air University Quarterly Review. Gen Muir S. Fairchild, one of the founders of the modern Air Force and commander of Air University, envisioned a journal that would publish "the best professional thought concerning global concepts and doctrines of air strategy and tactics." Thus, ASPJ is the professional journal of the Air Force. Airmen--using the term in its broadest, most inclusive sense--should turn to the pages of the Journal to find provocative, inn ovative, and informative material about operational matters, evolving doctrine, cutting-edge technology, leadership, global strategy, and anything else that members of the air and space expeditionary force want to understand. In keeping with General Fairchild's original vision, today's Journal seeks to become a unique forum for dialogue, education, mentoring, debate, and professional development.

"But I don't write like a Ph.D." That's okay--most people don't, and it's not necessary to be a "natural born writer" to succeed as an ASPJ contributor. What matters is that, as conscientious members of the service, you have valuable ideas to contribute to our profession. This turns into a "win-win" situation for both you and the Journal, which gets a wide range of sources to add to the evolving debate about how best to develop and employ air and space power. In the process of refining articles from initial submission through the final published version, many of our authors learn how to articulate ideas more effectively, how to organize, and how to convince someone "on papers, without the advantage of face-to-face conversation or PowerPoint slides.

"In the operational Air Force, we just don't have the time to sit down and write articles." This comment is the most common knock against contributing to ASPJ. Believe me, I understand the pressures of deployments and ops tempo (been there, done that, have multiple T-shirts). But the lessons that operators learn today must spread to the rest of the force as quickly as possible. ASPJ can help get the word out so that the air and space expeditionary force will continue to evolve as a learning institution. We encourage authors to contribute "thought pieces" that may not be fully formed, that may not be doctrinally pure, and that may not have enjoyed the full benefit of months of refinement--in other words, we want to publish state-of-the-art thought on air and space power! Take the time to get your ideas, procedures, and tactics on paper so that those who are preparing to join you on the "pointy end of the spear" can benefit from your invaluable experience.

"No one has time to read the entire Journal.... No one gets a personal copy. "This remark includes two separate but related issues. The first concerns a perception that the Journal contains too much information to digest in a single sitting. The second addresses individual access to its contents. If you get a copy of the Journal, read the editorial abstract that appears at the beginning of each article to help you decide whether to continue or move on to the next feature. One of the great benefits of our format is that we place few constraints on our authors--we solicit articles that reach across the strategic, operational, and tactical range of military employment. If you find a particular article uninteresting, go on to the next one--somewhere in the pages of ASPJ you will most likely discover something of value to someone who employs air and space power. If you can't find a copy of the Journal, go to our Web site at http://www.airpower.au.af.mil, where, in addition to the current issue of ASPJ, you will fi nd the entire text of issues dating back to the 1980s. We are working to place every edition of the Journal and Review, back to 1947, on the Web for readers interested in using these valuable sources to understand how their profession has grown from its inception to the present. You can browse the contents of each issue on-line and choose to print only those articles that most interest you. Additionally, you will find a section called "Chronicles Articles," which contains feature articles that we could not fit into the printed version of the Journal. Thus, you have several options for accessing the information in ASPJ--you don't have to search for a copy in your squadron, and you don't have to read every article at a single sitting.