This helicopter flew by a few days ago. I assumed it was an Army one but when I uploaded it to my computer, I could read U.S. Air Force on it. To make things even more confusing, it has FR on the tail which is Fort Rucker I am sure.But what would happen to all the golf courses?????
Bam bam is way ahead of Mr Farley
The AF owns and operates GPS. I wonder if the learned professor likes his cell phone and ATM? Or does he only think the AF flies planes?
I just have one question for this guy,,,
WHO’S GOING TO RUN THE STARGATE PROGRAM!!!??? Hmmmm?
We need the Air Force.
JB
Would the Army reverse the decision to retire the A-10’s, for example? That would be an interesting litmus test. OTOH, how do the Marines feel about being the Navy’s red-headed step child? Would command parochial thinking doom this combination to failure?
There’s a huge problem within the AF after the destruction of the Strategic Air Command. Bomber/missile types are very checklist oriented. Fighter jocks are more seat of the pants. The nuclear mission requires the former, but the fighter jocks have been in control for a couple of decades now. And so, of course, the wheels are coming off the nuclear mission. Utterly predictable.
I was in the Army and others in my family were Air Force....the culture of the Air Force and Army are very different. I think they should remain separate.
I couldn’t imagine an organization so huge that it was in charge of everything from boots to missile defense. Purely to avoid creating such a large beast, I would be against a re-merger.
The real issues to be hashed out include: should the Army operate its own drone force (to include armed drones), should Army intel have real time access to satellite info without going through an Air Force middleman? And, I think the Air Force might need to split into two divisions. One can handle the theater scale operations like long range bombings, and the other can specialize in direct air support of the Army...recognizes and subjugating itself to a combat support role to the Army.
Absolutely! Where else in theater can I get luxury air conditioned billeting with a fully stocked bar and an 18 hole golf course? 😉
Of course we need an air force (lowercase). The question, as it was in World War II was how to organize the fighting forces of the United States. For World War II, we were organized as a separate Department of the Navy (Navy and Marine Corps) and a War Department (Army and Army Air Forces). All of the services had their own air arm who did not play all that well together and had difficulty playing with ground and sea based forces.
The debate was really about how to institute and organize a Department of Defense. The original plan eliminated both the Department of the Navy and the War Department with the services organized into land, sea, and air components. This suited the Army Air Force since they would run the air arm. It suited the Army since they would run the ground forces. It did not suit the Navy as they would lose both their air arm and their ground force, the Marine Corps. The Navy fought the idea throughout World War II and the strategic thrust across the Central Pacific was really designed to make the case for an independent Navy with its own air and ground component.
In the end we got a committee designed compromise, a Defense Department with a Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and a Department of the Air Force. These departments had two armies, four air forces, and enough bureaucrats to fill up the biggest office building in the world, the Pentagon. It hasn’t worked out that well in terms of an efficient means of organizing for defense, so after 9/11 we created yet another bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security. Feeling better yet?
bkmk
This helicopter flew by a few days ago. I assumed it was an Army one but when I uploaded it to my computer, I could read U.S. Air Force on it. To make things even more confusing, it has FR on the tail which is Fort Rucker I am sure.Just think of how generous we could make food stamp benefits if we cut the Air Force! /sarc
Not sure if that's a yes or a no, but it's good that the question's already been decided.
This occurred to me when I was younger, though. The Navy and Marines had their own air forces, while the Army more or less had to give theirs up (maybe not exactly or not completely, but where is the Army Air Corps nowadays?). I wondered why.
There was a justification if the Air Force, as a newer service, brought fresh thinking to military problems. I don't think it actually did -- apart from recommending strategic bombing a lot -- but it's possible that in the early days, there was more mobility for minorities in the Air Force than in the older service branches (and in those days, Jews and Catholics were also considered ethnic minorities).
“I expect and demand your very best. Anything less, you should have joined the Air Force.”
(The speech given by Captain Ramsey (Gene Hackman) in the movie, Crimson Tide)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjRxdrg9BtU
heh
The Air Force has and uses air power much differently than the Army.
What about the golf courses?
I realize the article and discussions are about the Air Force, but the same argument could be used to say the Marines are no longer needed. You could put them in the Army and let the Army have a division that was “first on the beach” and was transported via ship. That would be especially true now that it seems our special forces folks are actually the first on shore with black ops. Just saying.
Any idiot that think the AF is just “air power” is...well, an idiot.
No.
I won’t even read past the title line. If anyone thinks this - it’s not even worth listening to one single word they say.