1. Every country around the world with a military faces the same problem. Most civilians, through no real fault of their own, have no real understanding of how the military works. The American military doesn’t have the long history of some other countries, like the United Kingdom, China, or Russia, whose armed forces date back thousands of years but the Air Force is a comparatively new concept for all of the world’s armed forces. With the newness, and inherent secrecy of the Air Force, come many myths. The only true way to correct these myths is through educating the populace with the facts.
2. The United States Air Force actually got its start in the Army. At this point the Army Air Corp, was the primary source for land based operations. What most people don’t realize is that even at that time, the Navy had their own Air Forces as well.1 They were already launching the planes off of aircraft carriers. Even today the Navy maintains their own pilots and continues to launch them off of aircraft carriers.
3. Another myth that almost every Air Force person has heard is, “everyone in the Air Force fly’s planes”. It’s a common misconception that every member of the Air Force is a pilot. The reality is, only 10%, or roughly 14,000 members of the Air Force are pilots.2 Most airmen will go their whole career without ever flying a plane. The truth, however, is many more people than the pilot is responsible for the aircraft. Maintainers are responsible for making sure the plane is ready to go at a moment’s notice, intelligence professionals and Aviation Resource managers make sure the aircrew are up to date on their training. A favorite quote of many maintainers is, “it takes a college degree to break it, and a high school diploma to fix it”.
The Essay on Forward Air Controller Pilot Killed Army
- The Navy pilot whose bombs killed six people in a training accident in Kuwait had received the go-ahead from a U. S. forward air controller who then called out "abort, abort" in a belated attempt to wave off the misplaced strike, defense officials said Tuesday. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the controller, whose job is to direct a pilot to a ground target, said to the ...
4. History has shown time and again the Air Force and other military branches, has led the social issues of the day. The Armed forces were the first to integrate and allow women to serve. One myth was that African American men and women wouldn’t be able to serve as well as their white male counterparts, but the general public was wrong. And even more recently the myth was, homosexuals wouldn’t be able to serve openly. This myth was disproved after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. After the repeal, there were no catastrophic failures, which many predicted.
5. The United States Air Force has gained and lost people throughout the years, growing and reducing at the whims of congress. It will continue to do so as the world grows and changes, but one constant will be the professionalism of the airmen. Even now, airmen are working hard to add to the ever-developing history of the United States Air Force.
Notes
1. Ed Grabianowski, “How the U.S Air Force Works” http://science.howstuffworks.com/air-force1.htm 2. http://www.afpc.af.mil/library/airforcepersonneldemographics.asp