Colonel Kwiatkowski details air operations challenges in Africa, and she discusses how the USAF currently meets or avoids these challenges. She contends that Africa is like the "western frontier" of America's history-undeveloped, brimming with opportunity as well as danger, and that it is a place where standard assumptions often do not apply. A portion of Colonel Kwiatkowski's study is dedicated to illustrating how USAF air transport is really done in Africa on a daily basis. She recommends ways to improve our ability to conduct expeditionary air operations on the continent.

This anthology discusses the converging operational issues of air base defense and counterinsurgency. It explores the diverse challenges associated with defending air assets and joint personnel in a counterinsurgency environment. The authors are primarily Air Force officers from security forces, intelligence, and the office of special investigations, but works are included from a US Air Force pilot and a Canadian air force officer. The authors examine lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as they relate to securing air bases and sustaining air operations in a high-threat counterinsurgency environment. The essays review the capabilities, doctrine, tactics, and training needed in base defense operations and recommend ways in which to build a strong, synchronized ground defense partnership with joint and combined forces. The authors offer recommendations on the development of combat leaders with the depth of knowledge, tactical and operational skill sets, and counterinsurgency mind set necessary to be effective in the modern asymmetric battlefield.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 plunged the United States into a determined counteroffensive against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network. This report details the initial U.S. military response to those attacks, namely, the destruction of al Qaeda's terrorist infrastructure and the removal of the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The author emphasizes several distinctive achievements in this war, including the use of precision air-delivered weapons that were effective irrespective of weather, the first combat use of Predator unmanned aerial vehicles armed with Hellfire missiles, and the integrated employment of high-altitude drones and other air- and space-based sensors that gave CENTCOM unprecedented round-the-clock awareness of enemy activity.

The military has conducted expeditionary operations for centuries; airmen began to participate in expeditions from the very early days of flight. Descriptions of expeditions, with and without air components, evoke suggestive lessons for current expeditionary operations. Frequently the identification of lessons from past events provides planners and commanders the background, wisdom, and the equally important element of context that facilitate better judgment in the imperfect decision-making process. This collection begins with a short description of Air Force leadership promoting the idea of expeditionary air operations. This is followed by a review of the 1995-1996 Aerospace Expeditionary Force I-III deployments to the Middle East. The anthology then continues in reverse chronological order to describe various expeditionary operations throughout history, beginning with examples from World War II. The latter include the British and German expeditions to Norway; the pre-war American buildup in the Philippines; the first American operation in the Pacific--Guadalcanal; Rommel in North Africa; Japan's venture in the Aleutians; the first major European campaign for the United States--the Twelfth Air Force's invasion of Northwest Africa; and finally, the buildup of the Eighth Air Force in England for the Strategic Bombing Campaign. The interwar years are marked by the Italian-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War, described here from the Italian, German, and Soviet perspectives. The World War I era includes the American expedition against Pancho Villa and four British expeditions in Africa and the Middle East. Finally, a number of famous campaigns illustrate the timelessness of expeditionary campaigns, particularly the campaigns of the Romans and Napoleon. In addition, parts of the American Civil War depict expeditionary efforts, as do American operations in China at the turn of the 20th century--the Boxer Rebellion. (30 figures).

Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.

Information on concerns of Vietnam War veterans about the consequences of ecposure to Agent Orange.