This speaks for itself, so take it away, Lt. Col. Kelly "K Mart" Martin. She's a
veteran KC-135 pilot who recently commanded the U.S. air base in Baghdad and is
now a colleague of mine at CNAS,
the little think tank that could:
A short time ago, the host of this blog
deemed it appropriate to categorize the Air Force as different from the other
military service-"Another
of the great things about CNAS is our military fellows program, which brings in smart officers
from the military services, as well as the Air Force." As the Air Force Fellow here at CNAS, I found
this curious. Upon further conversation with Mr. Ricks, it
was clear that he did in fact view the Air Force as not being equal to the other
services because of its lack of "military ethos," an assertion based primarily
on the fact that Airmen don't face the same risk as soldiers of being injured
or killed and, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrate, it's really the
Army that are the winners of America's conflict and defender of its national
security.
My first reaction was that the
families of the 81 Airmen who have given their lives in Iraq and
Afghanistan -- not to mention those Airmen lost in the wars of the 20th century -- would take great exception to the assertion that their loved one didn't
have a "military ethos" because of the type of uniform he or she was
wearing. But it's the underlying value
projection that only by shedding blood makes one truly a ‘brother in arms' that
I find troubling.
There's no disagreement that the
current fight in Iraq and Afghanistan is ground-centric and that airpower plays
a supporting role. But as retired Army
Lieutenant General Barno said in 2004, "While it takes boots on the ground to
win a counter-insurgency fight, it takes airpower to move, supply, and protect
those boots on the ground." In this
capacity, airpower's combat effectiveness is best measured in the lives saved.
The Air Force Predator and other
ISR assets habitually provide commanders and decision-makers with real time
information of enemy movements and high value targets' (HVT) locations. Air Force flown satellites provide critical
communication, weather and the vital GPS capabilities to the CENTCOM theater of
operation and beyond. All of which
enables increased situational awareness and more effective maneuverability,
foundational to operations on the ground and significantly reducing risk.
Direct support of ground fire teams
has come through precision airdrops which provide critical resupply in remote
spaces of Afghanistan as well as precision air strikes that eliminate enemy
HVTs and provide close air support (CAS).
Members of the 101st Airborne Division confirmed CAS's
risk-reducing capacity when performing maneuvers through hostile areas stating
"When CAS is on station, it greatly reduces the threat. If we do get hit, only a handful of enemy
troops will be brave enough to fire knowing aircraft are overhead."
When IEDs began to kill coalition
forces in mass, the CENTCOM commander turned to the Air Force with its
intratheater airlift to ensure continuous logistic lines and mitigate a
significant loss of life. Last year
alone, the aircrews of our Air Force C-130s and C-17s kept over 3,500 convoys
off the road and 8,500 people out reach of an IED. Additionally, it was the Air Force that
transported over 2,700 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles and 8,300
vehicle armor kits to the AOR in minimal time -- vehicles that are saving lives and
limbs every day.
The Air Force's participation isn't
limited to the space and air commons. Over 6,000 Airmen are serving on the ground in provincial reconstruction
teams, as convoy security details or on explosive ordnance disposal teams. A role Airmen term Agile Combat Support which
is expected to continue to grow as our military participates in greater
Cooperative Security Agreements around the world.
The most significant advancement of
the joint fight is in the care of our and our coalition's wounded. If someone receives an injury anywhere in the
AOR, getting that person to the right care becomes the number one
priority. Once at the combat hospital,
Air Force mobility assets stand ready to move the individual anywhere in the
world, resulting in an unprecedented 99% survival rate. One example is a Marine who suffered burns
and a severe eye injury from an IED explosion. Thanks to a C-17 and multiple air refuelings, 30 hours after the time of
the explosion, the Marine landed at Brooks Army Medical Center, the only
hospital with the necessary combined resources for his injuries, saving his
eyesight.
Simply put, without the Air Force,
the numbers of lives, both civilian and military, that would have been
sacrificed in the past 8 years would be exponentially higher. As Secretary Gates recently said, "Without
[the Air Forces'] contribution in the skies, and in many cases on the ground,
America's war effort would simple grind to a halt."
and this doesn't even take into
account the 35 fighter aircraft and 8 tanker aircraft on 24/7 alert here in the
United States, ready to respond to another 9/11 scenario; or the hundreds of
Airmen sitting 24-hour shifts in our nuclear missile silos enabling the US's
strategic nuclear deterrence -- all ready to pull the trigger if directed but
thankfully, have never had to. Not to
mention the thousands of hours flown to bring much needed humanitarian supplies
to the victims of the 2004 tsunami or the Pakistani earthquake or Hurricane
Katrina.
It's easy to understand how the
contributions of the Air Force to our national security efforts could be
overshadowed. After all, how do you
capture a non-event? Pictures of empty
C-17s without flag-draped coffins or convoys that don't get hit by an IED don't
make the front page of newspapers. I'm
proud of the unique contributions of today's Airmen and I'm proud of the
capabilities that we bring to the counter-insurgency fight that keep our ground
forces from being killed. And if saving
lives means taking the criticism that the Air Force lacks a "military ethos,"
well I can live with that. The question
is, can the Army?
What say you, mateys? I was joking in the reference she
cites at the beginning, but I do think that the Air Force is the most corporate
of our armed forces and the least military in its feel. I think this is because
it doesn't fight on the ground, and also because its enlisted don't control
firepower. (But both those are true of the Navy, the most traditional of the
services.) I also think that the Air Force may be, in cultural terms, the most
"American" of the services, reflecting our culture more than do the Army, Navy
and Marines.
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