Volume 33 Issue 1, Spring 2019

What Do People Want from Work? The Simple Question that Can Transform Unit Engagement and Retention

Brig Gen George M. Reynolds, USAF
Creating an organization that can consistently attract, connect, and retain talented people is difficult. Likewise, the transitory nature of careers is forcing organizations to pay special attention to how they discretely manage employees. Today’s employees view work differently and value work attributes such as flexibility, development, and enjoyment. 

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems and Tactical Air Control

Maj Jules "Jay" Hurst, USAR
The dominion of the air domain during war has long belonged to the wealthiest militaries. The complications of placing combatants in the air domain and the lack of terrain to mitigate technological overmatch make airpower a rich man’s game. Increasingly capable small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) threaten to change this dynamic by providing a pathway for impoverished militaries to control the air domain at the tactical level, but they also offer advanced militaries opportunities to push air platforms down to lower-ground echelons inexpensively. 

Twenty-First Century Deterrence in the Space War-Fighting Domain: Not Your Father's Century, Deterrence, or Domain

Maj Bryan Boyce, USA, Retired
Deterrence for the twenty-first century will not be the nuclear deterrence that keeps superpowers from engaging each other or the ad-hoc conventional deterrence that fails to keep perhaps thousands of smaller conflicts from erupting across the globe. Effective twenty-first century deterrence will have to be national and multinational, multidiscipline, and multidomain, combining diplomatic, informational, military, and economic means to prevent terrestrial conflicts from extending to space.

Joint Mission Control: From Component to Joint Leadership of All-Domain Missions

Capt Matthew B. Chapman, USAF
Lt Col Gerrit H. Dalman, USAF
The joint force can no longer rely on superior technology to maintain a competitive advantage against its adversaries. Rather, the American military’s enduring asymmetric strength must rely on its ability to command and control (C2) a diversity of multidomain capabilities faster and more effectively than the enemy. The answer must be a joint solution, built to integrate and battle manage multidomain effects at the tactical level.

Everyone Gets a Vote: 360 Assessments and the Human Factors System

Maj Zach Fisher, USAF
Every year, USAF officers receive an Officer Performance Report (OPR) from their rater. Over time, those OPRs determine the officer’s career development. Raters score their subordinates’ reports based on any number of factors, but the end state is the same: the officers who impress their bosses the most will likely become bosses themselves. Peer and subordinate feedback have no formalized role in the officer evaluation process, leaving raters without critical data that would be useful in assessing officer performance.

Counter and Cooperate: How Space Can Be Used to Advance US--China Cooperation While Curbing Beijing's Terrestrial Excesses 

1st Lt Peter Loftus, USAF
This article asserts that is possible for the US to promote cooperation with China in space while also competing with this rising power. It begins with an outline of Beijing’s current space policies and ambitions, analyzing how the Chinese use this domain to advance their national interest. 

An Economic Approach to Deterrence 

2nd Lt Tucker Hutchinson, USAF

This article explores how the US can use economic policy to deter in space effectively. It identifies China and Russia as revisionist powers and the primary competition for the US. Furthermore, it explores China’s and Russia’s motives and methods of achieving power to understand how the US can use economic policy to deter.

So far from Home: Royal Air Force and Free French Air Force Flight training at Maxwell and Gunter Air Fields during World War II

By: Robert B. Kane
Reviewer: Dr. Nicholas M. Sambaluk
Robert Kane’s study explores the training of British and French pilots and other aircrew members at the Maxwell and Gunter Fields in the Montgomery, Alabama area during World War II, and, in so doing, opens a window into a relatively underappreciated but relevant aspect of US aid to Allied powers through the Lend–Lease policy. 

A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA

By: Joshua Kurlantzick
Reviewer: Col John L. Conway, USAF, Retired
The author, Joshua Kurlantzick, takes his title from a quote by the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1966. If this was indeed a serious observation, it is never explained. However, the book’s subtitle introduces its actual focus: Laos was the first of many CIA-run wars, followed in subsequent decades by others in Central America, Africa, and the Middle East.

Apollo Pilot: The Memoir of Astronaut Donn Eisele

By: Donn Eisele
Reviewer: SSgt Aaron Tobler, USAF
The 1961–75 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Apollo space program brought to the fore unparalleled technological advancements and human ingenuity. For many, this is perhaps best highlighted by Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” with Apollo 11.  

Ecologies of Power: Countermapping the Logistical Landscapes and Military Geographies of the U.S. Department of Defense

By: Pierre Bélanger and Alexander Arroyo
Reviewer: Dr. Jack Adam MacLennan
Pierre Bélanger and Alexander Arroyo’s analysis focuses on the aspects of Department of Defense (DOD) operations that are constructive and visible in the process contravening the fashion in war studies of foregrounding (to the extent possible) covert operations, state secrecy, and the destructiveness of military force as emblematic of modern war.

Wings of Valor: Honoring America's Fighter Aces

By: Nick Del Calzo and Peter Collier
Reviewer: Maj Peter L. Belmonte, USAF, Retired
The American public has been fascinated by aces—aviators who have downed at least five enemy aircraft—since the term first came into use during World War I. As of May 2015, only 76 American aces still lived. In this book, author Peter Collier and photographer Nick Del Calzo have given us a lasting tribute to these men. 

The History of Human Space Flight

By: Ted Spitzmiller
Reviewer: Joseph T. Page II
There’s a lot to cover in a book claiming to capture “The History of Human Space Flight.” With that lofty goal in mind, Mr. Spitzmiller does an admirable job. The book stretches from the eighteenth century ballooning into the present day of the human-inhabited International Space Station and tacks on a minor chapter of “Where do we go next?”

Flying Man: Hugo Junkers and the Dream of Aviation

By: Richard Byers
Reviewer: Col William J. Ott, USAF, Retired
Richard Byers successfully categorizes Hugo Junkers a German engineer and aircraft designer, into the role he played in the development of aviation versus that of assisting the Third Reich. The latter was a more common portrayal resulting from the vast numbers of Junkers-titled aircraft the Luftwaffe used during World War II.