Dr. Richard R. Muller is the Dean of Academics and Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Alabama. SAASS is a selective one-year graduate school for strategists with 16 terminally credentialed faculty and 45 Air Force, Department of Defense, and international students. As a professor, he is responsible for creating warrior-scholars who have a superior ability to develop, evaluate, and employ airpower as a component of military force in support of national objectives.
He is a military historian specializing in the history of air power. He teaches courses in twentieth century air power, the foundations of strategy, technology and military innovation, military theory, and the history of the Second World War.
He is currently writing a book examining the final year of the air war in Europe, 1944-45, through the lens of a single Eighth Air Force combat unit—the 452nd Bomb Group (Heavy).
EDUCATION
1983 Bachelor of Arts in History, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.
1985 Master of Arts in History, The Ohio State University, Columbus
1990 Doctor of Philosophy, Military History, The Ohio State University, Columbus
CAREER CHRONOLOGY
September 1983 – June 1987, Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus
September 1987 – June 1988, Lecturer, The Ohio State University, Columbus
September 1989 – June 1990, Dissertation Year Teaching Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus
September 1990 – July 1991, John M. Olin Postdoctoral Fellow in Military and Strategic History, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
July 1991 – July 1995, Assistant Professor of Comparative Military History, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Ala.
July 1995 – May 1998, Associate Professor and Chairman, War Theory and Campaign Studies Department, ACSC, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
May 1998 – January 2000, Vice Dean, Academic Affairs, ACSC, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
January 2000 – June 2001, Dean of Education and Curriculum, ACSC, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
June 2001 – June 2004, Full Professor, Military History, International Security and Military Studies Department, ACSC, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
June 2004 – June 2005, Chairman, International Security and Military Studies Department, ACSC, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
June 2005 – June 2008, Professor of Military History, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS), Maxwell AFB, Ala.
June 2008 – present, Dean of Academics and Professor of Military History, SAASS, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
2005: Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Medal
2009: Air Education and Training Command Civilian Educator of the Year
OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
Smithsonian/Guggenheim Pre-doctoral Fellowship, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC
John M. Olin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Military and Strategic History, Yale University
2008 Air Force Historical Foundation Best Air Power History Book
PUBLICATIONS
The German Air War in Russia. Baltimore, MD” Nautical and Aviation, 1992
The Luftwaffe’s Way of War: German Air Force Doctrine, 1911-1945 (with James S. Corum). Mount Pleasant, SC: Nautical and Aviation, 1998.
The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich (with Donald L. Caldwell). London: Greenhill, 2007.
“Hitler, Airpower, and Statecraft,” in Robin Higham and Mark Parillo, eds., The Influence of Airpower upon History: Statesmanship, Diplomacy, and Foreign Policy since 1903. University Press of Kentucky, 2013.
“Otto P. ‘Opie’ Weyland: ‘Best Damn General in the Air Corps’,” in John Andreas Olsen, ed., Air Commanders. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2013.
“The Air War in the Pacific, 1941-1945,” in John Andreas Olsen, ed., A History of Air Warfare. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2010.
“Learning to Fight and Fighting to Learn: Practitioners and the Role of Unit Publications in VIII Fighter Command, 1943-1944” (with Nina Kollars and Andrew Santora). The Journal of Strategic Studies. Volume 39, No. 4 (2016)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Society for Military History
United States Naval Institute