The United States Air Force has been in decline for a while, but it's not been a straight, continuous line.
It's been punctuated by momentary glimpses of recovery. One bright episode was the tenure of Dave Goldfein as Chief of Staff.
He inverted the leadership pyramid. Generals and staffs were there to support squadrons and front-line airmen.
He had this video made and narrated it himself. One in a series recognizing airmen as the soul of airpower. Not equipment, ops centers, or bureaucrats.
Warfighters.
"We're the best damn Air Force on the planet," he says in this 6-year-aged masterpiece.
He recognized it wasn't machines which made that true. It was people. Their commitment. Their over-commitment. Their discretionary effort.
Their thirst for challenge. Their steadfastness. Their mutual loyalty, built in a life of mutual support.
Can we still say we're the best?
For now. But only because others have been complacent. For a long time, they didn't try to match us. They knew it was pointless.
These days, we're daring them. It’s a matter of time until they catch and surpass.
In fact, they needn't even do that. They need only recognize our vulnerabilities and choke points. Our range problem. Our reliability problem. Our mass problem. Our dying ability to sustain top cover. Our choice to divest capabilities that make us more interoperable.
Most of all, our micromanagement problem. Without mission command, we're a jumped-up version of the Iraqi military we crushed in '91 ... exploiting its over-reliance on centralized execution.
Today our fleet is older and smaller than ever. Dismal mission capable rates. Maintenance units are exhausted and understaffed.
We're short on pilots. Our answer is to reduce training hours and start outsourcing training. A senseless and huge error.
Our senior leaders are shrugging. Silent and powerless, they're walking futility.
But more critically, they've stopped celebrating what made this whole shootin' match possible. They've stopped championing airmen.
Investment in people is throttled. Focus on people is fading. There's no lift to carry morale skyward. Only drag devices and antagonism.
Soda-straw O-10 obsession over E-5 minutiae.
Fixations on nail polish.
Basic training styled parade practice in lieu of a full flying schedule.
Where is the CSAF?
Over there. In the corner. Next to the other potted plants.
Gen. Goldfein understood airpower at a scientific level.
But more importantly, he understood how to nurture the soul of a fighting team. He understood that if all else failed, our airmen would be there for us when the chips were down.
But he also understood that assumption rested on the USAF covering the six of airmen and families.
That'll soon be vestigial if it's not already. And it's dangerous as hell.
If we lose the hearts and minds of airmen, we collapse the service. Especially given its hollowed condition.
Without the little guys, there is no Big Blue.
We should never need reminding, but we do.
So here's a reminder.
Tony is a retired Air Force officer passionate about the US Air Force’s airmen and its future.
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