In the early years of the Cold War, the United States relied on strategic nuclear attack as the primary means of deterring the Soviet Union. The focus on manned bombers and atomic weapons led to the rise of Strategic Air Command and its leaders, the bomber generals, within the Air Force. The power and influence of the bomber generals peaked in the early 1960s. In the following two decades, Tactical Air Command and the power of fighter generals rose within the Air Force. Mike Worden described this transformation of leadership in his insightful book Rise of the Fighter Generals: The...

In the early years of the Cold War, the United States relied on strategic nuclear attack as the primary means of deterring the Soviet Union. The focus on manned bombers and atomic weapons led to the rise of Strategic Air Command (SAC) and its leaders, the bomber generals, within the Air Force. The power and influence of these generals peaked in the early 1960s. In the following two decades, Tactical Air Command (TAC) and the power of fighter generals rose within the Air Force. Mike Worden described this transformation of leadership in his insightful book Rise of the Fighter Generals:...

Navy captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s late-nineteenth-century theory of sea power resonated with many military and political leaders. In his most influential work, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783, Mahan posited a direct relationship between a nation’s great-power status and its ability to achieve command of the sea. He advocated that great nations achieve command of the sea for a specific purpose—as a means to an end. That end was increased commercial trade to buttress the national interest.¹ For Mahan the sea was a great commons, and those nations that controlled the world’s waterways would dominate the...

When the United States emerged as a global power as well as an air and space nation in the second half of the twentieth century, national leaders recognized the importance of projecting military power rapidly anywhere in the world. As early as World War II, airlift and, later, air-refueling capabilities were critical to American power projection throughout a broad spectrum of operations, from humanitarian assistance to armed conflict.¹ Airmobility capabilities became especially relevant as the British and French empires declined between 1945 and 1965, and the United States stepped in to fill the void and contain communism in many places...

Geopolitical changes in the late twentieth and early twentyfirst century caused a significant shift in US policy, which fueled major changes in the role and importance of air-mobility forces in the execution of national security strategy. The president and secretary of defense based the post–Cold War national security strategy on the “ability to rapidly project decisive combat power to any corner of the globe for a variety of reasons: economic interdependencies, military commitments, societal and ethnic concerns, or moral obligations.”¹ As a result of this change in strategy, the United States engaged in a myriad of complex operations around...

The previous chapters described the interaction between changes in the geopolitical environment and the air-mobility community, which fostered an increase of mobility operations and a rise of mobility generals in the post–Cold War era. As the world and the air-mobility community continue to change, the question remains whether the number of air-mobility generals and their contributions will gain momentum and continue to rise in the years to come. Since it is hard to predict the future, this chapter considers two alternative horizons. First, it outlines why air-mobility generals will continue to advance and assume senior roles within the defense...

Air-mobility generals may or may not continue to flourish. The most compelling reason why they will maintain their rise is the fact that the world is a dangerous place and that the nation’s national security strategy will likely persist in putting a premium on air mobility and air-mobility expertise. Based on the important role that air-mobility experts will play in the GWOT, FID, irregular warfare, and humanitarian operations, and as long as AMC continues to broadly develop a pool of officers with high potential, the Air Force will likely extend its practice of promoting and placing air-mobility generals in positions...