New book by USAFA historian takes a new look at Air Force history

In just over 200 pages, the new book by the Air Force Academy command historian covers more than a century of the air force in a concise introduction for newcomers and amateur historians.

Fighting From Above: A Combat History of the U.S. Air Force, by Brian Laslie, divides the Air Force and its predecessor organizations’ 117 years into four eras marked by the changing styles of U.S. air power, including the uncertain future of drones, cyberwarfare and space operations.

Laslie is one of the instructors of USAFA’s Introductory Military History course, which all cadets must take, and he hopes the book can help them and others interested in the Air Force think critically about Air Force history and prepare for whatever comes next in air warfare.

“There are things that the Air Force is uniquely good at, and conversely, there are times when the Air Force may not be the best military option,” Laslie told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There are gray areas: that not everything is right and wrong, and the situations and conflicts they’ll have to deal with in the future are incredibly complicated.”

While Laslie’s previous four books focused on specific topics in Air Force history, such as General Laurence S. Kuter, air power in the Vietnam War, and the Kosovo air campaign, Fighting From Above offers a broader look at Air Force history, shedding light on unsung heroes and offering a different perspective on some of the Air Force’s major characters and themes.

Ways of War

Military historians often discuss the “warfare methods” of various nations, but the way the Air Force waged war changed dramatically over the decades to keep pace with technological developments and America’s changing political goals. After several drafts, Laslie classified four “eras” of Air Force history.

The first era, Period of Discovery from 1907-1941, covers the years between the U.S. Army’s establishment of the Signal Corps’ Aeronautical Division and the U.S. entry into World War II. Early proponents of U.S. air power such as Mitchell, Spaatz, and Arnold saw airplanes as a way to end future conflicts more quickly, without the endless, bloody trench warfare of World War I.

These advocates saw their vision take shape in the second era: the strategic dominance of 1942 to 1975. This began with thousands of heavy bombers attacking the Axis industrial and transportation centers to break through the enemy’s home front in World War II. Even though the results proved more complicated than early advocates had anticipated, strategic bombing remained “king” in the newly formed U.S. Air Force, especially with the advent of nuclear weapons dropped by bomber and missile crews, Laslie wrote.

The strategic bombing mindset persisted until the end of the Vietnam War. Confused political objectives, a lack of coordination between the services, and inadequate training marked the end of the Air Force’s original belief “that strategic bombing could win any conflict in which it was used,” Laslie claims.

The Vietnam War experience gave rise to the third era: “Tactical Supremacy” from 1975 to 2019, characterized by fighter pilots assuming leadership positions, new training institutions such as Red Flag, and new technologies such as precision munitions that blurred the lines between tactical and strategic aircraft.

But how the Air Force will wage war in the future is uncertain. With the proliferation of unmanned aircraft large and small, the introduction of the Space Force in 2019, and the emergence of artificial intelligence, another fundamental shift could be on the horizon.

“What you see in the epochal changes is that something is breaking, something is forcing a change,” Laslie said. “At some point there will be an event or a turning point that will force us into the fourth epoch, and I don’t know what that is.”

With technology advancing so rapidly, it’s hard to predict the future and keep up with the present. Laslie had to rewrite the final chapter several times to stay relevant.

“Things happened as fast as I could write them down, which is why historians don’t usually get to the present,” he said.

Background characters

Despite its brevity, Fighting From Above is more than a list of names and dates. It also includes human anecdotes that bring the Air Force’s history to life.

One anecdote concerns Victor Chapman, the first American pilot to die in World War I. Chapman was a member of the Lafayette Escadrille, a group of American fighter pilots who flew for France before the United States entered World War I. The 26-year-old was flying a plane loaded with oranges to deliver to a fellow pilot at a nearby hospital when he attacked a group of five German Fokker planes that he believed had shot down his friend.

“In retrospect, it was a particularly poor decision, since Chapman was involved in a man-against-five fight,” Laslie wrote. “But Chapman’s penchant for such combat was typical of the squadron and the willingness of American airmen to protect or retaliate against their comrades.”

Although Chapman did not survive the fight, his spirit lived on as generations of American pilots after him climbed into cockpits and faced danger. Another example is Captain Jim Cardoso, an MH-53 helicopter pilot who helped rescue Lt. Col. Dale Zelko after the F-117 pilot was shot down over what is now part of Serbia in 1999.

“Cardoso remembers thinking, ‘A stealth bomber just got shot down and now they want us to go in there?'” Laslie wrote.

While such bravery was often seen in combat, Laslie also highlights the air transport crews who flew daring supply missions over the Himalayas during World War II and who turned a Soviet blockade into “a complete failure for Stalin” during the Berlin Airlift.

Although many parts of “Fighting From Above” will be familiar to Air Force fans, Laslie also highlights unsung heroes and offers a nuanced view of some famous figures. Billy Mitchell, often called the father of the U.S. Air Force, was “clearly” a key early proponent of air power, Laslie wrote. But, according to the historian, Mitchell’s focus on public relations sometimes overshadows the hard work of Benjamin Foulois, Mason Patrick and other leaders who built the Army Air Corps.

“Foulois, Patrick and the others wanted a functioning air force that could work with the rest of the army but was independent of it,” Laslie argues. “Mitchell wanted headlines.”

Laslie also argues that the strategic bombings of World War II were in some ways even more brutal than the World War I trenches they were designed to bypass, because of the enormous loss of civilian life, while German factories were largely “little hampered by the American bombs raining down around them.”

Nevertheless, the threat of US bombers and the development of long-range fighters that could protect them deep into European skies presented the German Luftwaffe with an insoluble dilemma. Eventually, it ran out of pilots to fight them off and air supremacy passed to the Allies. The effectiveness of strategic bombing has been debated for 80 years – by academics, air strategists and even popular authors – and Laslie’s aim with this topic is to give readers a nuanced view of the history of the Luftwaffe.

“I don’t see these things as binary: win or lose, good or bad. It’s much more complicated than that,” he said. “When you study history, you look for nuances: what worked, what didn’t work, and what can we learn from it?”

sacrifice

Those learning moments often don’t come without sacrifice, Laslie wrote. Billy Mitchell and the “Bomber Mafia” were pariahs in the Army because they sought an independent air force, while Col. John Warden, the mastermind behind the Desert Storm air campaign, was never promoted to general.

“For every good decision made by the Air Force,” Laslie wrote, “someone had to be sacrificed on the altar of old-fashioned order and tradition and die a martyr’s death to keep the institution from being thrown out of balance.”

But there is another theme that runs throughout the history of the Air Force: that of the aviators who were willing to climb into canvas biplanes, B-17 ball turrets, rocket-propelled ejection seats, and countless other dangerous situations to use air power to achieve victory.

“I don’t know where space, cyberspace and unmanned aircraft will take us. But there are still people willing to take an oath and defend themselves against enemies,” Laslie said. “The nature of warfare may change over time, but the people will remain the same.”