A521.1.4.RB_SienkiewiczRaymond

I'm a little hard pressed to think of any common stories I can share from my unit, but there is a broad swath of stories involving the Air Force going back over 65 years, and American military aviation for the last 100 years.

One story that gets told whether you're in a typical flying unit or working in an information technology function is that of General Billy Mitchell. General Mitchell is regarded as, essentially, one of the first visionary in the applications of aviation to military operations. In his time, airplanes were a relatively new invention and had been mainly utilized for scouting purposes, and sparsely being used for combat in the form of shooting handguns at enemy plans, or dropping small explosives over enemy territory.

After World War I, General Mitchell envisioned further applications for airplanes, particularly in the bomber role, and became a very vocal advocate. Despite the doubts of senior Army and Navy officers, he arranged for a demonstration of airplanes multiple time sinking battleships, the prestige weapon of the time. Although General Mitchell still didn't make significant headway after these demonstrations, and due to his approach earned further ire from other military leaders in the short term, history proved him to have a point. From WWII onward, air superiority would become an essential part of military doctrine, and there are now independent air services all across the world. For that, General Mitchell earned a posthumous promotion and his story lives on.

Although the literal story may not directly relate to non-flying sections of the Air Force, the overall themes of innovative, out of the box thinking and possessing the intellectual integrity to stand by good ideas are captured within the story. Additionally, it bolsters and defines the type of forward thinking culture, one that's open to new technologies and ideas, that the Air Force generally likes to promote. The story, overall, represents a root cause of our forward momentum and rapid development as an independent service. Whether discussing aircraft, or advances in space or information technology, leaders will often speak of General Mitchell's experiences and promote that same spirit of innovation. The fact that the story has lived for this long, and that it is still taught to cadets to this day, speaks for its effectiveness.