Creech Blue

Colonel Slife chronicles the influence of the late Gen Wilbur L. "Bill" Creech7a leader, visionary, warrior, and mentor7in the areas of equipment and tactics, training, organization, and leader development. His study serves both to explain the context of a turbulent time in our Air Force's history and to reveal where tomorrow's airmen may find answers to some of the difficult challenges facing them today. Colonel Slife, who addresses such controversial topics as the development of the Army's AirLand Battle doctrine and what it meant to airmen, is among the first to describe what historians will surely see in years to come as the revolutionary developments of the late 1970s/early 1980s and General Creech's central role. Creech Blue enlightens the Air Force on its strongly held convictions during that period and challenges the idea that by 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Air Force had forgotten how to wage a "strategic" air campaign and was dangerously close to plunging into a costly and lengthy war of attrition had it not been for the vision of a small cadre of thinkers on the Air Staff. In exploring the doctrine and language of the decade leading up to Operation Desert Storm, Colonel Slife reveals that the Air Force was not as shortsighted as many people have argued.

Airpower Pioneers studies twelve especially influential airmen, detailing their impact on the evolution of the United States Air Force (USAF). Rather than focus on command in a series of air campaigns, this book describes the personal qualities and careers of people who distinguished themselves first and foremost by advancing airpower theory, doctrine, and strategy, and in certain cases by implementing significant organizational changes in the USAF structure. Some held important positions during wartime, but except for a few who excelled in both combat and peace, those selected for inclusion in this volume made their main contributions to advancing aerospace power away from the front line as planners, organizers, educators, and strategists. The future of aerospace power requires airmen not only to push the limits in combat but also to emphasize, publicly and frequently, what is special and vital about airpower. The distinctive characteristics of airpower—speed, range, flexibility, precision, and lethality—have improved with every new generation of aircraft and weapon systems. The history of modern warfare is full of empirical evidence of airpower’s relevance. Looking ahead, the main challenge for air forces all over the world is to match advances in technology with new ideas. All air forces need visionary men and women whose reach exceeds their grasp, who are determined to adapt to new security and defense realities rather than adhere to romanticized ideas of yesteryear, and whose organizational skills ensure successful implementation of new ideas despite inevitable resistance to change.

Colonel Slife chronicles the influence of the late Gen Wilbur L. "Bill" Creech--a leader, visionary, warrior, and mentor--in the areas of equipment and tactics, training, organization, and leader development. His study serves both to explain the context of a turbulent time in our Air Force's history and to reveal where tomorrow's airmen may find answers to some of the difficult challenges facing them today. Colonel Slife, who addresses such controversial topics as the development of the Army's AirLand Battle doctrine and what it meant to airmen, is among the first to describe what historians will surely see in years to come as the revolutionary developments of the late 1970s/early 1980s and General Creech's central role. Creech Blue enlightens the Air Force on its strongly held convictions during that period and challenges the idea that by 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Air Force had forgotten how to wage a "strategic" air campaign and was dangerously close to plunging into a costly and lengthy war of attrition had it not been for the vision of a small cadre of thinkers on the Air Staff. In exploring the doctrine and language of the decade leading up to Operation Desert Storm, Colonel Slife reveals that the Air Force was not as shortsighted as many people have argued.

How the character of war is changing and how militaries can successfully adapt to meet the challenge This book by military strategist Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., is the definitive take on the race for military dominance in the twenty-first century. It shows how militaries that successfully pursue disruptive innovation can gain a major advantage over their rivals, while those that fail to do so risk exposing their countries to great danger. The Precision Warfare Revolution introduced by the U.S. military in the First Gulf War found the United States enjoying a near monopoly in this form of warfare for several decades. But now other powers have these capabilities. The U.S. military also confronts an emerging military revolution driven by advances across a wide range of technologies--from artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to quantum computing and additive manufacturing. To stay competitive, the U.S. military must pursue disruptive innovation in a race with other militaries to exploit war's changing character. Clues exist as to the winner's identity. They are revealed by militaries that went beyond the bounds of mere innovation to overturn the existing forms of warfare, changing the course of history and the fate of nations. Through exploring their experiences, Krepinevich shows how the U.S. military can win the race to identify and exploit the "next big thing" in warfare.

Last year, the USAF lost one of the most influential Airmen of the modern era. Gen Wilbur L. "Bill" Creech was a leader, a visionary, a warrior, and a mentor. Just as Gen Curtis E. LeMay shaped the Air Force of the Cold War through his development of Strategic Air Command in the 1950s, General Creech shaped the Air Force of today through his actions as the commander of Tactical Air Command (TAC) from 1978 until 1984. Under the leadership of General Creech, TAC-and the Tactical Air Forces (TAF) writ large-underwent a transformation that, in large measure, built the Air Force that has fought so brilliantly in campaigns from Operation Desert Storm to the present global war on terrorism. I worked closely with General Creech over many years, and I saw how he shaped our Air Force in so many ways. In Creech Blue, Lt Col James C. Slife chronicles the influence General Creech had in the areas of equipment and tactics, training, organization, and leader development. His study is among the first to describe what, to historians in years to come, will surely be seen as the revolutionary developments of the late 1970s and early 1980s and General Creech's central role. While not a biography, Creech Blue is certainly biographical and captures the general's professional convictions in so many areas. General Creech's career spanned three and a half decades, which attests to how his experiences prepared him to assume command of TAC at the pivotal time that he did. As a young fighter pilot in Korea, he worked closely with Army maneuver units on the ground and was involved in the first all-jet aerial dogfight. These experiences helped shape his thoughts on the role of technology in warfare. Afterwards, General Creech was an aerial-demonstration pilot and an instructor at the Air Force Fighter Weapons School. In these assignments, he learned the value of disciplined flying and the need for tactics appropriate to the enemy. As aide-de-camp to TAC commander Gen Walter "Cam" Sweeney, General Creech learned much about the value of relationships at the highest levels of our service while also experiencing firsthand the destructive nature of interservice squabbles. In Vietnam he reinforced his ideas on the value of technology, particularly the need for an ability to fight at night. Twice a wing commander in Europe during the height of the Cold War, General Creech developed his strongly held convictions on how organization and leadership can set the stage for a unit's success. As commander of Air Force Systems Command Center and as assistant vice-chief of staff, he learned much about systems development and acquisition that would serve him well in the years to come. When General Creech assumed command of TAC in May 1978, there was no one more prepared to lead the TAF into a new era. Creech Blue serves as a first corrective to much that has been published in the last decade as our service has become more intellectually and doctrinally aware. Colonel Slife addresses such controversial topics as the development of the Army's AirLand Battle doctrine and what it meant to Airmen. As the TAC commander during this period, General Creech was intimately involved in the development of AirLand Battle doctrine; contrary to popular opinion, he entered into these discussions with the Army with his eyes wide open. Another central issue of the time was the powerful movement within many government and media circles to "reform" the Defense Department. While others are given much credit for moving the debate forward, little has been written on why the Air Force was institutionally resistant to many of the reformers' proposals. Given his position at the time, General Creech was often the spokesman for the Air Force's programs and frequently found himself at odds with the reform movement.

Last year, the U.S. Air Force lost one of the most influential Airmen of the modern era. Gen Wilbur L. Bill Creech was a leader, a visionary, a warrior, and a mentor. Just as Gen Curtis E. LeMay shaped the Air Force of the Cold War through his development of Strategic Air Command in the 1950s, General Creech shaped the Air Force of today through his actions as the commander of Tactical Air Command (TAC) from 1978 until 1984. Under the leadership of General Creech, TAC -- and the Tactical Air Forces (TAF) writ large -- underwent a transformation that, in large measure, built the Air Force that has fought so brilliantly in campaigns from Operation Desert Storm to the present global war on terrorism. In this book, Lt Col James C. Slife chronicles the influence General Creech had in the areas of equipment and tactics, training, organization, and leader development. His study is among the first to describe what, to historians in years to come, will surely be seen as the revolutionary developments of the late 1970s and early 1980s and General Creech's central role. While not a biography, "Creech Blue" is certainly biographical and captures the general's professional convictions in many areas.

On December 18, 1972, more than one hundred U.S. B-52 bombers flew over North Vietnam to initiate Operation Linebacker II. During the next eleven days, sixteen of these planes were shot down and another four suffered heavy damage. These losses soon proved so devastating that Strategic Air Command was ordered to halt the bombing. The U.S. Air Force's poor performance in this and other operations during Vietnam was partly due to the fact that they had trained their pilots according to methods devised during World War II and the Korean War, when strategic bombers attacking targets were expected to take heavy losses. Warfare had changed by the 1960s, but the USAF had not adapted. Between 1972 and 1991, however, the Air Force dramatically changed its doctrines and began to overhaul the way it trained pilots through the introduction of a groundbreaking new training program called "Red Flag." In The Air Force Way of War, Brian D. Laslie examines the revolution in pilot instruction that Red Flag brought about after Vietnam. The program's new instruction methods were dubbed "realistic" because they prepared pilots for real-life situations better than the simple cockpit simulations of the past, and students gained proficiency on primary and secondary missions instead of superficially training for numerous possible scenarios. In addition to discussing the program's methods, Laslie analyzes the way its graduates actually functioned in combat during the 1980s and '90s in places such as Grenada, Panama, Libya, and Iraq. Military historians have traditionally emphasized the primacy of technological developments during this period and have overlooked the vital importance of advances in training, but Laslie's unprecedented study of Red Flag addresses this oversight through its examination of the seminal program.

Dr. John Andreas Olsen has written an insightful, compelling biography of retired U.S. Air Force colonel John A. Warden III, the brilliant but controversial air warfare theorist and architect of Operation Desert Storm s air campaign. Warden s radical ideas about air power s purposes and applications, promulgated at the expense of his own career, sparked the ongoing revolution in military affairs. Legendary in defense circles, Warden is also the author of "The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat" (republished by Brassey s, Inc. in 1989). Presenting both the positives and negatives of Warden s personality and impact in this objective portrait, Olsen offers a trenchant analysis of his revolutionary ideas and great accomplishments. "