Airpower Pioneers: From Billy Mitchell to Dave Deptula

Book “Olsen has produced a timely and well-researched compendium of short biographies of the airpower pioneers who made the most significant contributions to the development of airpower in the United States. I recommend this book be part of any serious professional reading list for airmen and other military professionals.” —Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, 1994–1997 All air forces need visionaries 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. 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 other than 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. Editor John Andreas Olsen is a colonel in the Royal Norwegian Air Force assigned to NATO headquarters. He is a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences. He has published a series of books on airpower, NATO, and defense policy.