Tomorrow, Sept. 18, is the United State’s Air Force’s 66th birthday.
Originally part of the U.S. Army, the Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the U.S. military on Sept. 18,1947. Today, it remains the world’s largest and most technologically sophisticated air force.
To salute my friends and family who are (or have been) a part of the Air Force, I present to you today the 2013 USAF Chief of Staff Air Force Reading List.
Released on Feb. 1, this year’s list “highlights the Air Force's heritage and fighting spirit, and encourages innovation and forward thinking.”
- "China Airborne" by James Fallows
- "Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda" by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
- "The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy" by David Hoffman
- "Dressmaker of Khair Khana" by Gayle Lemmon
- "Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942" by Daniel Ford
- "Hat in the Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War" by Bert Frandsen
- "I Always Wanted to Fly: America's Cold War Airmen" by Col Wolfgang Samuel
- "Leading With Honor" by Lee Ellis
- "Need, Speed, and Greed" by Vijay Vaitheeswaran
- "No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn" by Charles Kupchan
- "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
- "Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight" by Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom
- "The Sovereignty Solution" by Anna Simons, Joe McGraw, and Duane Lauchengco
- "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham
The Air Force Professional Reading Program was created a number of years ago “to develop a common frame of reference among Air Force members – officers, enlisted and civilians – to help each of us become better, more effective advocates of air and space power.” For more information about this year’s list, visit http://static.dma.mil/usaf/csafreadinglist/.
In addition to the books mentioned above, a number of other titles have been recommended over the years including the following books:
- 10 Propositions Regarding Air Power by Phillip S. Meilinger
- 1776 by David McCullough
- The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen
- Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Harford
- Afghanistan: A Short History of its People and Politics by Martin Ewans
- Air Force Roles and Missions: a History by Warren A. Trest
- Airpower Against Terror: America's Conduct of Operation Enduring Freedom by Benjamin Lambeth
- Airpower for Strategic Effect by Colin Gray
- Air Power: The Men, Machines, and Ideas that Revolutionized War, From Kitty Hawk to Gulf War II by Stephen Budiansky
- The Air War: 1939-1945 by Richard J. Overy
- The All Americans by Lars Anderson (2005)
- American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day by Robert Coram
- America: The Last Best Hope Vol I, From an Age of Discovery to a World at War by William J. Bennett
- America: The Last Best Hope Vol II, From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom by William J. Bennett
- At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor by Gordon Prange
- Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
- Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win by Jeffrey Record
- Beyond Horizons: A Half Century of Air Force Space Leadership by David N. Spires
- Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power by Alfred F. Hurley
- Bury Us Upside Down by Rich Newman and Don Shepperd
- Cataclysm: General Hap Arnold and the Defeat of Japan by Herman S Wolk (2010)
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger by Martha Byrd
- Contemporary Nuclear Debates: Missile Defense, Arms Control, and Arms Races in the Twenty-First Century by Alexander Lennon
- Could Never Be So Lucky Again: An Autobiography of General James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle Gen. Doolittle with Carrol V. Glines
- Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice by David Galula
- A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent by Robert Merry
- Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War by Mark K. Wells
- The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis
- Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar by Martin C. Libicki - Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard Clarke and Robert Knake (2010)
- Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift June 1948
- May 1949 by Richard Reeves
- Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid (2008)
- The Dream Palace of the Arabs by Fouad Ajami
- Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century by W. David Lewis
- Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century by Ivan Musicant
- Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the U.S. Army, 1917-1945 by David E. Johnson
- Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds by Robin Olds, Christina Olds and Ed Rasimus (2010)
- A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan
- The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid, America's First World War II Victory by Craig Nelson
- First Light by Geoffrey Wellum
- The Foreigner's Gift by Fouad Ajami
- The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
- Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul by Michael Reid
- Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II by J. Todd Moye
- From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East by Bernard Lewis
- General George Washington: A Military Life by Edward G. Lengel
- Gods of Tin by James Salter
- Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs by Ray Takeyh
- A History of Air Warfare by John A. Olsen
- A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
- A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
- The Hunters by James Salter
- The Influence of Air Power upon History by Walter J. Boyne
- In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan by Seth Jones
- Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith
- John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power by John A. Olsen
- Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward
- The Last Days of Innocence: America At War 1917-1918 by Meirion and Susie Harries
- Leading Change by John P. Kotter
- Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation by James P. Womack and David T. Jones
- Learning Large Lessons: The Evolving Roles of Ground Power and Air Power in the Post-Cold War Era by David E. Johnson
- Lemay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis Lemay by Warren Kozak
- Locating Air Force Base Sites: History's Legacy, edited by Frederick J. Shaw
- The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953 by Robert Dallek (2010)
- Louis Johnson and the Arming of America: The Roosevelt and Truman Years by Keith D. McFarland and David L. Roll
- MacArthurs's Airman: General George C. Kenney and the War in the Southwest Pacific by Thomas E. Griffith
- Making Twenty-First-Century Strategy: An Introduction to the Modern National Security Processes and Problems by Dennis M. Drew and Donald M. Snow
- Master of Airpower: General Carl A. Spaatz by David R. Mets
- Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War against Nazi Germany by Donald L. Miller
- Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2000 Years by Bernard Lewis
- Modern Strategy by Colin S. Gray
- Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert Kaplan (2010)
- Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda by Sean Naylor
- One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam by Timothy Castle
- On Nuclear Terrorism by Michael Levi
- On the Edge of Earth: The Future of American Space Power by Steven Lambakis
- Paradise Beneath Her Feet by Isobel Coleman
- Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace by Mark Perry (2007)
- The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor
- The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America by Ken Pollack
- The Philippine War, 1899-1902 by Brian McAllister Linn
- Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
- A Question of Loyalty: Gen. Billy Mitchell and the Court-Martial that Gripped the Nation by Douglas Waller
- Red Eagles: America’s Secret MIGs by Steve Davies (2008)
- The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan (2008)
- Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China, India and Japan will Shape our Next Decade by by Bill Emmott
- The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot
- Secrets of Special Ops Leadership: Dare the Impossible; Achieve the Extraordinary by William Allen Cohen (2008)
- Seven Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century by Andrew Krepinevich
- Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution by Nicholas A. Lambert
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- Technology Horizons: A Vision for the Air Force Science and Technology by Dr. Werner Dahm (2006)
- Thinking about America's Defense: An Analytical Memoir by Glenn A. Kent
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2007)
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
- Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign that Won the Revolution by Richard M. Ketchum
- Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon by James R. Locher III
- Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat by Robin Higham and Stephen J. Harris
- Winged Defense: The Development and Possibilities of Modern Air Power Economic and Military by William Mitchell
- Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century by P.W. Singer
- The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda Monk
In the end, how many of these books have you read? What did you think about them? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Let us know in the comments section below.
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