Author’s note: This blog entry has nothing to do with politics. This entry is strictly military in nature and pure self-indulgence.. This one goes to the heart of why I blog at Townhall...I needed a safe place to store my ideas where I can be sure no one will read them (ha ha) 

Recently, I asked an Air Force captain, master sergeant, senior airman and first lieutenant a simple question, "What is an Airman?" No one could give me a sure answer. Proud members of the most powerful military force on earth could not clearly define who they were. This irritated me. With an official definition like this, I can’t blame them for being confused:  

Air Force Doctrine defines an airmen as “those people who formally belong to the US Air Force and employ or support some aspect of the US Air Force’s air and space power capabilities. The term airman is often used in a very narrow sense to mean pilot. An airman is any person who understands and appreciates the full range of air and space power capabilities and can employ or support some aspect of air and space power capabilities.”

According to this, my dead grandma was an Airman (as she supported some aspect of air and space capabilities when she sent me money at college). This definition was likely penned by a committee, lawyers, or both. It’s unfit for a military service.

What is an Airman? Here’s my definition.

 An Airman is a technologist who converts the fruits of America’s technological base into instruments of Airpower. Technology is his sword and shield and is why he identifies himself with his technology; whether it’s an aircraft, weapons system, or career field. He gleans the best his nation has to offer in every scientific field and forges them into instruments of Airpower. If you ask him, “What is your requirement?” he’ll always responds, “The newest, the fastest, the highest, the boldest, and the best.” If his nation cannot provide a technological answer to match his requirement, he’ll create it himself. With Airpower he carries the battle to the enemy.

An Airman is a professional warrior who wields Airpower to dominate battle-space, from the earth’s surface to the reaches of outer space, as if he were the hand of the Almighty himself.   

This is not a boast, it’s a simple truth because an Airman is the most powerful force on earth other than God or Mother Nature. In the hands of professional American Airmen, Airpower seems like divine magic to an enemy. He is the deadly lighting and the terrible thunder from a blue sky. Invisible, he roams at will, unseen, high over an adversary. He knows every inch of the planet though sensors unseen. The darkness is his playground. From the heart of CONUS he can be anywhere in the world in matter of hours (or minutes), delivering precision death without warning. With a single bomb he can surgically kill a dictator or he can level a city. He delivers manna from heaven upon silken chutes and sends angels of mercy upon whirling helicopter blades. 

An Airman is always a flyer. It doesn’t matter what badge he wears or if he actually flies as part of his job, because without him Airpower cannot be forged or employed. His first love is the sky. It’s where he lives, even when he is on the ground. And it’s where he fights, even when he’s earthbound.  

An Airman is the ultimate expression of his nation’s will. A navy carrier is often placed off an unfriendly coast as a political warning. Soldiers and Marines may be sent as peacekeepers. Airmen are only sent to crush the enemy...completely. This is why the Air Force is known as the “knock-down-the-door force.” When the bombers are launched it means negotiations are over. When contrails appear over an enemy capital it means the war is over. The Air Force is the most serious expression of America’s will. When the Airman is brought into play all hope within the enemy dies. The Airman is the Alpha and Omega of modern warfare.

Part One of this series identified the core problem facing the US Air Force:

The Air Force lacks a uniting, common identity and very few aviation missions are unique to the Air Force.

So what is the Air Force’s common identity? In other words, what is an Airman? Lots of very smart people have grappled with this question. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong question. We should ask, “What is an Airman?”

Is implies a fundamental nature. For example, a Marine is a rifleman, his roles and missions naturally fall in line with this nature. 

Airman literally means a man who flies. Okay, over simplistic. A businessman drinking a scotch on an airliner at 35,000 feet isn’t an Airman. Since humans don’t have wings, this definition implies technology behind the act. This point is critical – one can’t separate the Airman from the technology enabling flight. Aircraft must be designed, built and maintained. I call it the NASCAR theory: the racing car’s designer and the pit crew get to bask in the glory and share defeat with the driver because they are front-line players in the technology loop

If your job entails flying, fixing or designing aerospace craft engaged in controlled flight for military purposes, congratulations, you’re an Airman.

“Wow,” you’re thinking, “You just included a lot of people who aren’t in the Air Force.” Correct.

Let’s play a little game called “You might be an Airman.” It’s sort of like comedian Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck if…” If you’re a US Army Patriot battery operator, you’re an Airman. If you’re a mechanic fixing Patriot missiles, you’re an Airman. If you’re a uniformed Army engineer designing future surface-to-air missiles, you’re an Airman. If you’re the cook feeding the people manning the Patriot missile battery, you’re not an Airman. If you’re an F/A-18 mechanic on a carrier, you’re an Airman. If you’re a sailor in charge of steering the carrier, then you’re not an Airman. Stinger fire team members are Airmen because the Stinger missile is a guided aerospace craft. A soldier manning an anti-aircraft artillery piece, however, isn’t an Airman because is bullet is not a guided aerospace craft, it a ballistic piece of lead as is artillery. Army Apache pilots or UAV operators are Airmen. What about a Navy sea-launched ballistic missile launch officer? Airman. However, the nuclear propulsion officer on the same sub isn’t. What about a military person who controls a satellite? Yes, he’s an Airman. What about a Department of Defense civilian or contract pilot training military pilots? No, he’s a civilian who flies for the Department of Defense and gets a paycheck. These are there gray areas, but all definitions have gray areas.

“Okay,” you’re thinking, “You just excluded a lot of people in the Air Force.” Correct again, but I’m not trying to insult anyone. I’m trying to get to the heart the issue.  For example, any soldier, from a cook to a clerk, can put down their spatula or stapler and function as a ground combatant. Any sailor can perform basic seaman functions. As stated earlier, all Marines are riflemen. But not everyone wearing Air Force Blue can function as an Airman because the Airman cannot be separated from the aviation technology which gives him power of controlled flight. It is mastery of this technology which makes him unique and defines his intrinsic nature.

So what’s an Airman based on the case presented here? Airmen are military personnel who fly or directly control, maintain, or design aerospace craft engaged in controlled flight for military purposes. Translated to good old fashioned English, it means Airmen fly and fight!

In one definition the nature of an Airman is captured, and his roles and missions will naturally follow. As we’ve seen, many not in the Air Force are Airmen by this definition. These are ‘in lieu of’ Airmen – non-Air Force military personnel performing airpower missions.  Then there are those in the Air Force not performing airpower missions; these are the more familiar ‘in lieu’ soldiers. These are important points which tie into the second half of the core problem - very few aviation missions are unique to the Air Force. This will be explored later in this series. What’s important to understand now is this definition raises many uncomfortable questions.

For example, aviation is the Air Force’s sole mission focus but the other services also perform aviation functions as secondary missions – and perform them very well. In the 60 years since the Air Force has been in existence I cannot find a single case where the other services surrendered an aviation role in recognition the Air Force could do it better. To the contrary, the Air Force has lost several missions to other services. Is it just inter-service politics or is there more to it? Perhaps it’s because Airmen are tied to technology like no other warriors. This is a strength but also a profound weakness. It gives birth to a host of cultural issues reinforcing the core problem, including something called ‘technological tribalism.’

Technological tribalism underlies and reinforces the services lack of common identity, which we’ll discuss in Part Three.