Course prepares flag officers to project airpower

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason Lake
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFPN) --  Historically, air superiority has meant the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield.

Army Field Manual 100-20, Command and Employment of Air Power, written four years before the Air Force's birth in 1947, stated:

"The gaining of air superiority is the first requirement for the success of any major land operation. Land forces operating without air superiority must take such extensive security measures against hostile air attack that their mobility and ability to defeat the enemy land forces are greatly reduced."

Last week, 17 general officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force attended a six-day course at Maxwell Air Force Base to learn how to project airpower as an air component commander.

Air University's College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education staff brought together 12 Air Force general officers with five sister-service counterparts Dec. 6-12 for the annual Joint Force Air Component Commander Course.

The course prepares attendees for theater-level combat leadership roles that have been carried out in the past by generals including Charles Horner, who led the air campaign in Operation Desert Storm; Michael Short, who led the campaign in Operation Allied Force; and most recently T. Michael Moseley, who led the air campaign in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is now Air Force chief of staff.

"The course explains how to plan, coordinate and execute air and space power at the operational level," he explained. "General Moseley was a graduate of the course in 2000," said Lt. Col. Ira Collier the course director.

Colonel Collier added that most of the course is taught through various discussions with seasoned air component commanders.

Retired Lt. Gen. Glen Moorhead III, a former 16th Air Force commander with experience as air component commander for NATO and European Union air operations in the Balkans between 2002 and 2006, was one of the three-star generals who shared his experience with the attendees.

"The main thing we do is teach theory and doctrine for becoming an air component commander," he explained. "What we bring to the table is experience of execution, which ties the theory and doctrine together with practical application."

Some of the "practical application" topics discussed with the flag officers were joint tactics, techniques and procedures, doctrinal conflict, and exercise experience.
"We teach them all aspects of 'JFACC-ness,'" he said.

General Moorhead said that the course prepares one-star generals to move out of tactical command positions and focus more on operational-level leadership positions.
"This course is a prep phase for operational-level commanders," he explained. "It continues the process of professional military education in both doctrinal and practical application."

Brigadier Gen. Marke Gibson the 7th Air Force vice commander at Osan Air Base, South Korea, was one of this year's attendees. The 28-year Air Force veteran said the JFACC course helped him gain a better appreciation for feedback provided by commanders out in the field, especially since his wartime role would be to act as the Korean Air Operation Center director.

"It's been a good comparison between what we do out in the field and what the school house teaches," said the former wing commander at Balad AB, Iraq. "I've written five pages of notes to take back with me so I can make comparisons with what we are already doing."

Prior to his one-year tour at Balad in 2004, General Gibson got a third-person view of operational leadership while serving as the Joint Task Force Southwest Asia director of Operations in Saudi Arabia from 1999 to 2000.

"Looking back at my time in Saudi Arabia, it was easy to get lost in the air operation center culture and priorities, but after serving at Balad, I gained the perspective of what it's like commanding on the (front lines)," he said. "The perspectives are much different between the air operation centers and the (front lines)."

As its name indicates, the course addressed how operational commanders use air assets not only in their own service, but all services across the board. For Air Force commanders, this meant learning how to employ aircraft aboard a Navy aircraft carrier.

"I've gotten a better understanding about how I, as a Navy commander in charge of a carrier strike group, plug my capabilities into JFACC missions," said Rear Adm. Mike Vitale commander of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group 2 . "It's been interesting to see how we fit into the air operation center equation."

General Gibson added that the course was instrumental in building relationships with other commanders who, one day, may work together on the battlefield.

"(Most people) don't realize the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships," he said. "Two people who just mildly know each other on the field can accomplish more."

The annual JFACC course was officially accredited in July 1994 and was approved for formal course continuation by former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman a month later. The Air University CADRE also conducts a similar course, the Combined Forces Air Component Commander Course, once per year for international and coalition partners.

General officers forecasted to operational command positions also have the opportunity to attend the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Course at the Navy War College in Rhode Island and the Joint Force Land Component Commander Course at the Army War College in Pennsylvania.

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