People are the key to air power, CSAF says

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The men and women of the Air Force are the basis of America’s air and space power, according to the Air Force chief of staff.

“It’s all about smart people and the tools they’ve used in new and different ways,” Gen. John P. Jumper told an audience April 24 at the National Air and Space Museum here.

Since its beginnings, the airplane has had a place in military history, Jumper said. But it was not until World War I that the airplane came into its own.

Innovative pilots and their ground crews figured out ways to drop bombs and mount machine guns on aircraft to engage in aerial combat.

“The first attempts at (getting the machine guns to fire through the propellers) resulted in some short propellers and short flights,” Jumper said. But the challenges were eventually overcome.

In World War II, the advent of radar allowed enemy aircraft to be tracked and intercepted. It also led to the development by the allies of the first countermeasure -- chaff. The application of precision bombing began to evolve during the war, Jumper said.

“Using the Norden bombsight on a clear day, you could put a bomb within several hundred feet of the target,” he said. “In the skies over Europe, it took hundreds of aircraft dropping hundreds of bombs to destroy one target, often resulting in overwhelming collateral damage.”

Today, technology makes it possible to attack and destroy 24 targets with a single aircraft, he said.

However, it is the way this and other capabilities are applied that makes the Air Force the best in the world, he said. And there is a long history of dedicated airmen applying airpower in creative ways.

One example Jumper pointed to was Staff Sgt. Matt Lienhard, a combat controller operating on horseback in Afghanistan. Lienhard was able to direct B-52 Stratofortresses, built during the Cold War, to drop 21st century satellite-guided bombs in close-air-support missions, using his laptop while riding a horse, a product of 18th century warfare.

Jumper said that the B-1B Lancer crew that dropped Joint Direct Attack Munitions on a Baghdad, Iraq, building where Saddam Hussein was thought to be was another recent example of airmen breaking new ground.

The crew, engaged in aerial refueling at the time, quickly adapted to the new mission, input the coordinates into the Global Positioning System-guided bombs, and headed toward Baghdad.

“Once we had the intelligence information from the people on the ground, we were able to get it to the aircraft and get bombs on target in less than 12 minutes,” he said.

Whenever Jumper hears people say they have lost their faith in the American youth, he said he tells them they only have to look at the people in uniform to be proud.

“I tell World War II audiences that this generation of young people (is) no less dedicated, motivated and patriotic than any that has ever served,” he said.

Jumper recalled his presenting the Air Force Cross to the widow of a young airman who gave his life in Afghanistan. Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, a pararescueman, flew into Roberts Ridge with Army Rangers during Operation Anaconda. When their helicopter was shot down and surrounded by enemy forces, Cunningham was mortally wounded while trying to evacuate injured soldiers from the helicopter.

At the presentation ceremony, the Army Rangers told Jumper that as Cunningham was dying and realized that he would not make it out, he began giving them instructions on how to keep the other wounded soldiers alive.

“(Cunningham) exhibited more valor and bravery on his very first combat mission than I did in 1,000,” Jumper said.

Cunningham’s widow, Teresa, an Air Force ROTC cadet, will enter active duty this summer.

“These are the young people that we have (in the Air Force) today,” Jumper proclaimed. “And we can be proud of them all.”