Anyone who reads the news, watches TV or is alive and able to hear, probably knows that the US has decided not to continue production of the F-22 Raptor. I’m not going to try to debate the value of this aircraft — that’s been done plenty by just about every other mil blog on earth. I’m going to take a look at what I think the fundamental issue is:
The Air Force is just not as popular as it once was.
The American public just doesn’t have the same view of the Air Force that it once had. Why is that? The USAF spends millions every year on advertising campaigns, immense recruiting campaigns and movie placement. You would think that this would help.
Personally I think this has a lot to do with who our “competition” is. When trying to win public support for one of the armed services, you’re essentially competing with the other services – think of sports teams. If you live in Chicago, you’re generally a Cubs fan or a White Socks fan – almost never both. We all live in a world of 5 Armed Services, Americans generally pick one to be a “fan” of. This is usually for a couple of reasons:
- Family – a close friend or family member is currently serving in that service
- The individual served in that service themselves
- Glamor – that particular service has a mystique that is endearing to people
The Air Force has lost the glamor it once had.
How can the USAF rebuild it’s image and endear the American people? They can start by working out their acquisition issues. Why does that matter? Well, for the most part – the only stories you really ever see in the news about the USAF are acquisition related. What the American people see is basically a bunch of guys and gals sitting around in offices and spending money and – lately at least – screwing it up.
When the Air Force sends someone into the fight, who do they send? Pilots and elite special forces ground operators – yup, that’s right, the Air Force has several echelons of elite ground operators. The focus needs to be on these “American Heroes”. These Airman put their uniforms on every day and put their lives on the line to protect American freedoms and yet we rarely hear about them.
The words “fighter pilot” used to conjure up images of of men (and sometimes women) climbing into their flying killing machines and engaging the enemy in air to air combat then flying in low to provide close air support to “our boys on the ground”. Now? I don’t think the average American has any idea what a fighter pilot does day to day. What does a celebrity do when they’re having image issues? They either adopt a bunch of foreign babies – or – they hire an image consultant. The Air Force needs to give the image of the fighter pilot a modern make over. These guys are performing all kinds of exciting missions and engaging the enemy in a ton of different ways – lets show the American people that our fighter pilots are still warriors.
The other group that doesn’t get nearly enough press are the USAF elite ground units. The Air Force has a number of different elite ground units – I’m just going to focus on one of them: Pararescue Jumpers. These guys sweat awesome and shit excellence. They are some of Americas most elite fighters. Each Pararescueman attends the following courses:
Pararescue/Combat Rescue Officer Indoctrination Course- Army Airborne School
- Air Force Combat Diver School
- Navy Underwater Egress Training
- Air Force Basic Survival School
- Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School
- Pararescue EMT-Paramedic Training
- Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course
These guys are some of our most well trained fighters. We should showcase them more often. They present the kind of image Americans think about when they think about warriors and yet we almost never hear about them.
I’m not suggesting the Air Force abandon their image efforts in other areas – they rock in space and cyberspace (sort of) – but the American public is not as excited about those things as they used to be. At the moment, space is a pretty tough sell, you hear a lot of “We have enough problems on earth – why do we need to be worrying about space too?”. As for cyberspace – the USAF efforts in that area have been marred with bad PR also.
I think if the USAF can get back to it’s warrior roots and show the American people that they’re more than just office workers and flying gas station attendants, they’ll have an easier time choking down $65 million dollar fighter planes. Warriors are sexy and sex sells.
General aviation is having a similar problem with capturing the public’s interest. Perhaps the Air Force and general aviation are both suffering for a lack of interest in aviation. Flying has become mundane: waiting in long TSA lines, dealing with crowded airports, flying on planes configured for a maximum number of passengers. For many people, flying is just transportation, like riding a bus.
We need to be reminded that flying is more than transportation. Flying is an expression of freedom, crossing boundaries and obstacles. Flying is an adventure, exploring new frontiers. It isn’t surprising that the airplane was invented in the United States.
I’ll say that the Air Force has developed an image problem that can be seen in recruiting. From where I sit, I see the armed forces getting over in recruiting minorities by making their jobs look bad ass and cool. Commercials, Movies and a few other places all make Navy, Marines, and Army forces look like the baddest of the bad and if you’re a Black kid in Uptown, you tend to be able to see yourself there.
The Air Force, on the other hand, tends to get represented as some well off white guys in very expensive planes and there is no cultural connection made between kids going in to a branch of the service and how he’s been trained to already feel about who that service will turn him into.
It’s not that Flying is now mundane to these kids. They rarely get to fly anywhere. It’s more about which branch can make a connection with them first. There’s plenty of flying being done in the Navy and these kids are willing to sign up to be techs and mechanics.
I agree that the Air Force could promote their ground forces but more than that, they can stop coming off like the “Elite Air Force” and maybe throw some cash at showing off how the Air Force is an all inclusive and versatile branch of the service that can do anything.