Air Force Officers: Personnel Policy Development, 1944-1974

The many histories dealing with the United States Air Force have most often dealt with aerial campaigns, strategy, tactics, and air battles won or lost. More precisely, the central position has been occupied by the airplane, the dominant symbol of all air forces and the probably most visually arresting weapon of war of this century. When it came to people, the other half of the Air Force equation, famous generals and the exploits of popular heros have been written about, but examinations of the forces that shaped the rank-and-file have been largely overlooked. Even military sociology, a relatively new discipline dedicated to understanding military services worldwide, has dealt overwhelmingly with the Army experience.

In this, his first book, Vance 0. Mitchell examines this relatively unknown part of the Air Force experience by looking, over a period of thirty years, at the personnel policies that shaped the officer corps in the grades of colonel and below. In taking 1944 as his departure point, he catches land-based American air power on the verge of achieving the status of an independent service. It also turned out to be the beginning of the most protracted period of personnel turbulence in American military history.