Connections 2002

Lecture: Air Command and Staff College

by Russ Lockwood


presented by Lt. Col. Scott Lewis

At the ACSC, airpower studies reach into the "roots of airpower" with an emphasis on operational doctrine and execution. Few of the officers who attend the college can be deemed "operational vets," but they all come in with a broad spectrum of knowledge. The trick is to instruct them on operational planning, especially with regards to joint operations.

For their national planning studies, the offciers are introduced to joint doctrine and processes, joint employment of resources (including the politics of creating a mission force), joint campaign planning, and air and space operations (otherwise known as the operational art of three-dimensional planning and execution). Other aspects to concentrate on are leadership skills, command responsibility, and communications effectiveness.

War simulations are used a a lesson enhancement. Typically, the ACSC brings in a lecturer, then the students come together in a seminar to discuss the lecture, and finally, come together with some sort of wargame application. The latter is the biggest gap to fill.

Wargaming is a zero-sum game when it comes to coursework. If you insert a wargame in the schedule, then you have to take something out--students' time is precious, and ACSC only runs for a specific time period before the officers leave for other assignments.

QUESTION

Q: How do you find the next Eisenhower or Patton?

A: Most students apply a formula to work out a sitaution, but I look for a student who sees the problem as well as the formula. For example, in WWII, Japanese transports are being sunk by US subs at a rate of about what they expected, so they never changed anything. If you are modelling a simulation, you can't just measure ships sunk--it's not the answer to the increasing stranglehold on imports and exports. The better student will try to figure out how to correct the situation by first asking what data should be examined, not just shifting resources.

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