Today’s American Airmen: Breaking paradigms Published Oct. 4, 2010 By Col. Nina Armagno 21st Operations Group commander PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo -- A few days ago, we celebrated the birth of our great Air Force, a service that was born in the minds and deeds of our founding fathers: American Airmen like Billy Mitchell and Hap Arnold, Carl Spaatz and Ira Eaker. These Airmen broke conventional paradigms on the use of airpower during combat. Now, 63 years later, our American Airmen are still breaking paradigms with the use of UAVs and space assets on the battlefield - and the use of space systems for national defense. Author Dewitt Copp called Airmen such as Mitchell, Arnold, Spaatz and Eaker "A Few Great Captains" in his exceptional history of the early days of our service. These Airmen defied conventional thinking on the use of airpower -- from aerial reconnaissance to aerial bombardment, and laid the groundwork for our successes in World War II. They explored strategic and tactical uses of airpower that led to our ultimate victory over the Axis powers, which punctuated the argument for the birth of our service in 1947. Today, 63 years later, we as a service continue to evolve the way we approach and fight wars. We are continually adapting to the fluid nature of today's battlefield, and because of our ability to adapt, we are able to bring the fight to our enemies in profoundly different ways than our predecessors. Our Airmen now reach out and touch our enemies using such cutting edge technology as UAVs and GPS-guided munitions, but we are breaking paradigms in other ways as well - in the employment of 21st Space Wing radars and optical telescopes, used in ways never thought of before. Several great captains in the 21st Operations Group - along with great NCOs - are thinking about how to better employ their weapons systems in ways never conceived of. They are developing tactics, techniques and procedures that exploit 20-, 30-, and 40-year old technology for modern uses. At Cape Cod AFS, Mass., Airmen developed a tactic to send six times the data to the Missile Warning Center and 60 percent more data to space analysts for a rocket that launches within site coverage. Airmen at Eglin AFB, Fla., are configuring their radar to track new launches and space objects they would not normally see. They are building custom-made radar "fences," or swaths of energy, designed to "catch" or track satellites that would otherwise go undetected. The Airmen who command our Ground-based Electro-Optical Surveillance Systems are figuring out ways to use their optical telescopes, normally deep space trackers, to track near-earth objects. This is a radical new thought process, one which breaks the paradigm that GEODSS is only to be used to track far-away, small, space objects. The Airmen at Socorro, N.M., Maui, Hawaii, and Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, have developed tactics to find and track lost satellites from the 40-year old Vela Constellation; sling-shot deorbiting satellites such as the Japanese Hiabusa project; and even new launches not normally seen by their weapons systems prior to the first or second orbital revolution. Our great Air Force has been defined since birth by our ability to break paradigms and think beyond the conventional application of airpower. Now, today's Airmen are thinking beyond the conventional application of space power. I, for one, couldn't be prouder to be part of such a legacy - and such a promising future.