Air University’s Air Force Doctrine Center recently hosted a four-day conference for subject-matter experts to “fast track” the Air Force’s “Irregular Warfare” document, which the service wants to print in June. Service leaders want an Air Force response to the just published Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Doctrine, which relegates airpower to a supporting role. “It doesn’t always have to be about having lots of ‘boots on the ground,’ “ says Maj. Gen. Allen Peck AFDC commander. Peck maintains that airpower “brings asymmetrical advantages” to combat counterinsurgencies or any other form of irregular warfare. The new Army COIN—which basically covers airpower in a five-page annex to the 335-page document—is partly the work of Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the new Multinational Force Iraq commander. (Read more about the Petraeus doctrine in this month’s “Washington Watch.”)
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.