The CSAF Professional Reading Program is a list that highlights the Air Force's heritage and fighting spirit, and encourages innovation and forward thinking. General Ronald Fogleman created the CSAF Professional Reading Program in 1996 to develop a common frame of reference among Air Force members -- officers, enlisted, and civilians -- to help each of us become better, more effective advocates of air and space power. Each CSAF since then has enhanced and continued the Professional Reading Program.
This year's list contains 14 books, seven films, seven TED talks, web-based resources, and for the first time, artwork, music and photography selections.
I Always Wanted to Fly covers battling in dogfights when jets were novelties, saving lives in grueling airlifts, or flying dangerous reconnaissance missions deep into Soviet and Chinese airspace, these flyers waged America’s longest and most secretively conducted air war.
Many of the pilots Samuel interviewed invoke the same sentiment when asked why they risked their lives in the air-- “I always wanted to fly.” With the advent of World War II, many of these dreamers found themselves in cockpits soon after high school. Of those who survived World War II, many chose to continue following their dream, flying the Berlin Airlift, stopping the North Korean army during the “forgotten war” in Korea, and fighting in the Vietnam War. Told in personal narratives and reminiscences, I Always Wanted to Fly renders views from pilots’ seats and flight decks during every air combat flashpoint from 1945--1968. Drawn from long exposure to the immense stress of warfare, the stories these warriors share are both heroic and historic.
Click through for a full list of the books on the CSAF recommended reading list.
Hat in the
Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War by Bert Frandsen
West with
the Night by Beryl Markham
The Dead
Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy
by David Hoffman
Leading
With Honor by Lee Ellis
Dressmaker
of Khair Khana by Gayle Lemmon
The
Sovereignty Solution by Anna Simons, Joe McGraw, and Duane Lauchengco
I Always
Wanted to Fly: America's Cold War Airmen by Col Wolfgang Samuel
Realizing
Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight by Chris Dubbs and Emeline
Paat-Dahlstrom
Counterstrike:
The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda by Eric
Schmitt and Thom Shanker
China Airborne by James Fallows
Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell
No One's
World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn by Charles
Kupchan
Need,
Speed, and Greed by Vijay Vaitheeswaran
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