A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

support, but found few tactical targets-the air campaign had worked.
The greatest threat to ground troops that day was friendly fire. On the first
day of the Battle of the Somme in World War I, British casualties amount-
ed to 57,000, including 20,000 killed. On the first day of the Gulf War
ground attack, Coalition casualties totaled 14, including 3 killed. Over the
next several days the Air Force focused its attention on battering the
Republican Guard divisions held in reserve in southern Iraq and inter-
dicting the flood of Iraqi units retreating from Kuwait. The most visible
of these efforts was the bottleneck created on the highway northwest out
of Kuwait City, in what was called the “highway of death.” The strategic
bombing campaign continued through the one hundred hours of the
ground offensive, including a last effort to destroy Saddam Hussein’s
bunker sanctuaries. Early in the morning of February 28 President Bush
and the Coalition unilaterally declared a cease fire. Despite flying 37,567
combat sorties, the Air Force lost only 14 aircraft to hostile action (all
from ground fire)-testimony to the professionalism, training, technolo-
gy, leadership, and doctrine of the post-Vietnam U.S. Air Force.
The Future
With the end of the Cold War, the Air Force adopted a new doc-
trine-Global Reach-Global Power. Released in June 1990, it prompted
the first major Air Force reorganization since March 1946. Under Chief
of Staff General Merrill McPeak, Strategic Air Command and Tactical
Air Command were deactivated on June 1, 1992. Many of their assets
were incorporated into Air Combat Command, headquartered at Langley
Air Force Base in Virginia. The new organization represents the “global
power” portion of the new Air Force, controlling ICBMs; command, con-
trol, communication, and intelligence functions; reconnaissance; tactical
airlift and tankers; fighters; and bombers. Air Mobility Command and its
in-flight refueling assets headquartered at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois,
replaced Military Airlift Command as the “global reach” portion of the
Air Force, controlling strategic airlift and tanker forces.
Global Reach-Global Power and a new doctrinal manual issued
in March 1992, AFM 1- 1 , Basic Aerospace Doctrine of the United States
Air Force, represent an Air Force committed to matching aerial forces
with changing circumstances, drawing on nearly 100 years of experience.
The Gulf War, like previous wars, demonstrated that the technology, lead-
ership, training, strategy, and tactics employed for a specific set of condi-
tions and circumstances in one war will not necessarily guarantee success
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