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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/w..._pilots_rise_on_winds_of_change_in_air_force/
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While I can't see the "very definition of valor" changing over this (these guys clearly are not in combat and are not preparing themselves and their families for the possibility that they may not come home or come home wounded) but the definition of the Air Force's mission and how it accomplishes that mission may change a lot- and who becomes the top dogs in the USAF may change with it.
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Why does the country need an independent Air Force?’’ the senior civilian assistant to General Norton A. Schwartz, the service’s chief of staff, had written. For the first time in the 62-year history of the Air Force, the answer isn’t entirely clear.
The Air Force’s identity crisis is one of many ways that a decade of intense and unrelenting combat is reshaping the US military and redefining the American way of war. The battle against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq has created an insatiable demand for the once lowly drone, elevating the importance of the officers who fly them.
These new earthbound aviators are redefining what it means to be a modern air warrior and forcing an emotional debate within the Air Force over the very meaning of valor in combat.
While I can't see the "very definition of valor" changing over this (these guys clearly are not in combat and are not preparing themselves and their families for the possibility that they may not come home or come home wounded) but the definition of the Air Force's mission and how it accomplishes that mission may change a lot- and who becomes the top dogs in the USAF may change with it.