The In-Lieu-Of Myth: Airmen in Joint Ground Operations

ISBN: 1288306105

Author: Marttala, David W

Condition: New

This paper finds that because the ILO program inflicts significant critical effects on the long-term health of the supporting -- and hence supported -- forces, continuing the ILO program as presently administered is not a viable long-term option. In fact, the crux of the problem is bigger: the nature of the modern battlefield has outpaced a legacy force built upon cold-war era doctrinal allocation of combat support roles among the services. The ILO problem is merely symptomatic of a long-term, evolutionary change in the warfighting environment, and masks the full impact of combat support manpower shortfalls that will grow in relative deficiency as this evolution matures. The paper concludes by recommending solutions in four areas: decreasing combatant commander demand for ILO forces, increasing supporting service capacity, reducing home station demand for support forces, and increasing real force levels.