-
Ivan G Thompson
a book bubble about
The Air Force’s Black Ceiling
Politics & Social Sciences
Author Insight
My USAFA Classmate is the new Chief of Staff
I am a 1986 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). One of my classmates, General David Allvin, has just been nominated to become the Air Force Chief of Staff. He was previously serving as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In 2016, when I wrote this book, I envisioned that my Academy classmates would be the senior leaders of 2020. I wrote this book for them, my classmates who’d fill many of the Air Force’s senior leadership positions. I hope senior leaders like General Allvin will help lead the Air Force into even greater success in achieving its goals, including increasing the number of minority pilots. In this book, I share how most senior Air Force leaders have the same origin: a pilot cockpit. Only by impacting cockpit diversity will the Air Force significantly impact its senior leadership diversity. This book is available on Amazon and Audible.
Book Excerpt
The Air Force’s Black Ceiling
Who Am I Writing This Book For?It dawned on me at my 20th Air Force Academy reunion in 2006 that my non-minority classmates had grown up in their careers to be relatively senior leaders (Colonels, Wing, Vice-Wing and Operations Group Commanders) in an Air Force with relatively no black fighter pilots. I wondered, how they had explained this lack of diversity to themselves. We used to joke at the Academy that black people couldn’t swim because of their disproportionate numbers in remedial swimming. Could my white classmates’ Air Force experience cause them to think black people can’t swim…and black people can’t fly? More black fighter pilots served in the Air Force during World War II than at any time in my 24-year Air Force career. The Tuskegee “experiment” produced over 900 black pilots, approximately 680 single-engine or fighter pilots and 245 multi-engine or bomber pilots (Tuskegee Airmen Inc. Ron Brewington, 2009). There were 542 fighter pilots across all minority pilot groups at the time I was commissioned in 1986. That number dwindled to less than 200 in 2003 when the data was gathered (HQ USAF Directorate of Personnel, 2003). The Tuskegee Airmen served so long ago. How could my classmates, the Air Force’s next generation of senior leaders, likely know much about them or relate to their experience?Even further is it possible to lose every aspect of what made the Tuskegee Airmen so exceptional when the last Tuskegee Airmen passes away and joins the ranks of what they call the Lonely Eagles? Sure their legacy would live on and the Air Force has done some great things to ensure that. But is it possible that the notion of black fighter pilots could be forgotten amongst our future Air Force leaders with no tangible explanation for why it was possible to successfully produce black fighter pilots in WWII but not now, nearly 75 years later?This book is an effort to stir the pot again in hopes that the Air Force’s senior leadership, my former classmates, will consider a change in direction from the unsuccessful diversity approaches the Air Force has attempted thus far. A few of my classmates have attained lieutenant general rank. They are becoming the senior leaders of the Air Force. I sincerely hope to influence them and other future Air Force leaders, especially in the fighter pilot community, to re-examine their own explanations for the lack of black fighter pilots.One of the purposes of this book is also to show my white classmates that there is a different view, to give them insight into how a black person in the same Air Force might look at the same situation in a totally different manner. Armed with this insight it is my sincere hope that different decisions might be made as it pertains to changing the diversity landscape of the fighter pilot demographic. This insight is essential for the four-stars of the year 2020 so that the Air Force won’t be as divided as the rest of the nation when it comes to matters of race. It is only when we understand each other’s perspective that pulling down the walls that divide majority and minority cultures is possible. Minorities in many ways are forced into understanding majority points of view and values--it is a must to survive in majority culture. It is not however true that those in the majority must take the time to understand minority viewpoints. It is an investment of time that is critical if my white classmates are to grasp why people that are different may think differently and how it may affect their performance, career decisions, perceptions of sincerity and fairness and they degree of trust that they will extend to those of the majority culture.
Amazon
Click Follow to receive emails when this author adds content on Bublish
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.