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 GENERAL NORTON A. SCHWARTZ
Air Force chief of staff releases 2012 reading List

Posted 1/10/2012 Email story   Print story

    

1/10/2012 - WASHINGTON (AFNS)  -- The Air Force chief of staff announced his latest professional reading list Jan. 6.

In a letter to all Air Force personnel, Gen. Norton Schwartz said today's Airmen are among the military's best educated and most inquisitive.

"We Airmen are innovators because we embrace the word 'why' and mine it for better, smarter ways to operate," Schwartz said.

The Air Force's history is full of examples of Airmen who have embodied this attitude, facing daunting challenges with little more than their minds and fortitude, the general said.

"Their experiences are one of the cornerstones of the 2012 Reading List," Schwartz said.

This year's list contains 13 books and, for the first time, supplementary films, treatises and Internet-based resources. Schwartz will highlight these books throughout the year, and for the first quarter recommends these three:

"Airpower for Strategic Effect," by Colin Gray, provides a critical, strategic history of airpower as well as a new general theory.

"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," by Laura Hillenbrand, is the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of almost too incredible catastrophes.

Finally, "Start with Why," by Simon Sinek, looks at the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world and describes how they all think, act and communicate in the exact same way, something the author calls "The Golden Circle."

The other books in this year's reading list are:

"The Forever War," by Dexter Filkins

"Paradise Beneath Her Feet," by Isobel Coleman

"The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution," by Linda Monk

"The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers," by Richard McGregor

"Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure," by Tim Harford

"Catch-22," by Joseph Heller

"Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II," by J. Todd Moye

"Physics of the Future," by Michio Kaku

"A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent," by Robert Merry

"The Hunters," by James Salter

More information on the 2012 reading list can be found at http://www.af.mil/information/csafreading/index.asp



tabComments
10/17/2012 2:59:44 PM ET
I think a real professional reading program be created to reach airmen across all ranks. a reading list similar to that of the Marine Corps. a reading list greater than 13 books. it seems very weak and not very focused.
sb, home
 
3/5/2012 12:39:40 AM ET
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, I like that this was added. I saw in some of his characters actual destructive personalities that could destroy an organization.
Brian, Colorado
 
1/17/2012 7:53:31 PM ET
Found it amusing that Airpower for Strategic Effect by Colin Gray suggested for first quarter reading; isn't released until May 2012.
MRH, JBER AK
 
1/17/2012 11:07:52 AM ET
I would suggest The Riot Act be included with every year's list. When I was a young one-striper in 1976 it was read to me by a Viet Nam era E-7 who took me under his wing. It definitely changed my way of thinking and I would've never made E-9 without it.
Retired Chief, US
 
1/17/2012 6:54:19 AM ET
I read Unbroken this past summer and it is nothing short of the most inspirational book I ever read in fact I consider it the best book I ever read. Strength will be found in his story.
Jim Lacek, Norfolk Naval Station
 
1/16/2012 5:54:22 PM ET
I am VERY happy to see The Words We Live By Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution in the list.
GA, UT
 
1/13/2012 4:41:50 PM ET
Is it appropriate for an author to be recommending a book he wrote
BookWorm, DC
 
1/13/2012 9:18:22 AM ET
If we promise to readwatch everything on the list will we be safe from getting RIFed
BF, Oklahoma
 
1/12/2012 2:17:32 PM ET
I reccommend the entire Clone series by Steven L Kent
Wayson Harris, Terraneau
 
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