What makes airmen different from soldiers or sailors? It has to be more than the uniform they wear or the technology they maintain and operate. The distinction is the unique perspective they bring to the art of warfare-an attribute we loosely define as air-mindedness. It might have been easier to gain consensus on a definition 15 years ago, when the Air Force was occupied principally in strategic operations in defense of the nation. However, since then the Air Force has been almost exclusively engaged in theater-specific operations, such as Northern and Southern Watch, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. These operations and the global constructs of space and cyberspace began to reshape how Airmen perceive their contributions and cast new questions about what Airmen bring to the fight.rnIn his work The Command of the Air, Giulio Douhet wrote, "As long as man remained tied to the surface of the earth, his activities had to be adapted to the conditions imposed by that surface. ... By virtue of this new weapon [the airplane], the repercussions of war are no longer limited by the farthest artillery range of surface guns, but can be directly felt for hundreds and hundreds of miles over all the lands and seas of nations at war." In an attempt to identify the unique contributions that air-power brings to surface warfare, Gen Henry H. "Hap" Arnold termed the Airman's "particular expertise and . . . distinctive point of view . . . 'airmindedness.'
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机译：是什么使飞行员与士兵或水手不同？它必须不仅仅是他们穿的制服或他们维护和操作的技术。区别在于它们为战争艺术带来了独特的视角-我们将其粗略地定义为空灵。在15年前，当时空军主要负责防御国家的战略行动，就这一定义达成共识可能更容易。但是，自那时以来，空军几乎只从事特定战区的行动，例如北部和南部守望队，盟军，持久自由和伊拉克自由。这些行动以及全球空间和网络空间的构架开始重塑了空军人员如何看待他们的贡献，并就空军人员为战斗带来了什么提出了新的问题。rn在朱利奥·杜赫特的《空中指挥》中，“只要人与人保持联系，在地球表面上，他的活动必须适应该表面施加的条件。...借助这种新武器（飞机），战争的影响不再受地表最远炮兵范围的限制枪，但可以在战争中的所有国家和地区的数百海里直接感觉到。”为了确定空中力量对水面作战的独特贡献，亨利·H·哈普（Henry H. Hap）将军阿诺德（Arnold）将空军称为“飞行员的特殊专长和……独特的观点”。
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