New airmen are not surprised to find themselves driving trucks in the desert or in a firefight in Iraq, Moseley said at the AEI conference. He explained that “40 percent” of the people in the Air Force today came in after 9/11, so have no recollection of a different time. “They know exactly what they’re getting into,” Moseley asserted. He added that 80 percent of today’s Air Force personnel are post-Cold War airmen so they only know an expeditionary style of service. “This is what we do,” he said.
The United States Air Force is flying less than historic norms and funding for acquisition and readiness is on a path to further hollow out this too small and old force to that is incapable of sustaining an enduring combat air campaign.
