The Airman's Creed

Last week the Air Force introduced its new Airman's Creed as part of its desire to copy everything the Army does.

Okay, seriously, I think the Creed is a good idea. I'm just a little skeptical considering that the Army adopted theirs just four years ago. The USAF has been for too long the service that never REALLY went into combat. As long as you weren't actual aircrew, you were "safe." To be fair, the Army was much the same way for most of the Cold War. You had combat units, that did things like shoot people and blow stuff up, and you had support units, that did things like drive trucks, inventory supplies, and make sure the mail was on time. Separate worlds. I've always been a big fan of the Marines "every Marine a rifleman" philosophy. The concept that even if all you do is push paper all day long, you are still trained as a rifleman and, more importantly, you have the mental preparedness and fortitude to act as a rifleman if need be. You're prepared. Maybe not prepared to go clear houses in Anbar for six months, but physically and mentally prepared to defend yourself and your comrades if it comes down to that.

This Airman's Creed is a step in that direction. Little known fact is that the USAF has been on a continuous war footing for going on 17 years now. We bombed Saddam and protected the Shi'ites and Kurds since the Persian Gulf War, we bombed the Serbs a few times, and we bombed the Taliban. This is part of the reason why our weapons systems are wearing out so quickly, but that's a whole 'nother story. The point here is that the facts of the matter are that the USAF has been at war since 1990, but talk to a lot of Airmen in the '90s and you wouldn't know that. It's only after 9/11 and the step up in our expeditionary posture that the USAF has come to embrace the "warrior ethos" (another thing stolen from the Army.) Better late than never, I suppose.

What is warrior ethos? In the words of CSAF Moseley, "This warrior ethos exhibits a hardiness of spirit, and moral and physical courage." Put bluntly, its remembering that we are actually a military service in the business of blowing up things and killing people, not a flying club that occasionally gets to make things go boom.

Here's the Creed:

THE AIRMAN’S CREED

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.
I AM A WARRIOR.
I HAVE ANSWERED MY NATION’S CALL.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN.
MY MISSION IS TO FLY, FIGHT, AND WIN.
I AM FAITHFUL TO A PROUD HERITAGE,
A TRADITION OF HONOR,
AND A LEGACY OF VALOR.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN,
GUARDIAN OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE,
MY NATION’S SWORD AND SHIELD,
ITS SENTRY AND AVENGER.
I DEFEND MY COUNTRY WITH MY LIFE.

I AM AN AMERICAN AIRMAN:
WINGMAN, LEADER, WARRIOR.
I WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AIRMAN BEHIND,
I WILL NEVER FALTER,
AND I WILL NOT FAIL.

Of course, it wouldn't be the Air Farce Force without somebody creating an..."alternative"...version. Courtesy of the Chairforce forums...

We are airmen.
We mantain weapons of mass destruction;
We operate tools of reconstruction.
One of us gets punked,
You all get jumped.
You kill one,
We kill two.
You kill one more,
We kill you.
You drop a bomb,
We want war.
We drop a bomb,
You dont want no more.
We are airmen.

Heh.