Daniel R. Mortensen

Long before the current struggle between the Army and Air Force over the deep attack mission, the services debated employment of air resources. Among the earliest roles and missions issues of the 1930s, the Army argued that ground commanders needed to control air resources for "unity of command" principles. Airmen countered by citing "centralized control" principles. Historians have often suggested that the issue of centralized command was settled by the Battle of Kasserine Pass early in show more World War II. Continued research has shown that the centralized air command, as well as air superiority, was well established in published doctrine several years before World War II. Nevertheless, Mrica was argued to be an effective testing ground even though it could hardly fill that role because of the immaturity of operations at that time. No one was arguing that support of land operations was an inappropriate role for airpower. The argument was how to carry out that task. show less