AF chief of staff releases 2013 reading list

WASHINGTON (AFNS) — The Air Force chief of staff published his professional reading list Feb. 1. In a message on the website, Gen. Mark A. Welsh III said, “We are the world’s greatest air force because of our Airmen…and we must continue to strengthen that team.”

He asks Airmen to take a look at the list that highlights the Air Force’s heritage and fighting spirit, and encourages innovation and forward thinking.

This year’s list contains 14 books, seven films, seven TED talks, web-based resources, and for the first time, artwork, music and photography selections.

The books in this year’s reading list are:

  • “Hat in the Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War” by Bert Frandsen
  • “West with the Night” by Beryl Markham
  • “The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy” by David Hoffman
  • “Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942” by Daniel Ford
  • “Leading With Honor” by Lee Ellis
  • “Dressmaker of Khair Khana” by Gayle Lemmon
  • “The Sovereignty Solution” by Anna Simons, Joe McGraw, and Duane Lauchengco
  • “I Always Wanted to Fly: America’s Cold War Airmen” by Col. Wolfgang Samuel
  • “Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight” by Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom
  • “Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda” by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker
  • “China Airborne” by James Fallows
  • “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
  • “No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn” by Charles Kupchan
  • “Need, Speed, and Greed” by Vijay Vaitheeswaran

More information on the 2013 reading list can be found at: http://www.af.mil/specials/csafreadinglist/index.html