WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The lessons of the past play a key role in shaping the outcomes of the future; this tenet underlies the importance of the role of Air Force Materiel Command historians who serve alongside service members at home and at duty locations across the globe.
“The daily role of AFMC historians is to record and guard past history for future decisions made at home or abroad,” said Jack Waid, Director, Command Heritage Programs, Air Force Materiel Command History Office.
A leader can alter the course of events by accessing the clues provided by lessons learned in past historical records.
“AFMC historians serve many purposes, but the most important is to capture and preserve the institutional memory,” said Yancy Mailes, Director, Air Force Materiel Command History and Heritage Program. “Just documenting a military conflict will not help leaders if a similar situation occurs in the future. We must bring context and link the past to the present. If we do this, we have the opportunity to weaponize the archives and operationalize history, eventually influencing the leadership decision process.”
Records of past events, or corporate memory are used in a variety of ways, including assisting organizational change requests, understanding the impacts of hurricanes in gulf, or why past leaders selected one course of action over another. It is important for AFMC historians to document not only garrison operations, but also those in the war zone.
Historians at AFMC wings are no longer part of a deployment rotation, contrary to the recent past when they were considered combat Airmen. During operations in Southwest Asia, AFMC historians served alongside fellow Airmen supporting combatant commands and joint staff duties across the globe, with modified areas of responsibility.
AFMC also supported an Individual Mobilization Augmentee Air Force Reserve program. As part of this, Doug Lantry from the National Museum of the United States Air Force and Tom Mason from the Air Force Research Laboratory deployed to undisclosed locations in Southwest Asia.
The most important part of a historian’s job, whether deployed or at a home station, is being actively involved in their organizations.
Field historians at the wing and command level are responsible for compiling an accurate periodic history report, which is the official record of an organization and serves as the institutional memory.
“Historians employ corporate knowledge as a tool to decipher today’s changing history in order to provide information to leaders and decision makers to create a more efficient and lethal Air Force,” said Waid.
Even before General Henry “Hap” Arnold established the Army Air Forces Historical Division in 1942, and put trained historians in every unit to record history “while it is hot,” they made a significant impact.
However, the mission, is not to engage the enemy, but to produce a future record of situations during a specific period in time.
A historian is not always present when every incident happens. There was only one Airman with the job description of historian at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Sometimes things happened which had to later be passed along to the historical guardian.
On these occasions support from fellow Airmen was sought.
“Airmen feel a kinship with a historian who is in-country with them executing the mission. So they are willing to share details on events they experienced,” said Waid.
Members who share what they know aid historians in securing the corporate knowledge in a deployed environment.
“The collection of historical data kept on each Airman includes the orders covering their stay in a deployed environment. Orders are just one small piece of information gathered by historians during a deployment,” said Waid.
Waid emphasized the importance of knowing who was out of country during what time as well as the mission they completed.
Historians can say, “if not for us,” the decision would have swung in the opposite direction, with a different outcome.
Being seated within reach of the commander aids the historian in providing a record of more than what occurred. Historians are also privy to why a certain decision was made and what amplified the significance of the event.
“The deployed experience proved invaluable as AFMC historians then understood the full spectrum of war and witnessed how the warfighter used the materiel AFMC envisioned, purchased, tested and sustained,” said Mailes.
Being a deployed Airman brought credibility, but also allowed AFMC historians to be part of the team.
“Air Force historians can be found at duty locations around the world, working to change history, by keeping it from repeating itself,” said Mailes.