With Airpower Leadership on the Front Line: Lt Gen George H. Brett and Combat Command, Douglas Cox makes a singular contribution to American airpower biography. Books abound on personalities that reach high rank and whose careers culminate in great success. These studies often glean keen insight about leadership style, and some are vocationally valuable as examples of effective command. But the analysis of history's great winners yields something less than a full dimensional sense of leader- ship. The examination of those men and women who do not quite reach exalted status can flesh out the lessons of effective leadership. This is what Cox does here. George H. Brett certainly reached high rank, and only the most cynical and uninformed observer would judge his career a failure. Yet World War II did not propel him along the same career trajectory of a Curtis LeMay or a Hoyt Vandenberg or a Jimmy Doolittle. Why? For all kinds of reasons; some of which were good, some bad, some within Brett's control, and others entirely outside his purview. Through a careful examination of primary and secondary sources, as well as his own acumen as a sharp officer, Cox uses Brett's life to illuminate those factors that at first sped Brett through the ranks and then those variables that appeared to block his further advancement. Cox reminds us of what we often know intuitively but often for- get intellectually: that success has many fathers, including personal luck and fortuitous circumstance. Airpower Leadership on the Front Line pulls no punches regarding Brett's limitations, but it also acknowledges broader factors at play in his career. In the end, Cox delineates those factors that make for successful leaders; and, more importantly, suggests which among those variables are within a person's control and hence worthy of attention and energy. As much as studies of commanders who grabbed the brass ring, this examination of George H. Brett adds Insight into the makings of effective leadership and successful command.
About the Author: Lt Col Douglas A. Cox is a B-52 radar navigator and weapons officer. A 1989 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), he was one of the first USAFA cadets to major in Eng- lish. He has been assigned to Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan; Castle AFB, California; and Minot AFB, North Dakota, as a B-52 crew- member. His last assignment before attending Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, was as a member of the Air Warfare Center staff at Nellis AFB, Nevada. He has over 2,500 hours in the B-52G and H models. His interest in writing and literature led him to a fascination with airpower history, particularly the leadership challenges faced by the top Airmen in World War II. In June of 2004 he was assigned to a B-52 bomb squadron at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, as a squadron operations officer. Colonel Cox is graced by the companionship of his lovely wife, Lynae, and his two sons, Allen and Steven.