John A. Warden III
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John Ashley Warden III (born December 21, 1943) is a retired colonel in the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
. Warden is a graduate of the
United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and U ...
. His Air Force career spanned 30 years, from 1965 to 1995, and included tours in Vietnam, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Korea, as well as many assignments within the continental United States. Warden completed a number of assignments in
the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...
, was a Special Assistant for Policy Studies and National Security Affairs to the Vice President of the United States, and was Commandant of the Air Command and Staff College. John Warden has been called "the leading air power theorist in the U.S. Air Force in the second half of the twentieth century". He has also been called "one of the most creative airmen of our times. John Warden is not just a creative airman; he is one of America's premier strategic thinkers". "Warden's career was marked with brilliance and controversy, and to this day his name inspires both warm affection and cold contempt in the defense establishment. He was, and still is a controversial and influential figure in the defense establishment in general, and the U.S. Air Force in particular". His impact on the future of air power in the United States Air Force is still being assessed, but "several distinguished military historians, officers, and other experts have concluded that Warden defined the very terms of reference for the 1991 Desert Storm military strategy and thereby introduced a new approach to the conduct of war".


Personal background

John A. Warden III was born in
McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau lis ...
in 1943 and was the fourth in his family to pursue a military career. He earned his
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree with a major in National Security Affairs in 1965 from the Air Force Academy and his master's degree from Texas Tech University in 1975, with his thesis focused exclusively on decision-making at the Grand Strategic level. In 1965 (on his twenty-second birthday), he married his high school sweetheart, Marjorie "Margie" Ann Clarke, and on December 5, 1966, became the father of twins, Elizabeth Kathleen, and John Warden IV.


Early military career

While still at the Air Force Academy, Warden started to become disillusioned with the future of the Air Force. He was concerned that air power would play a secondary role to the Army and briefly considered transferring to that service and enrolling in
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
. It was at that moment in his career that he was introduced to the military theorist, Major General
J.F.C. Fuller Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1 September 1878 – 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, known as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising pr ...
, through his book, ''The Generalship of Alexander The Great''. General Fuller quickly became Warden's "intellectual mentor" and was instrumental in forming his lifelong interest in history and strategy, and what has come to be called the "science" of war. In April 1967, Warden was a member of the 334th Tactical Fighter Squadron, flying the F4 Phantom II, when he was first deployed overseas to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
in response to the
Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
incident. In 1969, then a captain, Warden volunteered for duty in the
Republic of Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of t ...
. His assignment was to fly the OV-10 Bronco as a Forward Air Controller. Warden participated in 266 combat missions by the time his tour ended. On several occasions, his aircraft was damaged by enemy fire, once very seriously. The North American Aviation newsletter in 1969 reported that it was the most seriously damaged OV-10 that had managed to land safely. Like many other young officers who came of age during that conflict, Warden was very much affected by the sometimes conflicting
rules of engagement Rules of engagement (ROE) are the internal rules or directives afforded military forces (including individuals) that define the circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner in which the use of force, or actions which might be construed as pro ...
and the lack of an overarching strategy to guide the conduct of that war. That experience was the foundation for his emerging theories on the use of air power and the importance of strategy. Just as it did for another young officer, Colin Powell, as enunciated in the " Powell Doctrine", Vietnam taught Warden some important lessons about warfare: the need for a consistent strategic approach; overwhelming force; clear objectives; an exit strategy; and integration of the political and military dimensions. For Warden, good tactics simply could not overcome a flawed strategy.


The Pentagon

As a major, Warden arrived at the Pentagon in August 1975. Within the Directorate of Plans, Warden was assigned duties in the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
Section, and began his familiarity with that region of the world. This was to culminate in his contributions to the conduct of the First
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
. It was also at this point in his career that he began to attract attention from senior officers and members of the Intelligence Community, both for his ability to think strategically and conceptually, and for his ideas about force structure, concepts, and doctrine, that normally did not interest fighter pilots. Warden had also begun to become something of a lightning rod, in that he was not afraid to forcefully express his views, even to senior officers, and was somewhat impatient with those who disagreed with him, as well as with the structure and the chain of command. Warden was at this point, and would remain throughout his career, the "quintessential air power advocate", and a very controversial figure. Warden has been compared to famed aviator
Billy Mitchell William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, command ...
: "a thinker on a grand scale; a rebel who constantly sought ways to improve himself and his organization without having the patience to explain his reasoning or seek consensus; a revolutionary who refused to take political and personal sensitivities into account in his eagerness to change things fast, and a gentleman of unfailing integrity".


Mid-career

As a Lieutenant Colonel, Warden began a series of operational assignments which were a necessary requirement for the command track, and an opportunity to reach General Officer status. Warden's operational assignments: * Eglin Air Force Base: Director of Wing Operations * Moody Air Force Base: Deputy Commander for Operations * Decimomannu Air Force Base: Commander of Detachment Four (4) * Thirty-Sixth Tactical Fighter Group: Wing Commander Warden was promoted to Colonel at the age of thirty nine and selected for the National War College. Colonel Warden's first book, ''The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat'' was published from his National War College research in 1988. In it, he defined his theories of airpower. Many of the concepts in the book became the framework for the air campaign in the First Gulf War, and formed the basis for what is now known as the Prometheus Strategic Planning System. The Air Campaign further cemented Warden's reputation as a brilliant, but controversial strategist. In this complex book, he focused on the concept of air power as a determinant factor in modern warfare. He directly challenged the prevailing doctrine entitled
AirLand Battle AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into the late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively ...
, which held that air power must always play a subordinate role to ground operations, and was not strategic in and of itself. Air Force historian Richard P. Hallion noted, "the book had a profound effect on the American defense establishment".


Back at the Pentagon

In 1989, after a tour of duty as Wing Commander of the Thirty-Sixth Tactical Fighter Wing in Bitburg, Germany, Colonel Warden was again assigned to the Pentagon. He was placed in charge of the Directorate of Warfighting Concepts, where he continued to conceive, develop, and promote his ideas surrounding air power, particularly that land-based air power now constituted the dominant form of national presence and power projection; as captured in the phrase he coined; "Global Reach – Global Power" Colonel Warden was acknowledged as a "catalyst and provocateur" by Air Force Secretary
Donald Rice Donald Blessing Rice (born June 4, 1939) is a California businessman and senior government official. He has been president and chief executive officer of several large companies including RAND Corporation, and has sat on numerous boards of direc ...
and Lieutenant General Michael Dugan during the significant intellectual and conceptual changes undertaken by the U.S. Air Force in the period 1988–90.


Checkmate and the First Gulf War

Warden was widely acknowledged at the time to be the Pentagon's premier authority on air power strategy. Warden instructed Checkmate, which had merged with the Mission Area Analysis Division to become the Force Assessment Division (XOXWF) under his command, to look beyond traditional
AirLand Battle AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into the late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively ...
doctrine and to focus on potential trouble spots, paying special attention to the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
. Sarah Baxter of the London '' Sunday Times'' said of Checkmate:
Project Checkmate was formed in 1970s to counter Soviet threats, but fell into disuse in 1980s. It was revived under Colonel John Warden and was responsible for drawing up plans for the crushing air blitz against
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
at the opening of the first Gulf War in 1991.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Saddam Hussein's move took nearly everyone by surprise. General Norman Schwarzkopf, who was in charge of the CENTCOM (Central Command) area telephoned the Pentagon on August 8 and asked that the Air Force "put planners to work on a strategic bombing campaign aimed at Iraq's military, which would provide the retaliatory options we needed." Schwarzkopf needed two things: a way to defend Saudi Arabia, and the ability to strike Iraq if Saddam made a crazy move. The model that came to mind was
Operation El Dorado Canyon The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, consisted of air strikes by the United States against Libya on Tuesday 15 April 1986. The attack was carried out by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), U.S. Navy and U.S. M ...
, the 1986 American air raid on
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
, in which USAF and Navy aircraft struck Libyan sites in retaliation for Muammar Qaddafi's terrorism. The Commander-in-Chief (CINC) needed something like the Libya raid, on a larger scale". The planning to liberate
Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
originated with Warden's group of air power advocates in the Air Staff. Warden and his team at Checkmate had reacted quickly to the task laid out by Generals Powell and Schwarzkopf, and had laid out a strategic and offense-oriented plan, that, while it underwent vigorous review and revision, put the initiative in coalition hands and resulted in the overwhelming victory of Desert Storm. Colin Powell stated, "His original concept remained at the heart of the Desert Storm Air Campaign"
Norman Schwarzkopf Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (; August 22, 1934 – December 27, 2012) was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War. Born in Trenton, N ...
declared that "together we mapped out the strategic concept that ultimately led to our country's great victory in Desert Storm". Warden's "Five Rings Model" was a central element in the presentation to General Schwarzkopf of the general outline for the Air Campaign in late August, 1990. David Halberstam asserted in ''War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals (2002)'':
...if one of the news magazines had wanted to run on its cover the photograph of the man who had played the most critical role in achieving victory, it might well have chosen Warden instead of Powell or Schwarzkopf.
Warden's view of the enemy as a 'system' and of the primary importance of the command, control, and communications apparatus within that system, combined with his belief in bombing for functional disruption, strategic paralysis, and systemic effect, was at the heart of the Instant Thunder air campaign in the first Gulf War, and has played an important role in changing the United States view of Warfighting at both the strategic and operational levels. His theories on effects-based planning, and his radical ideas about air power's purposes and applications, have made him probably the most influential air power theorist since the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.


Late career

;Special Assistant to the Vice President: In 1991, at the recommendation of the Secretary of the Air Force, Donald B. Rice, Colonel Warden became the Special Assistant for Policy Studies and National Security Affairs to the Vice President of the United States,
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle served as a U.S. ...
. Warden represented the Office of the Vice President on numerous interagency policy coordinating committees and focused on American productivity and competitiveness. Quayle credited Warden with having finalized the Manufacturing Technology Initiative, a plan announced in 1992 that provided for American company representatives to study Japanese manufacturing processes in Japan. a bilateral agreement that enabled American enterprises to become increasingly familiar with Japanese production technology. Quayle also credited Warden with introducing senior government officials to the Six Sigma concept of business management and quality control, and with strengthening National Security through the enhancement of industrial competitiveness. ;Commandant of the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC): As Commandant of the ACSC for three years, Colonel Warden completely changed the entire structure and curriculum from a focus on the tactics and techniques of war, to a focus on the real objectives of war. During his time in command of the college, he intended to make it a world class educational institution for mid-career officers. Warden and his team transformed what had been an isolated academic institution into one that attracted the notice of the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, and various research communities. During his tenure, the school received several official honors, such as the General Muir S. Fairchild Educational Achievement Award ''The Order of Daedalians'' Award in 1994 and 1995. Colonel Warden's impact will be felt for years to come as the more than eighteen hundred Majors who graduated during his time as Commandant, some of whom have already reached General Officer rank, continue their careers in the Air Force. John Warden retired from the Air Force in June 1995, and shortly thereafter started his own consulting company to pursue the application of strategy in the business world. He co-authored, with Leland A. Russell, ''Winning in FastTime'', in which he encapsulates his ideas and theory about strategy and effects-based planning into a process they call "Prometheus".


Legacy

The
Gulf War Air Power Survey The Gulf War Air Power Survey is a report commissioned by the United States Air Force in 1993 to document and analyze its performance during the 1991 Gulf War. It consists of five sections each averaging over 700 pages, and a 276-page summary rep ...
documents how Warden managed to "define the debate on the military strategy for 1991 through his presentations to Generals Powell and Schwarzkopf". The U.S. Air Force History Office, after extensive research, concludes that Warden introduced a new approach to the conduct of war; an air- and leadership-centric paradigm diametrically opposed to the AirLand Battle doctrine that relegated air power to a supporting role. Scholars such as Robert A. Pape, Edward N. Luttwak, Alan Stephens, Richard P. Hallion, and Phillip S. Meilinger all agree that Warden is one of the most influential strategists since the Second World War. The historian David R. Mets wonders in ''The Air Campaign: John Warden and the Classical Airpower Theorists'' whether John Warden belongs in the pantheon of such great airpower thinkers as Giulio Douhet;
Hugh Trenchard Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the ...
; and
Billy Mitchell William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, command ...
. Federation Starship John A. Warden was named after the Colonel in Starship Troopers: Invasion.


Books and articles by John Warden

* * * * * * * * * *


See also

* Warden's Five Rings


References


Further reading

Publications/books mentioning John Warden: * * * *Carr, Anthony B. "America's Conditional Advantage: Airpower, Counterinsurgency, and the Theory of John Warden" (MA Thesis, Air University, 2009
online
* * * * * * * * * * * * Olsen, John Andreas. "Warden Revisited: The Pursuit of Victory Through Air Power." ''Air Power History'' 64.4 (2017): 39–53. online * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warden, John A. Iii 1943 births Living people United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War United States Air Force personnel of the Gulf War National War College alumni People from McKinney, Texas Recipients of the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the Legion of Merit United States Air Force Academy alumni United States Air Force colonels Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Defense Superior Service Medal Military theorists Military personnel from Texas