Ignacio A Lara

The authors identified gaps, ambiguities, inconsistencies, and reported problems in the military racial grievance system through an examination of policies and structures and offer recommendations to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the armed forces.

The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act established an alternative framework for setting promotion policies for military officers in competitive categories. The authors examine whether a shift to alternative promotion authority (APA) would be beneficial to the U. S. Air Force, how it would be implemented, and the use of related policy options-merit sequencing and lineal zone management-under either conventional or APA.

The authors set out to identify ways to enable the airfield operations (AO) career fields to respond to the needs created by the Dynamic Force Employment concept and the USAF implementation of Agile Combat Employment by reviewing USAF and joint documents for background, interviewing experts to learn current challenges and the potential impact of new demands, and developing tools to analyze the ability of AO personnel to meet those demands.