US Air Force Forward Air Controllers (FACs) bridge the gap between air and land power. They operate in the grey area of the battlefield, serving as an aircrew who flies above the battlefield, spots the enemy, and relays targeting information to control close air support attacks by other faster aircraft. When done well, Air Force FACs are the fulcrum for successful employment of air power in support of ground forces. Unfortunately, FACs in recent times have been shunned by both ground and air forces, their mission complicated by inherent difficulty and danger, as well as by the vicissitudes of defense budgets, technology, leadership, bureaucracy, and doctrine. Eagles Overhead is the first complete historical survey of the US Air Force FAC program from its origins in World War I to the modern battlefield. Matt Dietz examines their role, status, and performance in every US Air Force air campaign from the Marne in 1918, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and finally Mosul in 2017. With the remaking of the post-Vietnam US military, and the impact of those changes on FAC, the Air Force began a steady neglect of the FAC mission from Operation Desert Storm, through the force reductions after the Soviet Union's collapse, and into the post 9-11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eagles Overhead asks why FACs have not been heavily used on US battlefields since 2001, despite their warfighting importance. Dietz examines the Air Force FAC's theoretical, doctrinal, institutional, and historical frameworks to assess if the nature of air warfare has changed so significantly that the concept and utility of the FAC has been left behind. From these examinations, Eagles Overhead draws conclusions about the potential future of Air Force FACs.
MATT DIETZ is a Colonel in the US Air Force and head of the history department at the US Air Force Academy. He holds a PhD from the University of North Texas in the history of air power, military theory, and strategic thought. As an Air Force F-15E instructor pilot he logged more than 2,500 flight hours during his career.
"This book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in CAS and Army-Air Force operations. It covers far more than FACs. An underlying theme tackles differences between the Army and Air Force."--Journal of the Air Force Historical Foundation "Author Matt Dietz, a career US Air Force officer and aviator currently serving as head of the history department at the US Air Force Academy, informs his prose with a warfighter's credibility in a manner that can be easily understood by a general reader. . . . Eagles Overhead excels as a complete but approachable history that pays proper homage to but also transcends its topic. It is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in how a program or capability survives--and sometimes thrived--within a larger bureaucratic system that invests in what it perceives as higher priorities. And it offers an informed view of the application of airpower past, present, and potentially into the future."--Aether "This book provides an expert's perspective on the FAC's story in the US Air Force (and its predecessors), covering decades that include--as the title suggests--multiple conflicts and many changes in doctrine, which forms a cyclic narrative of capabilities improvised, abandoned because there was no further need for them, then re-created when the shooting starts again. . . . It is a complex story, yet the author is exceptionally qualified: an Air Force colonel and fighter pilot, he chairs the history department at Colorado Springs. The author's extensive research effort is apparent."--The NYMAS Review "Close Air Support and forward air controller mission is too often pontificated on and too little understood. Matt Dietz successfully provides a comprehensive history of the Forward Air Controllers. Using diligent research and blending it with a deep conviction of his subject matter, Dietz has authored a sweeping and authoritative history of a mission-set and the men and women who make it possible."--Brian D. Laslie, Command Historian, United States Air Force Academy "Matt Dietz, a scholar, an officer, and an F-15 pilot, is uniquely qualified to write this essential and engrossing history of airborne Forward Air Controllers (FACs) in the U.S. military. Dietz conclusively proves in this taut, well-argued study, that FACs are a key piece in creating what Marine General Jim Mattis called the 'vicious harmony' of the United States military. Without them, there is only chaos and fratricide."--Geoffrey Wawro, author of Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East "The scope and the scholarly research across that vast range of the subject covering over a century of warfare will make Eagles Overhead unique. Dietz integrates that long, enduring and sometimes costly internecine squabble that erupted in internal bickering within the Army Air Corps early on, bubbled up and spread to the Navy later on, and cost lives in Vietnam. It continues to the present. The author's knowledge of American military history shines in this regard."--Earl H. Tilford, author of Crosswinds: The Air Force in Vietnam "The potential for Dietz's book is substantial--it could become the standard reference on USAF FACs. Coverage is remarkably complete with exceptionally detailed sources."--Barrett Tillman, author of Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945 and Corsair: The F4U in World War II and Korea
