Recognizing Outstanding Authors
and Contributors

The Literary Awards are selected by an independent panel of judges, and recognize outstanding authors and contributors who write on various Air and Space topics. These awards are presented yearly. Award winners are selected based on the best article and best book reviewed by Air Power History in that calendar year.

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    • Literary Award Winners

    Col. Jayson A Altieri - Literary Award

    2020

    Best Air & Space Power History Article Award

    Colonel Jayson A. Altieri, U.S. Army (Ret)
    Assistant Professor, Air War College
    Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

    Colonel Jayson A. Altieri, U.S. Army (Ret), began his military service in 1984 as an enlisted Soldier with the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division. In 1989, he graduated from Norwich University’s Military College of Vermont and was commissioned as a U.S. Army Second Lieutenant.

    Altieri served in various Army Aviation assignments as a Company and Battalion Commander with the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as units in Afghanistan, Belgium, Ecuador, Iraq, Korea, and the Panama Canal Zone. He also served in several national security level assignments with the National Geo-spatial Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Brussels, Belgium, and the National War College, Washington, D.C. His last operational assignment was as the Commander, 110th Aviation Brigade, Fort Rucker, Alabama.

    Altieri currently works as an Assistant Professor of Leadership at the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He is a former Master Army Aviator and Instructor Pilot with more than 3000 flight hours in OH-58, TH-67, UH-1, and UH-60 helicopters. Altieri is also an award-winning author of several books and articles on aerospace and military related matters in publications like Air & Space Power History, Air and Space Power Journal, and Journal of Military History. His current book project, entitled A Guest of Mr. Lincoln: The Wartime Service of Sergeant Joseph H. Wheeless, Confederate States Army, is expected to be published sometime in early 2023.

    2020

    Best Air & Space Power History Book Reviewed Award

    Brent D. Ziarnick, PhD

    Brent D. Ziarnick, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Spacepower at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. There he teaches military theory and spacepower strategy to U.S. Space Force and sister service midcareer officers.

    Dr. Ziarnick developed and founded the Schriever Space Scholars, the only space-centric, year-long professional military education program in the world. He is also an Air Force Reserve space operations officer, having served as a squadron commander, deployed space control officer, and Air Force Space Command strategist. Dr. Ziarnick has authored three books and over a dozen articles on space topics and is a frequent contributor to The Hill, Politico, and Air Force Times. He holds a master’s degree in space systems engineering and doctorates in economic development and military strategy.

    Past Literary Award Recipients

    • 2020: “Government Girls” by Col. Jayson A. Altieri. Air Power History, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Spring 2020)
    • 2019: “Definitely Damaged or Destroyed” Reexamining Civil Air Patrol’s Wartime Claims by Dr. Frank A. Blazich, Jr. Air Power History, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring 2019)
    • 2018: “Air National Guard Participation in the U.S. Strategic Airlift Mission to the War in Southeast Asia:1965-1971” by David P. Anderson. Air Power History, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Winter 2018)
    • 2017: “Warden Revisited: The Pursuit of Victory Through Air Power” by John Andreas Olsen. Air Power History, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Winter 2017)
    • 2016: “They Called Defeat Victory: Lam Son 719 and the Case for Airpower” by Dr. William P. Head. Air Power History, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Summer 2016)
    • 2015: “USAF Special Operations Heritage: Cliff Heflin and His Carpetbaggers” by Darrel F. Dvorak. Air Power History, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Spring 2015)
    • 2014: “Arctic Linchpin: The Polar Concept in American Air Atomic Strategy, 1946-1948” by John T. Farquhar. Air Power History, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter 2014)
    • 2013: “The Battles of Al-Fallujah: Urban Warfare and the Growth of Air Power” by Dr. William Head. Air Power History Vol. 60, No. 4 (Winter 2013)
    • 2012: “Flying the First Mission of Desert Storm” by Darrell Whitcomb. Air Power History Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring 2012)
    • 2011: “Arnold at Postdam” by Herman Wolk. Air Power History Vol. 58, No. 2 (Summer 2011)
    • 2010: “Reflection on the Balkan Air Wars” by Dr. Benjamin S. Lambeth. Air Power History Vol. 57, No. 1 (Spring 2010)
    • 2009: “The A-1C(M) Gunsight: A Case Study of Technological Innovation in the United States Air Force” by Thomas Wildenberg. Air Power History Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer 2009)
    • 2008: “Setting the Reocrd Straight Regarding Lieutenants White and McCullin, Tuskegee Airmen” by Joseph D. Caver, Jerome A. Ennels, Wesley Phillips Newton. Air Power History Vol. 55, No. 3 (Fall 2008)
    • 2007: “Wakes of War: Contrails and the Rise of Air Power, 1918-1945” by Donald R. Baucom. Air Power History Vol. 54, No. 3 (Fall 2007)
    • 2006: “Cannon, Egg, Charlie and Baker: Airlift Links Between World War II and the Chinese Civil War” by John Plating. AIr Power History Vol. 53, No. 3 (Fall 2006)
    • 2020: 21st Century Power: Strategic Superiority for the Modern Era by Brent D. Ziarnick. Air Power History, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Summer 2020)
    • 2019: Tiger Check by Steven A. Fino. Air Power History, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Spring 2019)
    • 2018: Limiting Risk in America’s Wars: Airpower, Asymmetrics, and a New Strategic Paradigm by Dr. Phillip S. Meilinger. Air Power History, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 2018)
    • 2017: Finding Dorothy Scott: Letters of a WASP Pilot by Sarah Byrn Rickman. Air Power History, Vol. 64, No. 2 (Summer 2017)
    • 2016: The Other Space Race: Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security by Dr. Nicholas Sambaluk. Air Power History, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Summer 2016)
    • 2015: To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction by Edward Kaplan. Air Power History, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter 2015)
    • 2014: Project 9: Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II by Dennis Okerstrom. Air Power History, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Fall 2014)
    • 2013: The Hump: America’s Strategy for Keeping China in World War II by Dr. John Plating. Air Power History, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Spring 2013)
    • 2012: Five Down No Glory by Richard K. Smith and R. Cargill Hall. Air Power History, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Fall 2012)
    • 2011: Beneficial Bombing, The Progressive Foundations of American Air Power, 1917-1945 by Mark Clodfelter. Air Power History, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Fall 2011)
    • 2010: Targeting the Third Reich, Air Intelligence and the Allied Bombing Campaigns by Dr. Robert S. Ehlers, Jr. Air Power History, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter 2010)
    • 2009: Reflections on Air Force Independence by Herman S. Wolk. Air Power History, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Winter 2009)
    • 2008: The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich by Donald Caldwell and Dr. Richard Muller. Air Power History, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Fall 2008)
    • 2007: Powerful and Brutal Weapons: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Easter Offensive by Stephen P. Randolph. Air Power History, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Winter 2007)
    • 2006: Sabres Over MiG Alley by Kenneth P. Werrell. Air Power History, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Fall 2006)