Guilt by Association? A Blending of Air Force Cultures

With long-standing, historic culture differences, legal restrictions, and different functional chains of command, can Air Force Active Duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve personnel co-exist as part of the same operational unit to form an effective warfighting team? This paper will utilize the Problem/Solution Research Methodology to present the key to break the cultural barriers of Total Force Integration. It is imperative that Air Force leaders understand how to overcome the limitations and synergize the diverse strengths of both the active duty and Citizen Airmen1 culture to develop an operationally effective warfighting team.