Bio
Doug Kennedy graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1989. He attended pilot training at Williams AFB, AZ and went on to a training and operational assignment in C-130s at the 50th Airlift Squadron, Little Rock AFB, AR, where he upgraded to aircraft commander and instructor aircraft commander, and also served as a Special Operations Low Level aircraft commander. He was the Chief of Tactics, and deployed multiple times to Saudi Arabia and also to Kenya, with service at Mogadishu airfield, Somalia. He then received his MA at the University of Georgia, with a follow-on assignment in the Department of History, USAFA, with attached duties as a T-3 Firefly pilot.
In 1999-2003, he was part of the 37th Airlift Squadron, Ramstein AB, Germany as an Assistant Director of Operations, with later duties as the 86th Airlift Wing Deputy Inspector General and Chief of Wing Readiness. This assignment was followed by staff duties at HQ Air Mobility Command, first as the Chief, Tactical Operations Policy, Operations Division, Directorate of Operations, and later as the C-130 Program Evaluation Monitor, Operations Division, Directorate of Plans and Programs, with a deployment as the Tactical Mobility Operations Officer, Air Component Coordination Element, Multi-National Force-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq in between.
In 2006 he attended Kansas State University to begin work on his doctoral degree. His original program of study included work on a re-interpretation of the Eisenhower foreign economic policy, but culminated in his dissertation work on the creation of the US Air Force Academy and the development of the professional military studies program. He returned to the Department of History for the remainder of his Air Force career, with additional duties as an UV-18 pilot for the Wings of Blue/parachute program, and deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2011-2012 as the Joint Operations Director/Advisor to the Afghan Air Force A3/5 with duties as NATC-A Liaison Officer to the ISAF Joint Command, NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan. He's been a member of the History Department faculty as a civilian since 2016.
Education
PhD, History, Kansas State University (2017)
Master of Arts, History, University of Georgia, Athens (1997)
Bachelor of Science, Western Europe (minor German), U.S. Air Force Academy (1989)
Professional Experience
Educator, USAFA DFH 1997-1999, 2009-2014, 2016-present
USAF pilot (C-130E/AWADS/H3s, T-3, UV-18B)
Staff officer
Honors & Awards
Outstanding Academic Educator, 2021.
The Jeanne T. Heidler Award for Teaching Excellence in American History, 2020.
The John F. Shiner Award for Teaching Excellence in Military History, 2018.
Kansas State University, Department of History, “Colonel Peter Cullen Military History Fellowship” for top Military History graduate student, 2008-2009.
Kansas State University, Department of History, Institute for Military History and 20th Century Studies Travel and Research Grant, 2008-2009.
Major Stephen L. Orrison Award for Mentoring Excellence of USAFA Cadets, 1999.
Research and Scholarly Interests
Military professionalism
U.S. air power history
U.S. Air Force Academy
U.S. foreign relations
Eisenhower administration
Publications
PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS
Book review: The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War (New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2021) by Malcolm Gladwell in the Journal of Character & Leadership Development, Fall 2021.
“Benjamin D. Foulois,” in, 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 2021. http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home.html
Book review: Master of the Air: William Tunner and the Success of Military Airlift (New York: Penguin Random House LLC, 2018) by Robert A. Slayton in the Journal of Character & Leadership Development, Fall 2020.
Section editor, “Airmen and Institutions,” in Mark Grotelueschen, et al, The Harmon Memorial Lectures, Volume II: 1988-2017. Air University Press, 2020. (Part of a team of six section editors who have compiled, edited, and prepared for publication the last thirty years of the US Air Force Academy’s Harmon Memorial Lectures in Military History. The section includes an introduction to the contributions by Mark Clodfelter, Stephen McFarland, John Guilmartin, Jeremy Black, and Robert Doyle.)
“Strategic Vision and the Development of Professional Military Education at the U.S. Air Force Academy,” Inter-University Seminar—Rocky Mountain Region Speakers Series at the US Air Force Academy, Jan 2020.
“The My Lai Massacre Revealed,” Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration, sponsored by the Academy Scholar’s Program, USAF Academy, Colorado, Nov 2019.
Book review: Leaders: Myth and Reality (New York: Penguin Random House LLC, 2018) by General Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jason Mangone in the Journal of Character & Leadership Development, Fall 2019.
“Cavalry,” in, 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Oct 2019.
“’Hamburger Hill’: The Battle for Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley, 10-20 May 1969,” Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration, sponsored by the Academy Scholar’s Program, USAF Academy, Colorado, May 2019.
“Vector Change at the Air Force Academy: An Academic in Charge of Professional Military Education,” Society of Military History panel at the Missouri Valley Historical Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, Mar 2019.
“Military Studies, Not Military Training: Vectoring Military Education at the U.S. Air Force Academy,” Rocky Mountain Military Affairs Society, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Feb 2019.
“The Origins of the Cold War,” Air Force Association, Colorado Chapter, General Membership Annual Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Oct 2018.
“Vietnam War’s ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’,” for Lectures in History, CSPAN, March 18, 2018, https://www.c-span.org/video/?442310-1/vietnam-wars-operation-rolling-thunder
“The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hue,” Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration, sponsored by the Academy Scholar’s Program, USAF Academy, Colorado, Feb 2018.
“Operation Junction City,” Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration, sponsored by the Academy Scholar’s Program, USAF Academy, Colorado, Feb 2017.
“Freedom and Those Who Defend It,” Kansas State University Union Program Council Veteran’s Day Commemoration, Nov 2007.