Progress is Made Through Breaking Custom

"Proficimus more irretenti: we make progress unhindered by custom”

On the west side of Montgomery, Alabama, lies Maxwell Air Force Base. Maxwell was built in 1910 and officially housed the Air Corps Tactical School from 1920-1940. Post World War I, the Air Force was seen as an observatory asset but not a serious branch of the military. While the Army and the Navy were held in great prestige and honor, the Air Force struggled to find its footing.

The founders of the Air Corps Tactical School knew that they were the red-headed-stepchild and leaned into it. They adopted today’s quote as the official motto of the school. They were never going to out-army the Army or out-navy the Navy. Airplanes were radical new technology, and their ideas and philosophy needed to align with that.

Under this lens of progress, the Air Corps Tactical School revolutionized warfare through the doctrine of daylight precision bombing. The idea was that daytime bombing attacks against critical enemy industrial infrastructure could cripple a nation with little bloodshed. A major shift from conventional warfare, but one that quickly found its footing and still heavily influences how wars are fought today.

You can read the whole story in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Bomber Mafia.