Author Talk: Philip Shackelford

"Rise of the Mavericks"

Join us to hear Philip Shackelford discuss his book "Rise of the Mavericks: The U.S. Air Force Security Service and the Cold War".

"Rise of the Mavericks" traces the beginnings and subsequent development of the U.S. Air Force Security Service. Established in 1948 as part of the emerging U.S. national security apparatus, this communications intelligence organization was meant to place the fledgling U.S. Air Force on a competitive footing with its Army and Navy counterparts.  As World War II ended and the Cold War began, Air Force leaders understood that an effective cryptologic capability would be crucial for maintaining and enhancing the Air Force as a strategic and decisive component of America's national defense. Successfully deploying air-atomic strategy in the event of a future war would require reliable information on the capabilities, intentions--and potential targets--of an opposing force, in particular the Soviet Union. Communications intelligence would be a critical source of this information, and Air Force leaders were adamant that their service not remain dependent on other service structures for this capability. The Air Force Security Service rose to the occasion, quickly establishing itself as one of the preeminent communications intelligence agencies in the United States.

Rise of the Mavericks fills the gap in the military and intelligence history literature and further complicates the literature surrounding the history of the NSA, which too often ignores or hastily addresses the contributions and role of the service COMINT agencies during the early Cold War period. The book explains how Air Force Security Service personnel were viewed as mavericks by other U.S. military and government organizations. The airmen lived up to this characterization by creating and developing an independent communications intelligence capability while persistently resisting the controlling efforts of the Armed Forces Security Agency and the National Security Agency. 

Philip Shackelford is the Library Director at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado, Arkansas. He is also currently serving as Past-President of the Arkansas Library Association, and is committed to supporting the Arkansas library community in a variety of other capacities, including a recent term as Secretary of ARKLink (a statewide consortium of academic libraries), and as an Associate Editor for the Arkansas Libraries journal.

Philip holds a Master’s degree in History and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, both from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. His academic research focuses on the Cold War history of the U.S. Air Force and the Air Force Security Service (USAFSS), a Cold War-era communications intelligence agency designed to provide the Air Force with reliable intelligence information to support its missions and decisions.

In addition, Philip recently participated in the American Library Association (ALA) Class of 2019 Emerging Leaders, and completed the Arkansas State Library ALL-In Leadership Institute. On a national level, Philip has served on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Value of Academic Libraries Committee, and recently completed a Certificate in OER Librarianship through the Open Education Network at the University of Minnesota. Philip also serves as a pre-publication book reviewer for Library Journal.

Philip is the creator, producer, and host of the weekly podcast show The Modern Scholar Podcast, which features conversations with librarians, scholars, and community leaders who are performing cutting-edge work and share the same passion for educating, encouraging, and empowering those around them.

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