From the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates:
“Today I provided my recommendation to the President for the nominations to the top civilian and military leadership positions in the Air Force.
“I recommended that Michael Donley be nominated to serve as Secretary of the Air Force.
“Mike Donley is presently the Director of Administration and Management for the Department of Defense, essentially charged with running the Pentagon and its many complex operations. Mike served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management in the first Bush Administration and, for a period, as Acting Secretary of the Air Force. In order to minimize any disruption caused by this leadership transition, I have also recommended to the President that he designate Mike Donley as Acting Secretary of the Air Force effective June 21.
“I further recommended to the President that General Norton Schwartz be nominated to serve as Air Force Chief of Staff.
“General Schwartz is presently the Commander of U.S. Transportation Command, which is in charge of the Department’s extensive transportation network and world-wide operations. Prior to that, General Schwartz served in senior joint military positions as Director of the Joint Staff, Director for Operations for the Joint Staff and Deputy Commander of Special Operations Command.
“In addition, I have recommended two additional Air Force military leadership changes.
“First, General Duncan McNabb, the current Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, has been recommended to take General Schwartz’s place at US Transportation Command. General McNabb has spent most of his three-plus decades in the Air Force in the areas of lift, refueling and logistics making him an ideal candidate to assume the helm of this command.
“Second, I have recommended that the President nominate Lieutenant General William Fraser III, to follow General McNabb as the next Air Force Vice Chief. General Fraser is currently the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role he is the Chairman’s chief liaison and advisor on international relations and political-military matters. In addition to his numerous flying and command assignment in the bomber community, General Fraser has extensive wartime, contingency and humanitarian relief operational experience.
“I am confident that Mike Donley, General Schwartz and the new Air Force leadership team have the qualifications, skill and commitment to excellence necessary to guide the Air Force through this transition and beyond.
I don’t know much about Donley, but I know Norty Schwartz and really like the dude. He’s a good guy, understands unconventional fights and is an independant thinker. I can’t think of a better leader to take the Air Force once and for all out of the Cold War mindset.
It’s also noteworthy that Duncan McNabb will replace Schwartz at Transcom, and William Fraser will replace McNabb as Vice Chief. Why? Well, look at their resumes. McNabb is a longtime transport and rotor wing pilot (red-headed step children in the AF) and Fraser is a bomber pilot (another pariah in the fighter-dominated service). If the jet-jocks can’t get their act in gear, then we’ll get the slow-movers into the game so change can finally come…We’ll see.
– Christian
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Christian, so we don’t need fighters anymore? Is history destined to repeat itself again and again? How short sighted are some. All that is going on in the rest of the world, and we focus only on these 2 countries in the middle east when we have enough oil domestically to support the US via oil shale for almost 200 years at current consumption. This is utter stupidity, fighters will always be necessary for homeland defense, and to say that 183 would be enough to cover the US is well unbelievable. I guess we should switch all of our air force to uav’s because they will be able to solve all of the futures problems.
Is it just me or does the guy on the right look like Spock?
Fascinating to see a logistician with extensive spec ops experience supplant the traditional fighter mafia. I think it says a lot about what Secretary Gates’ issues were with Gen Mosely and his leadership.
The General looks a bit like Mr Spock, no?
The Culture of the USAF does not allow the brightest to rise to the top. Regulations require operational Pilots to command all operational units from from squadron to Group to Wing and above. All non Pilots are not eligible to advance to senior command. During the cold war SAC pilots were the ones. Since then it has been Tac Fighter Pilots. Today, the complexities of aircraft requires full time attention to learning the aircraft systems and tactics, no time left for learning management, planning and organization. Pilots are great technical warriors but few are are equipped for command. We need the brightest at command levels. Gates is on the right track, but deeper to find the thinkers for command positions. Retired 30 years service 1942-73).
gates is right there is more to air power then just bombing, and air superiority. we have to think about the entire spectrum of operations for air operations.
I know I’m the third guy to say this, but the guy on the left looks exactly like Mr. Spock.
Which is comforting, I’m sure Spock’s logic will help the air force avoid next-war-it.is
Greg, I see your concern about only having 183 F-22′s. Please describe the scenario in which all of our F-22′s are fighting to keep enemy aircraft from attacking our homeland. Details requested would be the country attacking us, what weapons they’re using, how they got these weapons across the oceans, the year you think this can happen, etc. BTW, I flew AC-130′s for 8 years to include Iraq and Afghanistan and am presently teaching new pilots in the T-6. Also, Gen Schwartz was my wing commander when I was a young gunship pilot and he has unquestioned integrity and I guarantee you he does not have the time or interest to worry about Thunderbird PR videos.
About time the (SEC of DEF) fires a U.S. Air Force General & civilian leader for incompetence of the nuclear protection force. It was obvious since the end of the Cold War Era, the priorities, mission, and a WAR has created a lukewarmness towards the arsenal. It would have been a matter of time due to human error, that would have created a “Broken Arrow” scenario. Where are you John Travolta & Christian Slater???
I bet we see alot more AC-130 action in Iraq now that a former AC-130 pilot is AF Chief of Staff. I expect we’ll also see Spectre and Spooky pilots getting a little more leway in how they operate over there. Maybe we’ll even see some C-130 airframes modified into “new” AC-130′s. We could definatly use more than the two dozen or so we’ve got now.
I know most of these guys from when I was still a First Sgt in the AF a number of years back. They are all good men and should be able to bring us back to the fore front again. Good luck to each one of them if they decide to accept the positions.
Think Bill’s assessment is on point. The USAF has let careerism run rampant and the emphasis is on the next promotion rather than the mission. This mindset requires the “turning of the blind-eye” toward leadership (i.e. going along to get along). The AF to its WWII role of prviding air superiority to ground troops and airlift and supply. The other roles (space, special ops, etc) should be subordinate roles to ground support role and supply roles. Whatever you want to say about Viet-Nam, you cant say the AF did not know its role (knowing a role and being allowed to carry it out are two different things). Anyway, I think the CofS designee now knows or has an idea of what is expected from AF leadership now and hopefully, at least leadership will improve.
This is something to watch closely as far as USAF leadership and budget are concerned.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20080611.aspx
>What the Secretary of Defense was addressing, by
>halting the downsizing, was a personnel policy
>that was sending some types of air force troops
>overseas again and again, while many other
>hardly went at all. There were many complaints
>from the officers and airmen spending all that
>time overseas (many since 1991, to patrol the
>Iraq “no-fly” zone). But air force brass largely
>ignored the complaints, believing that there
>were so many people trying to get in, or stay
>in, the air force, that they could just tell the
>troops to suck it up. The new air force
>management is taking this in a different
>direction. That means that the old air force
>plan, of shedding personnel so they could buy
>more new F-22s and F-35s, will also be dropped.
That last sentance says everything that needs to be said as far as the rein of the Fighter Pilot Generals in the USAF is concerned.
Glad to see the Good ‘Ole Boys network being shredded. The mindset of, “If you ain’t a fighter pilot, you ain’t sh*t” is finally over. Maybe now we can get down to business of working WITH the other services as a cohesive team. And, possibly, maybe a few other stars should be falling from the sky.
USAF’s officer corps will hate Schwartz. A transport guy in the top spot? That’s heresy to the fighter pilot culture. The officers will take this as an insult from Gates. And I have no doubt that this IS a message from Gates; reform your culture or else. And all of the “wars for Israel” conspiracy nuts will just loooove the fact that USAF COS is a Jew. That ought to provide lots of grist for the DailyKos mill.
General Schwartz had better watch his back. Some of the knives aimed for it will be attached to blue uniforms.
General McNabb and Mr. Donley had best not get too comfortable with their prospective new jobs, yet. As soon as the next administration enters office and a new ‘sheriff’ is in town things will be prime for change again. Happened with Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Lil Bush. Somethings just change for the sake of change.
Let me say one thing about Norty Schwartz… to those who don’t know him and only read about him, he is one of the FINEST officers going. I flew for him flying C-130′s when he was a LTC just 12 years out of the Air Force Academy and there wasn’t a man in the unit who wouldn’t do battle for him to the end. Don’t stereotype C-130 drivers because they don’t have an ejection seat. To those who know Norty, RESPECT him to no end. Good Luck Norty and god bless… Gary C. Eagle Airlifter