Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 11, 2008 By Thom Shanker
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — A senior sergeant complained that the attention to the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had left the Air Force short of personnel.
Veteran pilots pressed for answers about the future of the advanced F-22 fighter, which the Air Force regards as crucial to control of the skies.
The questions were asked of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by Air Force personnel who were clearly uneasy about the status of their service after the ouster last week of the two top Air Force officials following an inquiry into the mishandling of nuclear weapons or components.
During visits to Air Force bases in Virginia, Colorado and Illinois, Mr. Gates opened every session over two days with a detailed description of the events leading up to the firings of the civilian Air Force secretary and the four-star general who was the service’s chief of staff.
The question-and-answer session at each stop, which followed a public speech, was closed to the news media, but the exchanges were described by aides to Mr. Gates and by the defense secretary himself, who said they were “thoughtful and pointed.”
Not surprisingly, the aides said, most of the questions from the ranks went to more to specific concerns and worries of the Air Force personnel in carrying out their individual missions.
Mr. Gates vowed that he would support efforts to find money in future budgets to help the Air Force fix problems in its nuclear infrastructure, including additional money for training personnel and testing weapons.
And he announced that planned cuts in Air Force personnel would be halted immediately, holding its personnel roster at 330,000 to assure the service had enough people to carry out its mission.
According to the aides, fighter pilots pressed Mr. Gates on the future of the next-generation tactical combat warplane, the F-22.
In response, Mr. Gates said that he had decided not to halt the F-22 production line, but to allocate sufficient money to continue buying a few more models of the airplane through the Bush administration and into the next — keeping the factory open so the next president could decide the proper number and kind of new fighters.
Mr. Gates assured his audiences that he was well aware that the Air Force, which has been deployed overseas in a combat role nonstop since the first Persian Gulf war of 1991 remained “under stress as well” as the Army and the Marines, who have borne the brunt of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Gates also noted that “the Air Force has its own fallen heroes” in the current two wars.
Much of the question-and-answer time went to what kind of war America might be drawn into next: Would it be low-intensity insurgency combat, fought mostly on the ground, or would it be a major conflict with another nation capable of fielding advanced warplanes and air defenses?
“There must be focus on the wars we are in, as well as building future capabilities,” Mr. Gates said to one group of Air Force personnel here on Tuesday. “It is a matter of balance. We must build out our Navy. We must modernize the Air Force, in particular your aging fighter and tanker fleets.
“But we are damn sure going to spend and do everything necessary to win the wars we are in, to care properly for our wounded warriors, and to restore excellence in our nuclear stewardship,” he said.
In Illinois, at the home of the military’s joint Transportation Command, Mr. Gates met with his choice for the service’s next chief of staff, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, whose confirmation would break a long hold of fighter pilots and bomber pilots on the service’s top job.
June 11, 2008 By Thom Shanker
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — A senior sergeant complained that the attention to the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had left the Air Force short of personnel.
Veteran pilots pressed for answers about the future of the advanced F-22 fighter, which the Air Force regards as crucial to control of the skies.
The questions were asked of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by Air Force personnel who were clearly uneasy about the status of their service after the ouster last week of the two top Air Force officials following an inquiry into the mishandling of nuclear weapons or components.
During visits to Air Force bases in Virginia, Colorado and Illinois, Mr. Gates opened every session over two days with a detailed description of the events leading up to the firings of the civilian Air Force secretary and the four-star general who was the service’s chief of staff.
The question-and-answer session at each stop, which followed a public speech, was closed to the news media, but the exchanges were described by aides to Mr. Gates and by the defense secretary himself, who said they were “thoughtful and pointed.”
Not surprisingly, the aides said, most of the questions from the ranks went to more to specific concerns and worries of the Air Force personnel in carrying out their individual missions.
Mr. Gates vowed that he would support efforts to find money in future budgets to help the Air Force fix problems in its nuclear infrastructure, including additional money for training personnel and testing weapons.
And he announced that planned cuts in Air Force personnel would be halted immediately, holding its personnel roster at 330,000 to assure the service had enough people to carry out its mission.
According to the aides, fighter pilots pressed Mr. Gates on the future of the next-generation tactical combat warplane, the F-22.
In response, Mr. Gates said that he had decided not to halt the F-22 production line, but to allocate sufficient money to continue buying a few more models of the airplane through the Bush administration and into the next — keeping the factory open so the next president could decide the proper number and kind of new fighters.
Mr. Gates assured his audiences that he was well aware that the Air Force, which has been deployed overseas in a combat role nonstop since the first Persian Gulf war of 1991 remained “under stress as well” as the Army and the Marines, who have borne the brunt of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Gates also noted that “the Air Force has its own fallen heroes” in the current two wars.
Much of the question-and-answer time went to what kind of war America might be drawn into next: Would it be low-intensity insurgency combat, fought mostly on the ground, or would it be a major conflict with another nation capable of fielding advanced warplanes and air defenses?
“There must be focus on the wars we are in, as well as building future capabilities,” Mr. Gates said to one group of Air Force personnel here on Tuesday. “It is a matter of balance. We must build out our Navy. We must modernize the Air Force, in particular your aging fighter and tanker fleets.
“But we are damn sure going to spend and do everything necessary to win the wars we are in, to care properly for our wounded warriors, and to restore excellence in our nuclear stewardship,” he said.
In Illinois, at the home of the military’s joint Transportation Command, Mr. Gates met with his choice for the service’s next chief of staff, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, whose confirmation would break a long hold of fighter pilots and bomber pilots on the service’s top job.