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Pushing Culture Change 

Pushing Culture Change: Air Force Secretary Michael Donley thinks that Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and he have succeeded in changing the culture of the Air Force in the past year. He told reporters at the Pentagon June 26 that the decisions on cutting the fighter force by 3.4 wings and terminating F-22 production are “broadly understood” in the service, “especially by the leadership.” He acknowledged that “it doesn’t mean they’re all of the same mind (see below).” But he said the unconverted are informed by their “personal and professional backgrounds,” which may reflect a prejudiced view of the service’s myriad missions. “The vision of the Air Force as flying fighter aircraft and doing air-to-air combat and dropping weapons from fighter aircraft is a very monocular and narrow-focused vision,” Donley said. Schwartz and he have been trying to steer the service away from undue influence by the bomber and fighter pilot communities, and have made a strong effort to take a “more inclusive view of the contributions of every airman to this work,” Donley said. (For more from Donley’s June 26 press roundtable, read It’s Around Here Somewhere as well as Take a Deep Breath.)
—John A. Tirpak 
6/30/2009 
Verbatim

Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010. 

Verbatim

Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.

 

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