Air Force must regain public's trust, nominees say

[July 22, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The two men nominated to replace the ousted Air Force leadership say they'll work to restore trust and confidence in the beleaguered service, under fire for poor handling of its nuclear duties and other missteps.

In documents obtained by The Associated Press, Air Force Acting Secretary Michael Donley and chief of staff nominee Gen. Norton A. Schwartz also defended the branch's much-criticized purchasing system, saying it needs improvement but is "not fatally flawed."

Their comments were made in questionnaires each submitted to the Senate Armed Service Committee, which was to hold their confirmation hearing Tuesday.

Senators want to hear what Donley and Schwartz will do to take the Air Force in a new direction. But some are skeptical about whether the leadership change can solve systemic problems at the service, especially with only six months left in the Bush administration.

If confirmed, Donley and Schwartz would replace former secretary Michael Wynne and chief of staff Gen. Michael Moseley, fired together in June in an unprecedented decapitation of Air Force leadership that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said was to hold the men accountable for a decade-long decline in the way the service handles the nation's nuclear arsenal.

Gates said his decision was based mainly on the damning conclusions of an internal report on the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of four Air Force fusing devices for ballistic missile nuclear warheads. And he linked the underlying causes of that slip-up to the August incident in which a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown across the nation without anyone realizing it.

Asked on the Senate questionnaire what challenges they'd face in their jobs, the first thing both nominees mentioned was the loss of confidence the service has suffered.

"The next chief of staff must restore the national trust and confidence in the U.S. Air Force to organize, train and equip forces" for peacetime and wartime, Schwartz answered.

"In order to accomplish this, we must reinvigorate our nuclear enterprise, refine and adapt our ways and means for winning today's irregular fight, take good care of airmen and their families and prepare ... for an uncertain future," he said in 35 pages of questions and answers.

"Immediate challenges are to restore confidence in the Air Force ... build personal and institutional relationships with Congress and the national security community and undertake actions to address the issues -- such as re-establishing focus on the nuclear enterprise -- that brought us to this point," Donley said in his 44-page document.

Gates said the trigger that prompted him to call for Wynne's and Moseley's resignations was an investigation that found a declining trend in Air Force nuclear expertise and a drifting of the Air Force's focus away from its nuclear mission, which includes stewardship of the land-based missile component of the nation's nuclear arsenal, as well as missiles and bombs assigned for nuclear missions aboard B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers.

Gates said the report, which has not been released publicly, found that the Air Force's nuclear standards have been in a long decline, a "problem that has been identified but not effectively addressed for over a decade" by leadership.

In another investigation, the Government Accountability Office last month said the Air Force made "significant errors" in awarding a $35 billion contract for a new fleet of refueling tanker aircraft. The competing companies are making new offers and selection is being overseen by Gates' office, and not the Air Force.

In yet another case, the Pentagon inspector general this year said the 2005 contract to promote the Thunderbirds aerial stunt team was tainted by improper influence and preferential treatment. No criminal conduct was found. Moseley was linked to the scandal, though not blamed directly.

[Associated Press; By PAULINE JELINEK]

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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