Editorial: Gates missed chance - Air Force Community - Air Force Times

Editorial: Gates missed chance

After ousting the service’s top two leaders June 5, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wasted no time in setting the agenda for what comes next.

Gates picked Gen. Norton Schwartz, a career C-130 pilot, to be chief of staff — the first chief ever not to be either a fighter or bomber pilot. He named career Pentagon bureaucrat Michael Donley as acting secretary. And, to assure a completely fresh start at Air Force headquarters, Gates named Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Duncan McNabb to replace Schwartz at the joint U.S. Transportation Command, and replace him with Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, a career bomber pilot.

Next, Gates visited airmen at Langley, Peterson and Scott Air Force bases to tell them in person why he made the changes and to announce two moves advanced by the men he fired just days before:

• An end to the drawdown, cutting it short by a year and saving some 12,000 airmen.

• A continuation of the F-22 fighter program, so that the next administration can decide its fate.

At each stop on his trip, Gates invited airmen to ask questions and encouraged them to make their comments “unvarnished and straight from the shoulder.”

This was a wonderful opportunity for Gates to engage the entire force, with the airmen at Langley, Peterson and Scott standing in for airmen all around the world. But the doors were shut.

No media were allowed into those Q&A sessions. Gates’ handlers said this was to ensure the airmen felt comfortable saying whatever was on their minds. But face it: Airmen are far more likely to feel intimidated by their commanders and the defense secretary than by a few reporters.

So instead of speaking directly to hundreds of thousands of airmen, the secretary’s direct answers to direct questions were only heard by a relative few.

That’s too bad. Because keeping out the media didn’t protect airmen, nor did it help Gates. It just wasted an opportunity to spread his message throughout the fleet — and out into the public, as well.

SPEAK OUT: Was it a waste of time or resources?