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Donley, Schwartz should step up

Why aren’t Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz standing up for the Air Force?

That’s what airmen want to know in the wake of 2010 budget recommendations that would slash their service.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to halt production of the F-22 and the C-17, and doesn’t want a new combat search-and-rescue helicopter or the transformational satellite. And he’s proposing to retire 250 legacy fighters — prematurely in the estimation of most aviation experts.

Opposition, no doubt, will flare up when the budget proposal reaches Capitol Hill. So why aren’t Donley and Schwartz kicking and screaming about these cuts? The service’s top two leaders have surrendered, accepting the Gates plan as a fait accompli.

And as if it wasn’t bad enough to just roll over, Donley and Schwartz penned an op-ed piece for The Washington Post titled “Moving Beyond the F-22” that rationalized the F-22 decision. They cited a changing budget climate as their reason for no more Raptors, though Gates explicitly ruled out money as a factor in his decision.

It would be impossible to exaggerate the impact of those words.

After the commentary appeared, key generals read Schwartz the riot act in a videoconference that the public wasn’t supposed to learn about but did.

I heard about the confrontation from a source; Loren Thompson, an analyst with a Virginia-based think tank called the Lexington Institute, touched on the meeting in a paper he wrote, posted at http://lexingtoninstitute.org.

“A look at Gates’ plans for Air Force programs,” according to Thompson, “shows why Schwartz’s tenure could resemble a controlled flight into terrain,” military talk for a self-administered airplane crash.

And airmen already hot under the collar about the cutbacks are now red-faced to boot over the writing exercise by Donley and Schwartz.

Their comments — current, retired and former airmen alike sounded off — focus on the men’s lack of leadership. Some wonder if Gates muzzled them; others wonder if Gates ordered them to write the column.

One airman wrote of the dedicated staff sergeants and captains “who are such giants in the service of this nation and are being led by careerist pygmies.”

At a glance, Donley and Schwartz appear to be in an impossible dilemma — march in step with Gates or stand in the unemployment line. And they can’t quit on their own, some believe, because the Air Force would be harmed if a second set of leaders resigned so soon after their predecessors did.

I disagree. I know of others in the Air Force who are struggling with the mere notion of helping dismantle American air power and are thinking perhaps they should resign on principle.

Donley and Schwartz made a serious misstep with their op-ed piece. They still can, and should, protest the eviscerating of the Air Force — within the system first but, if necessary, by resigning and speaking out as private citizens. And if they don’t challenge Gates, they ought to resign anyway precisely because they lack the courage to give their best professional advice.

Dorr is an Air Force veteran who lives in Oakton, Va. Write to him at robert.f.dorr@cox.net.