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Who is Gen. Norton Schwartz?

The general nominated to be the next Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, rose up through the ranks as a special operations pilot who also succeeded in Air Staff and joint assignments.

A 1973 political science graduate of the Air Force Academy, Schwartz flew his first operational C-130E Hercules mission in 1975, including airlift missions evacuating people out of Saigon that year.

In 1980, Schwartz joined the world of Air Force special operations with an assignment to the 8th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., flying MC-130E Combat Talons. The position came a few months after the failed Iranian hostage raid mission highlighted problems with joint special operations.

“There are seminal events in all our lives,” Schwartz said in an April 2000 interview with Air Force Times on the raid’s 20th anniversary. “This was one of the momentous events for my generation.

The aftermath of the raid eventually led to the creation of the Air Force Special Operations Command, creating structure where Schwartz and others could gain experience as group and wing bosses. In June 1995, Schwartz took command of the 16th Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt and in 2000 became deputy commander of U.S, Special Operations Command.

While Schwartz advanced up the ranks in special operations, he also held plum assignments at the Air Staff, serving as deputy director of operations in the mid-1990s and as director of strategic planning in the late 1990s.

As the head of strategic planning, part of Schwartz’s focus was on how the Air Force would fight an urban war and make use of AC-130 gunships and satellite-guided bombs. “Don’t go downtown without us,” was the general’s advice in a paper he co-wrote for Air University.

In a 2000 forum on air power and urban operations, Schwartz said it was the lack of AC-130H firepower over Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993 that led to the battle documented in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”

“In fact, had AC-130 gunship support been available in theater for the final Task Force Ranger operation against fugitive warlord Aideed, events of that fateful day would most likely have taken a completely different direction with minimum U.S. losses,” Schwartz said in 2000.

In September 2000, Schwartz left special operations to lead the 11th Air Force in Alaska, a job primarily held by fighter pilots.

Since 2002, Schwartz has held high-level joint positions, as the director of operations for the joint staff, director of the joint staff and since 2005 commander of U.S. TransCom.

At TransCom, Schwartz focused on improving the efficiency of air, land and sea transportation.

When quizzed by lawmakers in 2007 on how many C-17 Globemasters the Air Force needed, Schwartz said 205 was enough to handle foreseeable contingencies.

In April, the Defense Department announced that Schwartz would retire from TranCom by the end of the year and be replaced there by Lt. Gen. William Fraser, after Fraser was confirmed by the Senate and promoted to general.

Now, Schwartz’s retirement plans are set aside. Fraser, a career bomber and mobility pilot, is nominated to serve as Schwartz’s vice chief of staff.

DISCUSS: The right choice?

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DISCUSS: What next?