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Wynne takes aim at Gates over firing, reasons

Former Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said Wednesday that his ouster in June was related more to disagreements with Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the current wars and the service’s future needs than to high-profile mistakes in the handling of nuclear weapons and components.

In a wide-ranging discussion with Military Times editors and reporters, Wynne explained the differences of opinion that he says led to his forced resignation.

Gates “and I had some long-standing disputes about the funding for F-22,” Wynne said. “We had a dispute as to whether or not you should spend your time worrying about the strategic effects of the future, or you should spend your time on the war as it sits. … So I think [me] going out and viewing a little bit about what’s the future was construed as the secretary of the Air Force is distracted from [his] duties.”

Wynne also criticized the manner in which Gates removed him from office.

“If the secretary didn’t want somebody on his staff, the secretary should pick the time and the place and tell him to leave,” he said. “I’m just amazed at the circumstances. Why didn’t [he] just call me in and say, ‘Time to go’?”

On the subject of the Air Force’s nuclear failures, Wynne accepted responsibility for the accidental flight last August from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., of a B-52 armed with nuclear weapons. But Wynne noted that the sequence of events leading up to the other high-profile incident – the discovery in March that nuclear warhead fuses had accidentally been shipped to Taiwan in 2006 – did not occur on his watch.

“Ascribing it to my tenure is interesting,” he said.

Wynne also said the conclusions of a report by Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of naval nuclear propulsion, that is critical of the Air Force’s nuclear programs are colored by cultural differences between how the two services handle their nuclear missions. Gates cited the Donald Report as the reasons he fired Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley.

Adm. Donald “looked at us from a Navy perspective,” Wynne said. “They just see things very differently than we do.”

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For an in-depth Q&A with Wynne, see the July 21 issue of Air Force Times, on newsstands July 14.

DISCUSS: Wynne's comments