Defense Secretary Robert Gates fires Air Force's top 2 officials
A report on another mishap regarding nuclear materials triggers the decision to dismiss the Air Force secretary and chief of staff. Tension between Gates and the service branch have been growing.
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sacked the two top officials of the Air Force today on the heels of a report about a nuclear mishap that sharply criticized how the service handles nuclear weapons technology.
Gates said he asked for the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne because the service's leadership did not demonstrate sufficient urgency about the job of securing the Pentagon's nuclear arsenal, even after a high-profile mishap that occurred last year.
In that incident, a B-52 bomber crew unknowingly flew six nuclear warheads across the country, a mistake that was uncovered only after the weapons went missing for days.
Even afterward, however, the department discovered another misstep: It had accidentally shipped parts from a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan.
"This incident represents a significant failure to ensure the security of sensitive military components," Gates said at a Pentagon news conference, referring to the Taiwan shipment. "More troubling, it depicts a pattern of poor performance."
The resignations come as tensions between the Air Force and Gates have been growing for months. Gates and his advisors have criticized Air Force officers for focusing too much on long-term security threats and not enough on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Air Force officers have pushed in recent months to purchase more advanced F-22 fighter jets and have resisted requests to put more unmanned aerial vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both issues have irritated Gates.
Asked at the news conference whether the previous tensions contributed to his decision to dismiss Wynne and Moseley, Gates insisted the dismissals were based solely on a report he had received last week on the Taiwan shipment.
The parts shipped to Taiwan included four electrical fuses used to trigger a nuclear weapon aboard American missiles. The fuses were shipped to Taiwan by the Defense Logistics Agency, but the Air Force provided the fuses.
The fuses were sent to Taiwan in 2006. The mistake went undetected until March of this year.
A report on the mistaken transfer is classified, but officials briefed on the findings said it was highly critical of Air Force handling of nuclear technology.
A senior Defense official said that Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England met today with Wynne. Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Moseley.
In his resignation letter, Wynne said he has long been an advocate for accountability within the Pentagon, and as a result accepted his fate.
"I have to live up to the same standards I expect from my airmen," Wynne wrote.
Moseley's letter, by contrast, did not mention the nuclear incident, and simply stated his intention to retire on Aug. 1.
"It has been the highest honor to serve our country in the company of so many outstanding men and women," Moseley wrote.
Air Force officers have watched with frustration as Gates has delivered a series of speeches seen as critical of the service. In their view, the Air Force has made valuable contributions to the war, including technology that allows ground troops to see full-motion video shot from predator drones.
They also argue that the Air Force has pushed ever more unmanned planes into the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan.
julian.barnes@latimes.com
