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U.S. Air Force (USAF) Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley (along with USAF Secretary Michael Wynne) was forced from office June 5, in the wake of mounting tensions with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Few were surprised, given the way things had been going at the Pentagon, but Moseley’s tenure especially is emblematic of an ongoing shift in the U.S. Air Force.
Moseley is a fighter pilot. He moved to F-15s early in his career, only a few years after the craft reached initial operational capability — when the F-15 was the plane to fly. Airpower was his experience and dominated his vision for the USAF. While the official story of Moseley’s departure had little to do with his wings, deeper underlying forces are at work. The gentler voices inside the USAF began saying that Moseley had mortgaged the USAF’s future on the next-generation F-22 Raptor stealth fighter by trimming tens of thousands of airmen from its ranks and tightening belts at every corner — including shuttering its innovative battle labs — to pay for the expensive airframes. (Others say less charitable things about the USAF selling its soul.) Some have claimed that recent mishandling issues were symptomatic of neglect due to these very cuts.
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