CommunityEditor
06-11-2008, 03:53 PM
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — In his 1½ years as Pentagon chief, Robert Gates has made a mark ders of the military services at a pace not seen before in the modern era of the U.S. military.
His acts of accountability stand out in a Bush administration that has not enjoyed a reputation for holding senior officials — military or otherwise — to account when they fall short of meeting certain standards.
Soon after Gates replaced Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary in December 2006 he forced Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign, saying Harvey had not acted swiftly or boldly in response to revelations of shoddy care for wounded war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In his six years leading the Pentagon, Rumsfeld fired only one top service official: Thomas White, the Army secretary, who had crossed Rumsfeld on issues relating to modernizing Army forces. In 2003 Rumsfeld weakened Gen. Eric Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, but he did not remove him.
Gates is adamant in cautioning against equating his firing decisions with a lack of support for the overall performance of the military, including the Air Force, which he essentially decapitated by ousting its top civilian official, Michael Wynne, and its top uniformed officer, Gen. Michael Moseley, on the same day last week.
But he also leaves little room for doubt that when it comes to issues like those that brought down Moseley and Wynne — mainly a failure to reverse a record of shortcomings in the Air Force’s nuclear mission — he will not hesitate.
“There is simply no room for error in this mission,” he told airmen at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on Monday.
Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_gates_061008/
His acts of accountability stand out in a Bush administration that has not enjoyed a reputation for holding senior officials — military or otherwise — to account when they fall short of meeting certain standards.
Soon after Gates replaced Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary in December 2006 he forced Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign, saying Harvey had not acted swiftly or boldly in response to revelations of shoddy care for wounded war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In his six years leading the Pentagon, Rumsfeld fired only one top service official: Thomas White, the Army secretary, who had crossed Rumsfeld on issues relating to modernizing Army forces. In 2003 Rumsfeld weakened Gen. Eric Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, but he did not remove him.
Gates is adamant in cautioning against equating his firing decisions with a lack of support for the overall performance of the military, including the Air Force, which he essentially decapitated by ousting its top civilian official, Michael Wynne, and its top uniformed officer, Gen. Michael Moseley, on the same day last week.
But he also leaves little room for doubt that when it comes to issues like those that brought down Moseley and Wynne — mainly a failure to reverse a record of shortcomings in the Air Force’s nuclear mission — he will not hesitate.
“There is simply no room for error in this mission,” he told airmen at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on Monday.
Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_gates_061008/