Air Force chief criticizes Senate hold on promotions
Gen. John Jumper says lack of action is "disruptive to lives and to change of commands" at a time when "the nation is at war and the troops look to their leaders."
A Senate hold on promotions and transfers of senior officers because of the continuing controversy over the Air Force's attempt to lease Boeing refueling tankers is "disruptive to lives and to change of commands" at a time when "the nation is at war and the troops look to their leaders," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper said Tuesday.
Jumper told a defense writers' breakfast that the Air Force will work with the Senate when the 109th Congress convenes in January "to do the very best we can to convince the leadership of the Congress that we can get by the problems we have with any specific member."
Senate Armed Services member John McCain, R-Ariz., has blocked the promotions or reassignments of several Air Force and other defense officials, saying he believes the Pentagon is refusing to provide all the information he wants for his investigation of the tanker lease effort.
Former Air Force acquisition executive Darleen Druyun and a senior Boeing official have pled guilty to criminal charges stemming from Druyun's pushing a controversial lease deal in exchange for a high-paying job at Boeing.
"The Air Force has turned over everything we have to OSD," Jumper said, referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office. "It goes through a process. ... It's out of the hands of the Air Force and is going up through the reporting chain."
Jumper said he has not seen the RAND analysis of alternatives to meet the Air Force's need for new tankers to replace its 40-year-old KC-135 planes. He said the Defense Department has decreed there will be a competition for the tanker program and the Air Force is prepared to follow that directive. European aerospace giant EADS wants to offer a modified Airbus airliner to compete with Boeing's 767 tanker proposal.
Jumper acknowledged "there will be a competition for funding" among any tanker replacement and new fighter aircraft such as the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter. "We'll have to deal with it," he said.
On another topic, Jumper said the persistent problems with sexual assaults and sexual harassment at the Air Force Academy partly reflect the nation's "contemporary culture" rather than a unique problem in his service.
"The Air Force Academy issues center around, first of all, the contemporary culture, which is more promiscuous," he said. But Jumper added that the problems also were caused by "standards that had lapsed" within the academy.