Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin selected the service’s next senior enlisted leader Dec. 11, the service announced—Chief Master Sgt. David A. Flosi will become the 20th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force when current CMSAF JoAnne Bass departs.
“Our Airmen deserve the best leaders possible—and that’s Chief Flosi,” Allvin said in a statement.
Flosi is the current Command Chief Master Sergeant of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In that role, he advises the AFMC commander on issues affecting roughly 89,000 Airmen. In a statement, the Air Force said Flosi was the “clear choice” out of a group of command chief master sergeants from across the service to become the Air Force’s senior-most enlisted member.
Enlisted Airmen make up roughly 80 percent of the Active-Duty Air Force, and Flosi will be charged with advocating for their interests.
“He is a phenomenal leader and wingman who will empower our total force,” Allvin said. “His unique experiences, attitude, and commitment will prove essential as we re-optimize our force for great power competition.”
The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force serves as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Department of the Air Force leaders on personnel matters, such as welfare, morale, quality of life, and other issues that affect Airmen. The CMSAF also serves as the public face of the force to Congressional leaders and other levels of government.
“We are serving at a time of great consequence where success hinges on our ability to optimize this team toward the changing character of war,” Flosi said in a statement.
Flosi’s career began in 1996 as a nuclear weapons specialist, and he has held various leadership duties in conventional and nuclear munitions as well as missile operations, program management, and test and contingency operations, the Air Force said. He deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Inherent Resolve, and Freedom’s Sentinel. Flosi has served in his current role since October 2021.
“The Department of the Air Force relies on our Senior Enlisted Advisors to represent the needs and perspectives of all our enlisted Airmen and Guardians, the majority of our force,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in the statement. “I have high confidence that Chief Flosi will build upon the great example provided by his predecessors and serve with distinction as our 20th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.”
Bass will soon close out her tenure. The first woman to serve as CMSAF, she has been the Air Force’s highest-ranking noncommissioned leader since August 2020.
“Chief Flosi is an incredibly strong leader who has proven himself in every role at every level,” Bass said. “I have no doubt he will continue building and developing our Air Force to be the future force our nation needs to compete, deter, and win in any domain.”