The make-up of the eight-member National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force is now complete with the selections of former Army Acting Secretary Les Brownlee and retired Lt. Gen. Bud Wyatt, former Air National Guard director. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, chose Brownlee for the congressionally mandated panel, while SASC Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) picked Wyatt, according to the two lawmakers’ joint statement from mid-April. The other six members, announced in early April, are: Whit Peters, former Air Force Secretary; Erin Conaton, former Air Force undersecretary; retired Gen. Raymond Johns, former Air Mobility Command chief; Janine Davidson, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans; Margaret Harrell, director of the Army Health Program and a senior social scientist at RAND; and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, former assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. The commission, established in the Fiscal 2013 defense policy act, will study the Air Force’s structure to determine whether, and how, to modify it in a manner consistent with available resources. Its recommendations are due to the President and Congress next February.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3