Michael Wynne, Dead at 82
M
ichael Wynne, the 21st Secretary of the Air Force, died Oct. 17. He was 82 years old.
Wynne was Secretary from 2005 to 2008, a stretch of time when the U.S. military was struggling to quell insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Army was struggling to simultaneously man occupation forces in two theaters. Roadside bombs and insurgent attacks were killing U.S. troops, and the Air Force was under intense pressure to support its sister service with increased intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coverage and manpower and force cuts to ease the Army’s burden.
The Air Force was also fighting to protect its modernization efforts at the time, especially the F-22 Raptor program, which was less than halfway to its objective of 750 planes, new tankers (which would ultimately become the KC-46), and a future bomber (which would eventually yield the B-21).
In 2006, an Air Force B-52 took off from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and flew to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., its crew unknowingly carrying nuclear weapons on board, a so-called “bent spear” incident. The discovery kicked off an investigation, recriminations, self-examination, and subsequent organizational, procedural, and cultural changes across the nuclear community.
The incident added to the tension between the Air Force and then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who saw the service and particularly then-Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Moseley as recalcitrant in their pushback over budget, manning, and modernization. Seeing Wynne and Moseley as a close knit tandem, Gates fired both in June 2008, beheading the service—the first-ever simultaneous removal of a service chief and secretary.
Wynne hailed from a military family and followed in his father’s footsteps to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Instead of joining the Army, however, Wynne joined the Air Force, reporting for Active duty in August 1966. That same day, his brother Maj. Patrick Wynne, USAFA Class of 1963, was shot down over Vietnam. He was declared missing and remained so until 1977. He is buried at the Air Force Academy.
The younger Wynne served seven years in the Air Force, was an assistant professor of astronautics at the Air Force Academy, and left to work for General Dynamics. For the next 26 years, he was a defense executive there and with Lockheed Martin.
In 2001, Wynne joined Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon leadership team. He was Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, and in 2003 became Acting Undersecretary.
In June 2005 he was named Air Force Secretary. As Air Force Secretary, Wynne opposed efforts to consolidate and adopt joint basing, having come to embrace the Air Force’s explanation that many of its units operate and fight from their home bases rather than deploy to forward theaters.
“The Air Force has a very different concept of operations,” he told Air Force Magazine in 2008, weeks after his departure. Putting Air Force bases under the control of other services would undermine combat effectiveness, he said, adding, “I’d probably get fired again over my objection to the way the joint basing is happening.”
Wynne was a visionary, said Richard Andres, a professor at the National War College who worked with Wynne in government. Wynne’s ideas presaged numerous future defense initiatives, Andres said: “His vision of linking sensors and weapons across military domains anticipated today’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control. He was first to champion cyberspace as a warfighting domain.
After Gates replaced Rumsfeld in 2006, he and Wynne butted heads over joint basing and the F-22. “He was willing to put his position on the line,” Andres said. “He understood that the demands of the wars we were fighting could not excuse neglecting the wars we might have to fight next.”
On June 5, 2008, Wynne and Moseley were en route to a Corona meeting of Air Force leaders at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, when Gates dropped the bombshell, dismissing both.
Moseley, in an interview, recalled his close working relationship with Wynne as “a privilege and a gift.” The two tried to meet daily and they shared a perspective both in terms of their duty and vision for the service. They also became friends.
When the decision came down to fire them, both were at Scott Air Force Base, en route to Dayton for a planned Corona meeting of Air Force leadership at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Moseley was ordered back to Washington, where Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen delivered the news. In Dayton, Wynne was told to stand by for an unscheduled visit from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, who was flying in. Was England coming to discuss Moseley’s successor, someone wondered. “No,” Wynne said. “He’s coming for me.”
Two weeks later, Wynne departed the Pentagon at an official ceremony presided over by Gates, with Moseley at his side. What had been a very public firing was glossed over for public consumption as Gates pinned a medal on Wynne’s chest. At the ceremony, Wynne expressed love for the service. “But it is the people of the Air Force that make the Air Force,” he added, “so in loving the Air Force, we love the people.”