Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 4 - 2005
Chief seeks boost in Blue's Intel presence ny N Gaudiano Chief seeks boost in Blue's Intel presence BY: Nicole Gaudiano, Air Force Times* 11/01/2005 Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley announced two major organizational changes Oct. 27 that will expand and redefine the service's intelligence and communications fields. In an interview with Air Force Times, Moseley said he will recommend a lieutenant general to lead the intelligence field, while increasing personnel and standing up separate intelligence directorates within the service's warfighting headquarters being developed around the world. The current director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is Maj. Gen. Ronald Sams. Moseley also announced he stood up a new Office of Strategic Communications, doubling the Pentagon's 56-member public affairs staff with new divisions under the leadership of a two-star general instead of a one-star. "I think we can do a better job with the talent we've got," Moseley said. Moseley's intelligence announcement comes at a time when a record number of career intelligence colonels - at least 23 - are retiring from the service, due in large part to a glass ceiling they face in trying to make general, Air Force intelligence sources have said. The number of Air Force intelligence generals has declined steadily since the early 1990s, and none of the intelligence directors in any of the 11 major U.S. military joint-services unified commands and staffs is a member of the Air Force. They are Army or Navy officers with intelligence backgrounds. That means, at a time when all U.S. military operations overseas are joint-service operations, the Air Force has lost its seat at the table in joint intelligence planning and decision-making, even with regard to its own air and space operations. "I've just concluded that the Air Force can contribute more than it is," Moseley said. He added that he wants to expand the career field - it's uncertain by how many members - and groom more general officers such as Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the Air Force's senior intelligence officer who now is the principal deputy director of national intelligence in Washington, D.C. "I would like at the end of the day to be able to build a dozen Mike Haydens," Moseley said. At that level, intelligence officers could work on combatant commanders' staffs, the National Security Agency, interdepartmental agencies and joint task forces. "There seems to be so many more opportunities if we think about this a little differently," Moseley said. After fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Moseley said he has "absolute faith" in the Air Force intelligence community. But he wants a larger group that is better prepared with regional expertise and language skills, groomed to be competitive for better opportunities to partner in the joint world. He said he wants them to have more experience in dealing with unmanned aerial vehicles and new sensors "and to be able to think slightly differently about how to operate better in a world that is cyberspace, where much more information flows at the speed of light across so many mediums." Moseley's announcement came the same day National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte announced his new blueprint for improving intelligence gathering and assessment. "The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America: Transformation through Integration and Innovation" promotes increased teamwork among the 15 government organizations involved in clandestine activities, according to a Defense Department press release. Moseley said he has not yet decided who he will recommend as the deputy chief of staff to refocus and redirect the intelligence community, but he said a name could be announced in the next couple of months. He said he also is researching what type of rebalancing of career fields it will take to expand intelligence. The new Office of Strategic Communications, he said, stood up on Oct. 27, and four divisions will absorb the current public affairs office and open up "more opportunities for the public affairs career field." Messengers wanted The Air Force will send more airmen for graduate programs in communications, embed more members for brief educational stints with news or public relations companies, and teach all airmen in all educational courses and training "something about how to be a messenger" and "how to interface with media," Moseley said. Moseley said he recommended Brig. Gen. Erwin F. "Erv" Lessel III, the director of plans and programs at Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to lead the office as a major general. His pick for Lessel's brigadier-general deputy is Col. Michelle D. Johnson, a pilot and Rhodes scholar who now is personnel director at Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. "These are wonderful people and they're perfect for this job," he said. The new divisions in the Pentagon will reshape how the Air Force represents itself in a "new media world," with everything from blogs to traditional media, he said. "Current operations" will continue to respond to media requests and write news releases. "Future operations" will conduct communications research so the Air Force can respond to big-picture issues, such as the Quadrennial Defense Review. "Outreach" will handle community relations events, while another division will manage the rest. "It's an integral part of conducting operations in today's world," Moseley said. Glenn W. Goodman, editor of C4ISR Journal, contributed to this report. |