WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, moving quickly to replace top Air Force leaders for sloppy handling of nuclear weapons and components, is expected to name a top aide, Michael B. Donley, to become Air Force secretary, defense officials said yesterday.
Donley is a former Special Forces soldier and paratrooper who has held senior Air Force and national security positions at the Defense Department and White House.
He currently serves as the defense secretary's chief administrative troubleshooter at the Pentagon.
Gates, who abruptly ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders Thursday, will travel to two major Air Force bases Monday to underscore his demand for tight accountability in the handling of nuclear components, aides said.
If confirmed by the Senate, Donley would replace Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, whose resignation Gates obtained Thursday.
No top contender has emerged as the new Air Force chief of staff to replace Gen. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, who also announced his intention "to step aside."
Within the ranks, the reaction to Gates' crackdown has been, "What took you so long" to hold senior officers accountable for the recent embarrassing blunders, said an Air Force officer who asked not to be identified.
"The feeling is, phew!" the officer said.
Gates will hammer home his message in visits Monday and Tuesday to Langley Air Force base in Virginia, the headquarters of the Air Combat Command, and to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., headquarters of the Air Force Space Command.
He will also visit Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, home of the Air Mobility Command.
He will "reinforce the message of the supreme importance of safeguarding the nation's nuclear arsenal," said Geoff Morrell, Gates' spokesman. Gates will tell assembled airmen that the Air Force "has to do a much better job in that area," Morrell told reporters yesterday.
Gates took the unprecedented step of removing the Air Force's senior leadership after he received a classified Pentagon report on two recent incidents involving the Air Force losing track of nuclear weapons and components.
The report detailed the results of an investigation by Adm. Kirkland H. Donald, head of Navy nuclear programs, into an incident last August in which the Air Force mistakenly loaded four nuclear-tipped missiles on a B-52 bomber and flew them unwittingly from Minot Air Force base in North Dakota to Louisiana's Barksdale Air Force base.
