Reporter's Notebook

Nervous airmen at Peterson

Seconds before Defense Secretary Robert Gates walked into the base theater at Peterson Air Force Base, Col., a nervous silence befell the crowd of about 400 extremely nervous airmen.

Airmen didn’t have to say a word. The dark circles under their eyes from a weekend that probably included quite a few duty hours and the sullen look on their faces told the story. Just like at Langley Air Force Base, Va., airmen understood the gravity of Gates’ decision to essentially decapitate its service’s leadership and start from scrap.

Gates warned that further disciplinary actions including firings would occur based on the results of Adm. Kirkland Donald’s nuclear report, and it seemed many in the crowd were either afraid for their jobs or someone they knew.

The rank makeup sitting inside the base theater also told the story over how serious Space Command officials were taking Gates’ visit. It’s not atypical to have a lot of rank in the crowd, but there is usually at least a couple airmen first class sitting amongst the master sergeants and above. Today, not a junior enlisted airmen could be found. Maybe they were worried one might pull out their cell phone and start playing video games in the middle of the speech much like the one at Minot during the nuclear surety inspection last month.

Once Gates reached the podium, he delivered almost the same exact speech he gave to Langley airmen except for a couple additional comments regarding missileers who make up a chunk of the command.

At the end of the speech Gates again asked the press to leave for the Q&A session with airmen to allow for a “comfortable exchange of ideas.” Although I can’t imagine many, if any, questions were not rigorously checked and rechecked by base leadership.

Kudos to any airmen who had the guts to have a question pop into his mind and then ask the defense secretary off the cuff two weeks after he canned that airman’s two bosses.

I can imagine the secretary will receive a warner reception at the next base, Scott Air Force Base, Ill., which Gen. Norton Schwartz, Gates’ nominee to lead the service, calls home.