The senior uniformed Air Force officer is responsible for the organization, training, and equipage of nearly 700,000 active-duty, guard, reserve, and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas. This statement describes the 18th Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley’s final position in the Air Force. A position that took decades of determination, courage, decisiveness, and loyalty to his country. A level of trust and responsibility to command such a force was bestowed by President George W. Bush for astonishing vision stellar leadership.
Considering this, in 2008, President Bush relieved General Moseley due to meager leadership decisions and unethical practices. Chief of Staff #18 was a simultaneously a visionary leader and unethical leader. Over the course of this essay, we’ll examine Moseley’s visionary leadership through cognitive flexibility as he reenergized our Air Force by implementing new strategies and eliminating inefficient practices. Then, we’ll discuss how Moseley’s transformational leadership traits inspired the Air Force to embrace their Warrior Ethos. Afterward, we’ll view how Moseley’s Air Force lost nuclear cruise missiles by breaking numerous ethical codes. Finally, we’ll discuss how General Moseley fell into the loyalty syndrome by trying to award a fifty-million dollar contract to a former colleague. A little over a decade ago, congress decided to reduce our force and cut our budget, while we simultaneously maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Air Force was stretched to the max and falling apart.
This is where Moseley showed strength in the change management element of cognitive flexibility. He incorporated different thinking strategies and mental frameworks into each Airman’s planning, decision making, and day-to-day activities by introducing the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century Program. By doing this, the Air Force became focused on generating efficiencies and improving combat capabilities. The team’s balanced approach increases every Airman’s productivity and allows them to quit doing activities that don’t add value to the mission. It keeps more equipment ready for service with shorter response times, helps eliminate accidents, injuries and breakdowns, and improves energy efficiency. Simply put, we were able to do more, with less, by cutting out inefficient practices. The Air Force was able to accomplish more, save money/resources, while at the same time decreasing their manning.
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After nearly 6 years of fighting wars, Moseley saw the Air Force losing focus with our training, heritage, culture, mental readiness, and physical readiness. Simply put, we were losing sight of our warrior ethos. Moseley defines our warrior ethos as “the warfighting-focused culture, conviction, character, ethic, mindset, spirit, and soul we foster in all Airmen.” This is when Moseley used the transformational leadership trait to inspire followers by establishing a shared vision and displayed a strong commitment to organizational values, which is what we learned about in the student guide lesson. Moseley implemented a few initiatives which challenged us to embody our warrior ethos.
This includes creating a culture to promote warrior in Basic Military Training, Officer Training School, and at the Air Force Academy. During this time the Air Force also dedicated the Air Force Memorial in Washington, D.C. as a reminder of Airmen’s courage, valor, and sacrifice. Finally, physical fitness was added to the Professional Military Education curriculum at each level. These organizational values that we are committed to, define who we are and personify our warrior ethos. As a result, the Air Force grew stronger, more resilient, and increased readiness throughout the world. Ethical codes are intended to be central guides and references for users in support of day-to-day decision making. These codes include the Core Values, the Oath of Enlistment, Air Force Instructions, and the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. On August 29th, 2007, numerous ethical codes were broken to include a multinational nuclear treaty.
That day, a B-52 departed Minot on a routine flight to Barksdale. The following day, a young Airman discovered the plane was carelessly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said “This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards. We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken.” Moseley showed lack of oversight in regulating our force, and as the Chief of Staff he had to step up, and take responsibility of these actions. As a result of this incident, the Air Force disciplined 70 Airmen that were directly involved, to include 4 officers.
Throughout Moseley’s time in the Air Force, he built many close relations with the men and women he served with. One of those friendships, was with Hal Hornburg, a retired general and former commander of Air Combat Command. Hornburg went on to partner with a company called Strategic Message Solutions (SMS). SMS was pitching a new fifty-million dollar multimedia system for the Thunderbirds. This is where Moseley became caught in an ethical trap that clearly portrayed traits of the loyalty syndrome, stemming from an ethical dilemma. The loyalty syndrome is defined as making decisions based on respect and/or loyalty to an individual, unit, or organization rather than on military rules, regulations, and codes of conduct.
Moseley reportedly, exchanged emails, shared dinners, and even stayed with his wife at the personal residence of some SMS executives. Eventually, the contract went to bid against another company that proposed twenty-five-million dollars, which was half of what SMS was proposing. Shockingly, SMS won the contract, but it was eventually cancelled after a general counsel revealed the unethical practices. Then, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, said “I am deeply disappointed that our high standards were not adhered to in this case. This is not how the Air Force does business, and we are taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again”.
