Gates makes changes with Air Force command

Gen. Norton Schwartz, currently the head of U.S. Transportation Command, is the new pick to become the Air Force’s chief of staff. Michael Donley has also been nominated to be the Air Force’s No. 1 civilian leader. Donley is currently the Pentagon’s director of administration and management.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Monday announced the shuffle at the Pentagon — several days after he forced the resignation of Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, and Michael Wynne, the air service’s secretary, over several mishaps with nuclear weapons.

{mosads}Meanwhile, Gen. Duncan McNabb, the current vice chief of staff of the Air Force, will take over for Schwartz at U.S. Transportation Command under Gates’s recommendation. Gates also recommended that Lt. Gen. William Fraser, currently the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, be the new vice chief of the Air Force.

“I am confident that Mike Donley, Gen. Schwartz and the new Air Force leadership team have the qualifications, skill and commitment to excellence necessary to guide the Air Force through this transition and beyond,” Gates said in a statement.