Air Force leadership lacks diversity

WASHINGTON — The senior leadership of the Air Force remains largely white and male despite an emphasis on diversity in the service and throughout the military, according to data and interviews with service leaders.

The Air Force has 280 generals, but just 18 of them belong to minority groups. That includes two Hispanic officers, or less than 1% of the total. The 13 African-American generals make up 4% of the Air Force's general officer corps.

The Pentagon's other branches, including the Army, share the same struggle to diversify their forces, a priority of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. A key concern for the Army resides in the lack of minority officers leading its combat battalions and brigades. That's where lieutenant colonels and colonels are groomed for top leadership jobs, indicating the lack of diversity among combat leaders could persist for years.

The Air Force has a similar problem among its wing commanders. Commanding a wing is considered by the Air Force to being a near-prerequisite to becoming a general. Of the 135 wings, there are four black officers in charge, according to Air Force data, or less than 3%. In all, the current class of wing commanders is 93% white and 91% male.

Air Force Secretary Deborah James, in a statement to USA TODAY, acknowledged the problem.

"We value diversity," James said. "However, the statistics tell a different story. As a service we need to do better at achieving greater diversity of thought and experiences in leadership positions."

The Air Force, with few exceptions, traditionally has drawn its top leaders from combat pilots, especially those who fly fighter jets. Its chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, is an F-16 and A-10 pilot. Gen. Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied commander in Europe and leader of European Command, is also an F-16 pilot.

To be sure, not all of the top Air Force leaders are white men, or even pilots. Its No. 2 officer, Gen. Larry Spencer, the vice chief of staff, is an African American. Two women are four-star officers: Gen. Lori Robinson, who commands Pacific Air Forces; and Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, who leads materiel command.

But the surest path to the top, as in the Army, is leading front-line combat units.

"We're not that much different than the Army in that the combat arms part of our Air Force has traditionally been where we have drawn our most senior leaders," said Gen. Darren McDew, the four-star officer in charge of Air Force Air Mobility Command, a C-17 pilot and an African American. "It's because those combat arms have a natural link to the operational part that is the core of the service."

The Air Force's 9,000 combat pilots are at least 87% white. More officers declined to identify their race, 5%, than the next highest minority group, African Americans, at 3%. Nearly 94% are men. The military, as a whole, is dominated by men at 85% of its personnel.

WHY DIVERSITY MATTERS

James and Welsh issued a memo to airmen on why greater diversity is needed in the service. It also outlined several initiatives aimed at expanding the ranks of women and minorities in the Air Force.

"This approach is necessary because our increasingly diverse citizenry places a special trust in us and we must keep that trust by ensuring our Air Force is representative of the best of the populace from which we draw our considerable strength," the memo says.

Beyond better representing the United States, the Air Force views diversity as necessary for effectiveness. It loses out on talented minorities and women when they're underrepresented, said Chevalier Cleaves, the Air Force director of diversity and inclusion and a retired KC-135 tanker pilot.

"Diversity and inclusion are national security imperatives," Cleaves said. "So we must succeed. There is no second place for us. In order to do that, we need to make sure that we leverage the talent of all Americans, not just some."

For McDew, diversity of experience and thought lead to better decisions.

"In the 33 years I've been doing this, I've found you get a better solution if the people around the table aren't all mimicking back to you what you've said," he said. "What I want is a group of people who will come at it from a different angle, who will challenge what I'm thinking. And force me to think differently. I believe that's what diversity gets you."

WHY FEW MINORITY PILOTS

McDew cites several factors limiting minority interest in joining the Air Force and the military in general. Among them: teachers, coaches and clergy who don't view military service as an option for young minority students. Members of Congress often don't take advantage of the opportunity to nominate high school minority students to the military academies.

The lack of role models — the few top black officers — can also discourage potential officers from joining the military, he said.

McDew said his path to senior leadership is instructive. For him, the military was a natural fit. "I was born an airman," he said. His father was an Air Force master sergeant, the family moved around the country and overseas to his posts.

"I grew up seeing a very diverse Air Force, because our enlisted force is quite diverse," McDew said. "It's actually quite representative, I believe, of America."

Air Force enlisted personnel are much more diverse than their officer counterparts. About 70% of enlisted airmen are white and 15% African American; nearly 19% of its enlisted ranks are women.

Gifted in math and science, and encouraged by a teacher, McDew won a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship.

"Then I go to a military school that is deeply rooted in the old South, the Virginia Military Institute," McDew said. "When I attended, they still played Dixie. They still waved the rebel flag. Out of my 420 classmates, I can't believe there were 20 of us who were not white males when I started. When we graduated, there were three of us."

That same "tyranny of small numbers" of women and minority officers exists today, McDew said. "For every single person you lose, you may lose 25% You may lose a whole cohort."

Changing the face of the Air Force will take years, he said.

INITIATIVES FOR DIVERSE LEADERS

James has announced several initiatives this spring, including identifying enlisted airmen for officer-training school who show the "ability to lead in a diverse and inclusive Air Force culture."

To keep talented women in the service, the Air Force is considering extending the period in which they can defer deployments after having a baby from six months to one year. Women with four to seven years in the Air Force leave the service at twice the rate of men, often citing family and deployment concerns.

"The bottom line for me in this is leadership and developing the next generation of leaders," McDew said. "I believe that cohort of leaders ought to look like America, and I believe that it can."