Be careful with that cake: Jittery Air Force turns 50
     WASHINGTON (September 18, 1997 09:33 a.m. EDT) -- Its feisty
 chief of staff has resigned. Its civilian leader is on her way out
 the door, and many of its aircraft are about to be grounded tempo-
 rarily because of safety concerns. But the Air Force was celebrat-
 ing its 50th anniversary Thursday.
     Acting in the wake of five military air crashes in four days,
 Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered the Air Force and its sister
 services to halt training flights for a one-day period over the
 coming week, beginning early Friday.
     That decision allowed the Air Force to go ahead with the fly-
 overs and other events scheduled around the globe Thursday, marking
 the birth of America's youngest military service. The Department of
 the Air Force was established when President Truman signed the
 National Security Act of 1947 and the Army Air Corps became the
 Air Force.
     But the anniversary comes as the service has struggled through
 a rough year.
     --The service's No. 2 officer -- Gen. Ralph Eberhart -- is at
 the helm instead of Gen. Ronald Fogleman, the outspoken chief of
 staff who resigned in July. He cited differences with the Pentagon
 leadership over placing blame on an Air Force officer for the 1996
 terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 19 airmen at Khobar
 Towers in Saudi Arabia.
     --Secretary Sheila Widnall, the only female civilian head of a
 military service, is leaving next month to return to academia. She
 has served since the beginning of Clinton's first term.
     --On Wednesday, Cohen ordered all military services to take a
 24-hour break in training flights to review safety procedures. His
 order followed a series of air crashes -- among them the spectacular
 breakup of an Air Force F-117A stealth fighter at an air show in
 Maryland and the collision of a German military plane and an Air
 Force C-141 flying a humanitarian mission to Africa, killing nine
 Americans. And, two Air National Guard F-16s collided Tuesday off
 New Jersey, but no one was killed.
     Nevertheless, Widnall insisted Thursday: "This is one of our
 best safety years. ... But in something like aircraft safety, there
 is always room for improvement." She said the stand-down would be
 "an appropriate time for our units to reflect on the inherent
 dangers of flying military aircraft."
     This spring, the service dealt with the bizarre case of an A-10
 pilot who flew off course during a training exercise and slammed
 his plane and its bomb cargo into a Colorado mountainside. Then the
 service took a flogging over the removal of the service's first
 female B-52 pilot, 1st Lt. Kelly Flinn, for adultery and
 disobedience.
     That was followed by the controversy surrounding one of the ser-
 vice's top stars -- Gen. Joseph Ralston, who was tapped to become
 the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but whose candidacy
 was derailed after he acknowledged conducting an adulterous affair
 years ago.
     Too, the Air Force blamed its own commanders and pilot error for
 the April 3, 1996, crash in Croatia of an Air Force jet -- an acci-
 dent that claimed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others.
     Overall, the service is facing a time when its pilots are flee-
 ing to get high-paying jobs with the airlines.
     The officer nominated to take over from Fogleman, Gen. Michael
 Ryan, told senators Tuesday that during the latest round of promo-
 tions, 107 captains notified the promotion board they did not want
 to be considered for major, so they could leave the service.
     "I have great concern over those numbers," Ryan told the
 lawmakers.
     He's not the only one who's concerned.
     "We know that when airlines come hiring, we become the tail on a
 very big dog," Widnall said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
 She said the Air Force has "tried to determine ... the important
 things to pilots. We're trying to put some things in place that will
 make it possible to stay with us. Nobody stays in the United States
 Air Force just for the money."
     Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who was at the Pent-
 agon on Wednesday to sign his latest book, "The Next War," said he
 believes the Air Force is being asked to do too much, with too
 little.
     "They are not funded well enough to buy what is necessary for
 the future. And their morale is down. I'm very concerned," he said.
 "But the Air Force is a great organization. I hope conditions
 improve."
     Earlier this week, Cohen kicked off the service's week of cele-
 brations by saying that despite the military's difficult times, no
 one should doubt "that the future of the Air Force and that of air
 power is bright and indeed boundless."
     Cohen said the service should revere its 50-year history and the
 military's air pioneers, such as Billy Mitchell, Chuck Yeager, Jimmy
 Doolittle and Hap Arnold.  The defense secretary listed accomplish-
 ments the service's 380,000 members should all take pride in, such
 as the first flight of its new tactical fighter, the F-22 "Raptor,"
 saying its stealth and advanced avionics "will make it nearly
 invincible."
     Cohen also lauded the B-2 stealth bomber, the service's satel-
 lites, unmanned aerial vehicles and its work on even more advanced
 weaponry in the next century.
     "The Air Force must continue its move from a brute force to a
 brain force," he said.
 ----------------------
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------