For New Air Force Secretary, a Baptism by Fire - NYTimes.com: “Think of it, you’re a young person eager to help your country, and they send you to a missile hole in the cold and tell you to be prepared to shoot, even though everybody knows it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever shoot anything,” said F. Whitten Peters, an Air Force secretary under President Bill Clinton. “With all due respect to the great people of North Dakota, it’s an acquired taste.”
In the first days of the scandal, Ms. James was adamant, said Eric K. Fanning, the Air Force under secretary, “that we would be the ones revealing the information.” He added: “In a crisis, your tendency is to close ranks, but she wanted us to do the opposite. She said, ‘There’s already suspicion about this; we need to be open with the media.’ ”