Air Force Magazine Archive 

Bull-Free Zone
“The only thing that will make [President Obama] angry is ... if we are not straight with him, if we don’t tell him what is on our mind. In other words, if we don’t offer him our best military advice. I know with certainty that each of us have taken that mandate to heart.”
—Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, discussing a takeaway from the first meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with President Barack Obama on Jan. 28, 2009, during a meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2009.

Celebrate Airmen’s Work
“In my view, ‘in lieu of’ was an inherently pejorative term. It implied that somehow, the work that our kids were doing was not worthy. And I object to that. The truth of the matter is our kids are contributing to the fight. This is something we should celebrate."
—Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, telling reporters why he renamed in-lieu-of assignments as joint expeditionary taskings, Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2009.