Michael W. Wynne
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Michael Walter Wynne (born September 4, 1944) is an American politician and business executive and was the 21st
United States Secretary of the Air Force The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, (SecAF, or SAF/OS) is the head of the Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for the United States Air Force and United S ...
.
Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
Robert Gates asked for and received his resignation (and that of Chief of Staff
T. Michael Moseley Teed Michael "Buzz" Moseley (born September 3, 1949) is a retired United States Air Force general who served as the 18th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. He is a fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours in fighters and trainer ...
) on June 5, 2008, in the wake of the
2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident On 29 August 2007, six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and transport ...
and the mistaken shipment of
Minuteman III The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and re ...
parts to
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
in 2006, followed by an investigation by and a critical report from Admiral
Kirkland H. Donald Kirkland Hogue "Kirk" Donald (born September 15, 1953) is a retired Admiral (United States), Admiral in the United States Navy, who in his last assignment served as the Naval Reactors, dual-hatted position of Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion an ...
regarding the Minuteman incident.
Michael B. Donley Michael Bruce Donley (born October 4, 1952) is a United States government official who is the director of administration and management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense since May 2021, having served in the same position from 2005 to 2008 ...
, Department of Defense Director of Administration and Management, was nominated to replace Wynne by President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
on June 9, 2008.


Early life and family

Wynne was born in
Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a populat ...
, and raised in Melbourne, Florida. He is the younger brother o
1st Lt. Patrick Edward Wynne
call sign "Ozark", MIA August 8, 1966, in Vietnam, declared dead in 1974, Socialist Republic of Vietnam returned remains to Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command March 18, 1977.


Military and business career

Wynne graduated with the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
class of 1966 and served in the Air Force for seven years, ending his career as a captain and assistant professor of astronautics at the
United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...
. In 1999 Wynne had retired as senior vice president from General Dynamics, where his role was in International Development and Strategy. He had rejoined the company at the invitation of the chairman to strengthen international activities. In between working with General Dynamics, he spent three years with Lockheed Martin, having sold the General Dynamics' Space Systems Division to then Martin Marietta. He successfully integrated the division into the Astronautics Company and became the general manager of the Space Launch Systems segment, combining the Titan with the Atlas Launch vehicles. Wynne spent a total of 23 years with General Dynamics in various senior positions with the Aircraft (F-16s) and Main Battle Tanks (M1A2) Divisions, and served on the corporate staff prior to becoming the president of Space Systems, including Launch Vehicles (Atlas and Centaur), and a corporate vice president. Prior to joining the
Bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...
Administration, Wynne was involved in
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
. He nurtured small technology companies through their startup phase as a member of the NextGenFund Executive Committee, and served in executive positions of two of those companies.


Government service

In July 2001, Wynne was confirmed as Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and in May 2003 he was appointed as acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. In this role, Wynne was the principal staff assistant and adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters relating to the Department of Defense Acquisition System, research and development, advanced technology, developmental test and evaluation, production, logistics, installation management, military construction, procurement, environmental security, and nuclear, chemical and biological matters. As Secretary of the Air Force he was responsible for the affairs of the Department of the Air Force, including the organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of its nearly 370,000 men and women on active duty, 180,000 members of the
Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...
and the
Air Force Reserve The Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) is a MAJCOM, major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force, with its headquarters at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It is the federal Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the U.S. Air Force, consisting of ...
, 160,000 civilians, and their families.


Renewable energy

Wynne is a prominent proponent of
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
, and supported the Air Force's continued leadership in clean energy procurement. In an Air Force brochure on the topic, Wynne wrote:
The reliance on imported oil continues to threaten the economic, financial and physical security of the nation while the use of domestic fossil fuels contributes to nationwide pollution problems. The Air Force believes that development of renewable energy sources for facility energy is one important element of our comprehensive strategy.
The USAF is the nation's 16th leading user of electricity from renewables.


Non-lethal weapons

Wynne advocated testing nonlethal weapons, such as high-power microwave devices, against American citizens before being used on the battlefield, saying "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation ecauseif I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."


Resignation from the Department of the Air Force

On June 5, 2008, Robert Gates announced that he had accepted the resignation of Michael Wynne as Secretary of the Air Force because of "a decline in the Air Force's nuclear mission focus and performance" and "lack of a critical self-assessment culture". Gates specifically cited two incidents in which the Air Force had lost track of nuclear weapons or parts; in one incident, nuclear weapons fuses had been mistakenly sent to Taiwan when helicopter batteries had been ordered, and in the other, the
2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident On 29 August 2007, six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and transport ...
, a B-52 bomber had been flown across the country armed with six nuclear-armed cruise missiles that no one realized were on board. Wynne responded that the report on the event was colored by the cultural differences of the Navy admiral,
Kirkland H. Donald Kirkland Hogue "Kirk" Donald (born September 15, 1953) is a retired Admiral (United States), Admiral in the United States Navy, who in his last assignment served as the Naval Reactors, dual-hatted position of Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion an ...
, who prepared it.


Later service

In June 2020, President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
announced Wynne's appointment to the Board of Visitors of the United States Air Force Academy. Wynne was later asked by President Joe Biden to resign in September 2021.


Writing

Wynne has published numerous professional journal articles relating to engineering, cost estimating and contracting. Wynne has called on the United States to fund the development of both designs for the KC-X, a step that Dan Goure of the Lexington Institute says would even more delay to the long overdue project.Talbot, George
"A simple solution to the Air Force's tanker quandary."
'' al.com'', December 1, 2010.


Education

*1966:
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
degree in
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
,
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
,
West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
*1970:
Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
degree in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
, Air Force Institute of Technology of Air University, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
*1975:
Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
degree,
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...
, Colorado Springs


Career chronology

#June 1966 – June 1973, Air Force officer #July 1973 – May 1975, principal, Research Analysis and Development (RAD), Inc. #July 1975 – May 1994, various executive positions with General Dynamics #June 1994 – March 1997, Lockheed Martin, Denver #July 1997 – October 1999, senior vice president,
General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
,
Falls Church, Virginia Falls Church is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Wash ...
#December 2000 – July 2001, chairman and chief executive officer, IXATA Group,
McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...
#July 2001 – October 2005, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C. (May 2003 – April 2005, also served as acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) #April 2005 – June 2005, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C. #November 2005 – June 2008, Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C.


References


External links

* *
City of Satellite Beach
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynne, Michael 1944 births Living people United States Secretaries of the Air Force United States Military Academy alumni United States Air Force officers Air Force Institute of Technology alumni George W. Bush administration personnel University of Colorado alumni People from Clearwater, Florida People from Melbourne, Florida Florida Republicans