Deborah Lee James

Early life and career

James was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, in 1958. She grew up in nearby Rumson and graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in 1976. She earned her B.A. (1979) in Comparative Area Studies from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and later earned her Masters Degree (1981) in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York City.

From 1983 to 1993, James worked as a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee, where she served as a senior adviser to the Military Personnel and Compensation Subcommittee, the NATO Burden Sharing Panel, and the Chairman’s Member Services team.

During the administration of President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 1998, James served in the Pentagon as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. In that position, she was the Secretary of Defense’s senior adviser on all matters pertaining to the 1.8 million National Guard and Reserve personnel worldwide. She oversaw a $10 billion budget and supervised a 100-plus-person staff. Prior to her Senate confirmation in 1993, she served as an assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs.

For the better part of a decade, James held a variety of positions with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and from 2000 to 2001, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Business Executives for National Security. From 1998 to 2000 she was Vice President of International Operations and Marketing at United Technologies. Prior to being named Secretary of the Air Force, she served as President of SAIC's Technical and Engineering Sector with 8,700 employees. Overall, James has 30 years of senior homeland and national security experience in the U.S. federal government and the private sector.

Secretary of the Air Force

James was confirmed as 23rd Secretary of the Air Force on December 13, 2013, and officially started her tenure on December 20, 2013. In her position she was responsible for the affairs of the United States Department of the Air Force, including organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of its more than 690,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and their families, as well as disbursing the Air Force's annual budget ($139 billion in 2015).

At the beginning of her tenure she dealt with the issues stemming from the USAF budget sequestration in 2013, continued troubles with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, Congressional investigation of the USAF for its handling of sexual assaults, and a drug and cheating scandal inside the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC).

Malmstrom Air Force Base controversy

Three weeks after assuming her duties as Secretary, the news came that there were morale problems in the ranks of the AFGSC. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations was looking into alleged use of synthetic drugs by the airmen and uncovered during the probe facts of cheating on monthly proficiency exams at the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Altogether, 92 officers were identified as involved in cheating scandal.

James responded by saying, "this was a failure of some of our Airmen; it was not a failure of the nuclear mission." Over the next year, James visited the three Air Force bases that operate intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, to work with both airmen and senior Air Force officers to provide fixes to the challenges faced. James has cited USAF's inattention to the nuclear mission, to the point of using a simple test score as, "a top differentiator, if not the sole differentiator on who gets promoted," as one of the reason of morale's deterioration in the ICBM force.

She helped to establish the Force Improvement Program (FIP), a grass-roots-type feedback program designed to quickly locate actionable recommendations for positive change through one-on-one interviews and surveys, identified more than 300 recommendations for improvement. Some of the immediate improvements included funds to upgrade launch control centers, the underground bunkers where airmen and support staff serve 36-hour shifts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; more helicopter support to transport airmen to LCCs; additional manpower to help alleviate the strain on the force, as well as extra pay to attract and keep people in key missile related career fields.

Additionally, James oversaw the establishment of the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal which is awarded for providing effective nuclear deterrence for the nation.

Addressing the 2011–2013 Malmstrom Air Force Base debacle two years later at Aspen Security Forum, James said that, "We never found evidence of cheating beyond that one base, but we did find evidence of systemic problems across the board," which were addressed by increasing training, incentives and creating development opportunities.

Reducing the size of the Air Force

With a congressional mandate to reduce the size of the Air Force, James decided to make cuts to meet the mandated end strength quickly in one-two fiscal years versus over five years, in order to alleviate some uncertainty for Airmen. James addressed concerns that the downsizing was straining the force during her travels. She confirmed that the Air Force was able to achieve force size and shape goals in fiscal year 2014 alleviating the need to conduct involuntary force management programs in fiscal year 2015. This was announced during her online town hall meeting when she told airmen that she heard their concerns with regards to involuntary force management boards. The Air Force began 2014 fiscal year with 330,700 active-duty airmen, and by November 6, 2014 its end strength had dropped to 316,500 becoming the smallest it has ever been since its establishment in 1947.

RPA manning issue

James acknowledged that the Air Force is a force under strain and one of the most impacted forces specifically are those that support remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) operations. RPA operations have surged nine times over the last eight years. With increased operations tempo, expiring active duty service commitments and reductions to the force, the current environment has resulted in projections reflecting more RPA pilots departing the service than the Air Force is able to produce as replacements via the training pipeline. Balancing Air Force ISR capability with finite resources remained a top priority for James so she worked to get monthly incentive pay beginning in January 2015, which was previously not permitted for RPA pilots, to be authorized. James signed a memo increasing the monthly flight pay for 18X RPA pilots from a maximum of $650 to $1,500 per month if they stay in the RPA community beyond their six-year commitment after completion of undergraduate RPA training.

Identifying current issues and threats

In 2015, James stated that half of the Air Force pilots are "not sufficiently ready" for a fight against an opponent with "integrated air defenses and surface-to-air missiles" despite prior technology investments including fifth generation fighters F-35 and F-22. In addition to terrorism, James identified Russia as "the biggest threat" to U.S. national security.