Orlando, Fla.—Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said he hopes to brief Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on the findings of a command-directed investigation into alleged cheating at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., on March 1. Speaking to reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium here Thursday, Wilson said Air Education and Training Command Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes, who is leading the investigation, already has visited all Air Force ICBM bases as well as the training base at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. In addition, he expects the initial assessment from the five force improvement teams on March 3. Each team already has reported receiving “very, very good support” at each of the bases they’ve visited, said Wilson, who said he’s “very encouraged by that.” Finally, Air Force officials are in the process of reaching out to families of those in the missileer force as well as leadership to determine what “issues are affecting them.” That information will be combined with the results of the command-directed investigation and given to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to be incorporated into his overall roadmap for improving the nuclear enterprise, which is due March 23, said Wilson. “We’re going to get after it. There are things we need to fix and we’re going to fix them,” said Wilson.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.