President 
Obama appointed Jamie Morin to serve as acting undersecretary of the Air Force. Morin temporarily fills the leadership void now that Erin Conaton, Air Force undersecretary since March 2010, has moved on to become the Pentagon’s new undersecretary for personnel and readiness issues. “I appreciate the opportunity to make a difference for the Air Force and our nation while also digging more deeply into critical issues like space programs, energy efficiency, [Department of Defense] management reform, and the Air Force budget,” said Morin in a July 5 release. The appointment came on July 3. Morin has served as the Air Force’s assistant secretary for financial management and comptroller since 2009. He will serve in the acting position until the President nominates a new undersecretary and the Senate confirms the nomination, according to the release. Marilyn Thomas, the principal deputy in the Air Force Secretariat’s budget office, will assume many of Morin’s assistant secretary duties during this time, states the release.
How Airmen and Guardians prepare for and perform operations may be very different, but the Air Force and Space Force’s models for generating those forces aren’t all that dissimilar in their focus on readiness and teamwork, leaders said March 5 at the AFA Warfare Symposium.