The Air Force has hired former USA Today reporter Dave Moniz as part of a revamping of its internal and external communications function. Moniz is serving as a senior public affairs adviser, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Air Force subsumed public affairs, readers may recall, under a new communications department, being led by Brig. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel III, a command pilot who was last heading plans and programs for Air Force Materiel Command, but who also served on the PR front lines as multi-national force spokesman in Iraq.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.