Pentagon Ethics Boss Cheers Air Force Academy Moves

Rear Adm. Peg Klein, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s senior advisor for military professionalism, said the Air Force Academy is taking great steps to improve military training ethics with the recent changes announced by academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson. Klein said in an interview with Colorado’s The Gazette following her speech at the Military Reporters and Editors Conference in Washington, D.C., the changes in the Air Force are “good things” that “aren’t being absorbed by our sister services.” Commanders, she said, “see themselves as only responsible to history,” and so they are less attentive to concerns of ethics. A key first step is making sure young officers and cadets “know how to police themselves,” Klein said. “I owe them some good ways to do that.” Also of importance is promoting a sense of institutional pride and loyalty among cadets that will help hold them accountable. (See also DOD Seeks to Purge Toxic and Unethical Leaders.)