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BY ROBERT BURNS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — They might as well put up a "help wanted" sign at the Pentagon.
ociated Press
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has a number of important leadership posts to fill, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, top Navy and Air Force jobs and Rumsfeld's own policy chief.
The changes, all of which require approval by the Senate, will influence the course of the Bush administration's defense policies and the future shape of a military that is under great strain. They also will say a lot about Rumsfeld's vision for transforming the Pentagon bureaucracy.
"Secretary Rumsfeld is gradually putting his stamp on the entire Pentagon in terms of who has power and what ideas prevail," said Loren Thompson, a private analyst who closely watches the Pentagon and the military services.
At the top of the list is Rumsdef's hunt for a successor to Gen. Richard Myers as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Myers is due to retire in September, and Rumsdef also must replace the vice chairman, Gen. Peter Pace.
would be the first Marine to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman and only the second vice chairman to be promoted to the top spot. Myers was the first.
Myers, 65, and Pace, 59, have headed the Joint Chiefs since Oct. 1, 2001, at the start of the global war on terrorism. Pace
Besides Pace, a name often mentioned inside the Pentagon as a potential Joint Chiefs chairman is Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, commander of Joint Forces Command and a former senior military aide to Rumsfeld.
A more immediate concern is getting a new civilian chief of the Air Force, which is suffering what a senior official of that service, Marvin Sambur, recently described as a leadership vacuum. James Roche quit under fire as secretary in January, and since then the second-in-command, Peter B. Teets, has been the acting secretary.
Rumsfeld has recommended to President Bush that he nominate Navy Secretary Gordon England to replace Roche as Air Force secretary, said two officials familiar with the plan.
England started as Navy secretary in May 2001, then switched to the No. 2 spot at the Department of Homeland Security in January 2003, only to return to the Navy post nine months later after President Bush's choice for that job, New Mexico oilman Colin McMillan, died from what authorities called suicide by gunshot.
Fuel loss won't stop plane
AIR AND SPACE
BY JOHN MILBURN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charlie Riedel/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pilot Steve Fossett talks to a member of the ground crew as he prepares to take off in the GlobalFlyer at the Salina Municipal Airport in Salina Monday. Fossett embarked on a trip to fly the GlobalFlyer around the world nonstop without refuelling. Fossett discovered a problem with the fuel system of his custom-built plane yesterday, but decided not to stop the expedition.
SALINA — Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett decided yesterday to press ahead with his attempt to fly around the world solo without refueling, despite a serious problem with the plane's fuel system.
Fossett and his flight crew agreed yesterday afternoon to keep the GlobalFlyer in the air rather than abandoning the record-setting attempt and turning back for a landing in Japan.
Fossett discovered the problem with the fuel system of the custom-built plane early yesterday. Once the GlobalFlyer reaches Hawaii, a critical transfer of fuel from outer tanks to the plane's center booms will be complete and the team will know more precisely how much fuel is left.
Project manager Paul Moore said fuel sensors in the 13 tanks differ from readings of how quickly the plane's single jet engine was burning fuel. Moore said the crew had been forced to assume that 2,600 pounds of the original 18,100 pounds of fuel "disappeared" early in the flight.
It was not clear whether the problem was with the instruments that track how much fuel remains or if some fuel had been lost because of a leak, Fossett's team said.
Fossett, 60, still might be able to finish the flight on his original path, if a tail wind in the jet stream remains strong enough to push him across the Pacific.
He was heading east over the Pacific Ocean, and the team expected to decide last night, after reaching Hawaii, whether to continue on to the U.S. mainland, some seven hours away.
Before the fuel problem was discovered, Fossett had estimated he would complete the 23,000-mile journey at midday today. He
Fossett already holds the record for flying solo around the globe in a balloon, as well as dozens of other aviation and sailing records.
"This is a huge setback," Fossett said from the plane, according to a statement issued by his staff. "I have not that high a level of confidence at this point."
took off Monday from Salina.
The project is being financed by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson, a longtime friend and fellow adventurer.
The first nonstop global flight without refueling was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, brother of GlobalFlyer designer Burt Rutan.
NATION
Mad-cow concerns keep border closed
BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal judge yesterday blocked the reopening of the U.S. border to cattle and expanded beef imports from Canada because of mad-cow fears.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to reopen the border on Monday. But after a U.S. livestock group objected, U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull granted a temporary order preventing the action.
United Stockgrowers of America had argued that the USDA plan would pose a risk to both consumers and U.S. cattle producers.
The Associated Press
The Canadian cattle industry has been devastated by the U.S. beef ban, with losses amounting to about $5.6 billion.
Student shoots school bus driver
CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn.
— A 14-year-old boy was charged with shooting a school bus driver to death as she drove her morning route yesterday. A relative of the driver said she had reported the boy a day earlier for using smokeless tobacco on the bus.
None of the 24 students on the bus, ranging from kindergarten to the 12th grade, were hurt, even though the bus crashed into a utility pole after driver Joyce Gregory was shot.
The Associated Press