U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, is to retire after the White House recently withdrew his nomination as service vice chief of staff.
In a LinkedIn post last Wednesday, Bussiere said he and his wife “made the difficult decision to request retirement from the United States Air Force for personal and family reasons.”
“I am deeply honored to have been nominated for vice chief of staff of the United States Air Force and profoundly grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by the President,” Bussiere wrote.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Dale White, the military deputy to acting Air Force acting acquisition chief William Bailey, is a candidate to be the new vice chief nominee, a source said.
Defense Department and White House-mandated attendance by flag officers to hear addresses by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump this week at Quantico Marine Base, Va. did not factor in Hegseth’s decision, sources told Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily.
On Tuesday, the White House nominated Gen. Kenneth “Cruiser” Wilsbach, the former head of Air Combat Command, to replace Gen. David Allvin as Air Force chief of staff.
Bussiere was also a candidate for that position, and his LinkedIn post came a day after the White House’s Wilsbach announcement.
Founded to improve nuclear weapons handling after incidents in 2007 and 2008, AFGSC, based at Barksdale Air Force Base (AFB), La., is the service component of the U.S. Strategic Command and helps shepherd a number of top tier Air Force programs, including the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel future intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, the RTX AGM-181 Long Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear cruise missile to fly aboard the B-21, and modernization of the U.S.’ 74 Boeing B-52H bombers.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published this story.