Air Force Museum
USAF Chiefs of Staff
The Chief of Staff is the senior uniformed officer of the U.S. Air Force and provides military advice, leadership, and oversight for the service. This institutional display places successive chiefs in a shared chronology. Changes in their portraits, careers, and tenures parallel the Air Force's development across the Cold War, regional conflicts, space operations, and modern global missions.
In depth
History & service
The Department of the Air Force manages all elements of the U.S. Air Force. It is administered by a civilian secretary appointed by the president and is supervised by a military chief of staff. The chief of staff, U.S. Air Force, is appointed by the president from among the Air Force general officers, with the consent of the U.S. Senate, normally for a four-year term. He is the principal advisor to the secretary of the Air Force.
He presides over the Air Staff, and transmits Air Staff plans and recommendations to the secretary of the Air Force and acts as the secretary's agent in carrying them out. He is responsible for the efficiency of the Air Force and the preparation of its forces for military operations. He supervises the administration of Air Force personnel assigned to unified organizations and specified commands. Also, he supervises support of the forces assigned by the Air Force as directed by the secretary of defense.
He serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Armed Forces Policy Council. In the JCS capacity, he is one of the military advisors to the president and the National Security Council and the secretary of defense.
Details that tell the story
Senior uniformed office in the U.S. Air Force · Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff · The chronology reflects changes in the service over time
What survives after the mission
A museum object begins a second life when it stops performing its original job. An aircraft that once carried a crew becomes a place for public memory. A jacket, letter, medal, or small piece of equipment can preserve a much more intimate connection. The object is valuable both for what it reveals physically and for the documented story that gives it meaning.
Famous aircraft and individuals can make a complicated history approachable, but they are only part of it. Many people left no celebrated machine behind. Memorials, personal possessions, unit records, and photographs help recover the experiences of those whose service was less visible. They also preserve loss, separation, captivity, recovery, and the consequences of war for families and communities.
Preservation involves choices. Restoring an aircraft may make its design easier to understand, while retaining wear or damage may protect evidence of its use. A reproduction can explain how a machine worked, provided its identity remains clear. Linking objects across collections helps fill the gaps created when surviving material is dispersed. A uniform in one gallery, an aircraft in another, and a memorial elsewhere can illuminate the same history from different directions. The result is more than a record of machines: it is a way to keep the people, decisions, and experiences connected to them in view.
