‘Tireless advocate’ for the Air Force to leave undersecretary post
Gina Ortiz Jones, the No. 2 civilian in charge of the Air Force, will leave her job in a few weeks, but her bosses at the Pentagon gave no reason for the sudden departure.
A one-time congressional candidate from San Antonio, Ortiz Jones has been undersecretary of the Air Force since the early days of the Biden administration. In that job, she has been responsible for organizing, training and equipping air and space forces and for 700,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian personnel.
Ortiz Jones oversees the department’s $173 billion annual budget and directs strategy and policy development, risk management, weapons acquisition, technology investments and human resource management across the service.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall praised her as “a tireless advocate for the Department of the Air Force and its people” and said “her leadership in enabling all airmen, guardians and their families to serve to their full potential and providing the resources they need has enhanced the readiness of the Air and Space Force for years to come.”
The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request to explain why Ortiz Jones, a Filipina who is the first woman of color to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force, is leaving her job. She will be replaced by Kristyn Jones, assistant secretary of the Air Force for financial management and comptroller, who will hold the position on an acting basis.
Jones is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran who is gay and served in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era. Almost a year ago, she issued a statement reminding service members that the Air Force could help protect them from ANTI-LGBTQ state initiatives, such as one in Texas that raised the possibility of child welfare investigations against parents with transgender children. The guidance Jones issued said the service would use medical, legal and other resources to support its personnel who run into such problems.
“We are closely tracking state laws and legislation to
ensure we prepare for and mitigate effects to our airmen, guardians and their families,” Jones said, using “guardians” as the official shorthand for members of the U.S. Space Force. “Medical, legal resources and various assistance are available for those who need them.”
Her message appeared to have been at least in part a response to an order by Gov. Greg Abbott that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services investigate parents providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.
Issued in February 2022, the governor’s directive cited an opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton that said such care, which includes hormone therapy and has been sanctioned by the nation’s mainstream medical associations, constitutes child abuse.
Jones twice ran as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House seat representing Texas’ 23rd congressional district but was defeated by incumbent Republican Will Hurd in 2018 and Tony Gonzales in 2020. In the race against Hurd, Jones came within 1,000 votes of unseating him.
Her matchup with Gonzales, a one-time Navy cryptologist, was not close, with him winning the race by nearly 12,000 votes.
She deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an intelligence officer. It backed close air support missions in the theater of war.
After leaving the Air Force, she advised U.S. Army South’s 470th Military Intelligence Brigade on Joint Base San Antonio-fort Sam Houston.
Jones also worked with the Defense Intelligence Agency as a member of U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, before running for Congress and had been open about the difficulties of serving as a gay airman during the widely criticized “don’t ask, don’t tell era,” which saw thousands of troops kicked out because of their sexual orientation.
She graduated near the top of her class at John Jay High School, winning a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship to Boston University. There, she studied economics.
“I served in the Air Force and in Iraq under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Jones tweeted after the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that LGBTQ individuals are protected from job discrimination. “I know what it is like to face discrimination at the workplace.”