Trump taps Arizona exec for secretary of Air Force
Barbara Barrett, the former ambassador and Arizona gubernatorial candidate who married the former CEO of Intel, will be nominated to be the next secretary heading the U.S. Air Force.
President Donald Trump announced his decision with a tweet on Tuesday.
“I am pleased to announce my nomination of Barbara Barrett of Arizona, and former Chairman of the Aerospace Corporation, to be the next Secretary of the Air Force,” Trump tweeted. “She will be an outstanding Secretary! #FlyFightWin.”
Barrett, 68, of Paradise Valley, is a
certified jet pilot and is the first civilian woman pilot to land an F-18 fighter on an aircraft carrier. She is close to Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., a retired Air Force combat pilot.
If confirmed by the Senate, Barrett would replace Heather Wilson, who is stepping down from the post she’s held since 2017 to head the University of Texas, El Paso.
Barrett would be responsible for the 685,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces and be in charge of an annual budget of more than $138 billion.
Barrett would preside over a branch of the military grappling with sexual assaults on female members, notably including McSally, who revealed she had been raped by a superior officer during her time in the Air Force. McSally, a freshman Republican, has made the eradication of sexual assaults and harassment in the military a signature issue.
McSally, who met with Barrett last week in Washington, applauded Trump’s announcement.
“Ambassador Barrett is a force to be reckoned with and who has the leadership, experience and knowledge to lead our Air Force into the future during a time of increased global threats,” McSally said in a written statement. “I have confidence that Ambassador Barrett will lead the way in maintaining air and space dominance and continue to build upon the initiatives, leadership and example set forth by Secretary Heather Wilson.”
Heading the Air Force would cap a career for Barrett in and around government that began in the early 1980s. She was an intern for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and an adviser to Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
In 1982, she was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan as the vice chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
Over the years, she has served on various nonprofit and corporate boards, including the Smithsonian Board of Regents, RAND Corp. and Aeropsace Corp.
Barrett was thought to be on Gov. Doug Ducey’s short list of possible appointees to fill the seat vacated by the death of Sen. John McCain. She was also considered to be secretary of the Air Force in 2004.
Women were not allowed to fly fighters or bombers in the late 1980s, when Barrett, who had her pilot’s license, served as a civilian adviser to the secretary of Defense. A U.S. Navy admiral asked her if she would try to land an F/ A-18 Hornet on an aircraft carrier.
She nailed the landing, becoming the first civilian woman to do so.
“Now women are routinely flying and landing F-18s and other combat aircraft,” she was quoted as saying in a 2012 Phoenix Business Journal story.
Barrett has been a prolific Republican donor, but not for Trump, according to Federal Election Commission records.
She contributed more than $500,000 just in the 2018 campaign cycle and provided a charter jet to former U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Barrett made maximum personal contributions to McSally’s campaign in the 2018 cycle.
She also contributed to other GOP candidates across the country, including Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, Joni Ernst in Iowa and Josh Hawley in Missouri.
Barrett poured at least $140,000 into various campaigns in the 2016 cycle and supported five different Republican presidential candidates, but didn’t give to Trump’s campaign at that time.
She still hasn’t, FEC records show. Barrett grew up in western Pennsylvania and traveled to Arizona for college.
“My dad … went to Arizona to be a cowboy,” Barrett said in a 2018 interview with the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette.
“He worked on several ranches out West. I wanted to see the place, so I went to Arizona. I thought I would go to Arizona State maybe a semester, then leave.”
During her college career, Barrett had an internship with O’Connor, who was then in the Arizona Senate.
In 1994, Barrett finished a distant second in the Republican primary behind then-Gov. Fife Symington despite spending $1 million of her own money in the campaign.
Is Barbara Barrett a good pick to head the Air Force? Have news to share about Arizona’s U.S. senators or national politics? Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic .com and 602-444-4712.
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