Changing the Face of the Military

Gen. Craig McKinley of the U.S. Air Force is ensuring that the next generation of leaders in the National Guard understands and leverages the power of diversity.

His career focus on diversity evolved a bit more slowly. McKinley joined the military after college in 1974, serving on active duty in the Air Force for almost seven years before he joined the National Guard. He has been the organization’s chief for three years following a four-year appointment by President George W. Bush.

The National Guard Bureau, composed of some 460,000 men and women in the U.S., Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, has members of the Air Force and the Army who serve state governors when at home and go into federal service when mobilized.

“I happen to serve at a time when our nation is involved in a two-front war — Iraq and Afghanistan — and a few other hot spots around the world where the National Guard still serves in a federal status: Kosovo, the horn of Africa and the Sinai. We have soldiers and airmen stationed in those areas,” he said. “The challenge right now is trying to keep all our kids alive and well-trained and well-equipped and well-led so they can survive combat. This year also has been a very tough year at home with the number of natural disasters that we’ve had — heat, tornadoes, floods, fires.”

McKinley has 54 governor-appointed adjutants general — a kind of board of directors — who he works closely with as he resources, plans strategy, issues orders and works programs such as diversity for the respective states.

He said growing up as a white male after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he watched America go through some tough times. The Vietnam War, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march and his assassination as well as those of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy; he said these events left an imprint on people and contributed to how the military tackled diversity as an organization.

For instance, he said there weren’t many women in the military in 1974, but by 1984 he was training female fighter pilots, “which was exactly the right thing to do.”
Equal opportunity and treatment training classes also were mandated, and in 1976, with just 500 hours of flight time under his belt, the Air Force asked McKinley to become an equal opportunity and treatment officer.