Top Air Force Official Dies in Apparent Suicide
Charles D. Riechers age 47 was found dead in his Virginia home on Sunday. He was the second highest ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office. The Senate Armed Services Committee were examining him earlier in the month after the Air Force paid him $13,400 a month by the Commonwealth Research Institute, while he waited for a review from the White House of his appointment as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. The Common Research registered as a nonprofit organization in Johnstow, Pennsylvania. They paid Riechers for two months as a senior technical adviser, but he didn’t do any work for the company. The Air Force has gone against this depiction of what Riecher did as an employee. They said that he was a retired Air Force officer, and he provided technical advice on several programs including commercial aircraft to military using and modernizing the C-130 transport plane. An expert on military at The Lexington, Loren Thompson, thinks that the suicide and the investigation are not related, but it will put more eyes on the Pentagon’s procurement system.
The Air Force was already a faced with scandal a year before Riechers was appointed. Former Air Force procurement officer, Darleen Druyun favored Boeing in contracts before being hired by the company. After this the Pentagon canceled a $23 billion deal to lease 767 tankers from Boeing. In May, Riechers told the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association’s Northern Virginia Chapter that a priority for the Air Force was to restore the credibility to the Air Force. Riechers said that Druyun’s scandal did not represent the Air Force’s acquisition system.
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces. Previously part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947.
posted by Sarah C. | 8:56 PM
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