Braxton Taylor
President-elect Donald J. Trump has named his pick for Air Force secretary, finally announcing the last service secretary nominee under his administration.
Trump said on social media Thursday that Troy Meink, currently the principal director of the National Reconnaissance Office, was his choice to be the 27th secretary of the Air Force, which also oversees the Space Force.
“I am pleased to announce that Dr. Troy Meink will be the next United States secretary of the Air Force,” Trump wrote Thursday in a social media post. “Troy will work with our incredible secretary of defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, to ensure that our nation’s Air Force is the most effective and deadly force in the world, as we secure peace through strength.”
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Meink joined the Air Force through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at South Dakota State University in 1998. He served as a KC-135 Stratotanker navigator and instructor, as well as a lead test engineer for the Missile Defense Agency, according to his past service biography.
Other roles he’s held include deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space under President Barack Obama’s administration and also director of signals intelligence systems acquisition for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Meink also completed 100 sorties, eight combat and 29 combat support missions supporting Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Provide Comfort, his biography detailed.
Policy and defense experts told Military.com on Thursday that Trump’s selection of Meink showcases the importance that the president-elect puts on space in his national defense policy. He made creating the Space Force, which is under the Department of the Air Force, a major defense priority during his previous term.
“Clearly, there is focus on space,” retired Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Military.com. “That’s evident.”
Meink did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the National Reconnaissance Office declined to provide any information.
The South Dakota native, if confirmed by the Senate, will replace Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who made a farewell speech this week and will leave office Sunday.
In his last major public appearance, Kendall highlighted the need for a bigger Space Force to compete against adversaries like China and Russia.
In an outgoing report he authored titled “The Department of the Air Force in 2050,” Kendall wrote that “space will be recognized as the decisive domain for almost all military operations”
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on space policy, told Military.com that Meink would be the “first space-focused” Air Force secretary ever if confirmed, which he believes is highly likely.
“He has a tremendous amount of experience with the Air Force, with the Space Force, with the intel community, and working in previous Pentagon positions. I think he is going to have a major bureaucratic advantage over the other service secretaries that have been nominated,” Harrison said. “I don’t think he’s going to face headwinds at all.”
Aviation Week, which first reported Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, also named Matt Lohmeier, a former Space Force lieutenant colonel, as the president-elect’s pick to be the service under secretary.
Lohmeier was fired from his command of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado after making comments on a podcast promoting his self-published book that claims the military was being gripped by a neo-Marxist agenda, Military.com first reported in 2021.
Lohmeier did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump had not announced the former Space Force officer’s nomination as of Thursday evening.
Related: Air Force Secretary Kendall’s Parting Advice: Military Needs a ‘Much More Powerful Space Force’
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