Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in the context of "Curtis LeMay"

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is a part of the United States Department of Defense and is one of the six armed forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established by transfer of personnel from the Army Air Forces with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

The Department of the Air Force, which serves as the USAF's headquarters and executive department, is one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the secretary of defense and is appointed by the president with Senate confirmation. The highest-ranking military officer in the Air Force is the chief of staff of the Air Force, who exercises supervision over Air Force units and serves as one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As directed by the secretary of defense and secretary of the Air Force, certain Air Force components are assigned to unified combatant commands. Combatant commanders are delegated operational authority of the forces assigned to them, while the secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Air Force retain administrative authority over their members.

The United States Department of the Air Force (DAF) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Air Force was formed on September 18, 1947, per the National Security Act of 1947 (codified into Title 10 of the United States Code) and it is the military department within which the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force are organized.

The Department of the Air Force is headed by the secretary of the Air Force (SAF/OS), a civilian, who has the authority to conduct all of its affairs, subject to the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense. The secretary of the Air Force's principal deputy is the under secretary of the Air Force (SAF/US). Their senior staff assistants in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force are five assistant secretaries for acquisition, technology & logistics; financial management & comptroller; installations, environment & energy; manpower & reserve affairs; and space acquisition & integration and a general counsel. The highest-ranking military officers in the department, and senior military advisers to the secretary, are the chief of staff of the Air Force and chief of space operations.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of a chairman, a vice chairman, the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Each of the individual service chiefs, outside their Joint Chiefs obligations, works directly under the secretaries of their respective military departments, e.g. the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy, and the secretary of the Air Force.

Following the Goldwater–Nichols Act in 1986, the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have operational command authority, either individually or collectively, as the chain of command goes from the president to the secretary of defense, and from the secretary to the regional combatant commanders. Goldwater–Nichols also created the office of vice chairman, and the chairman is now designated as the principal military adviser to the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the president.

The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, (SecAF, or SAF/OS) is the head of the Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for the United States Air Force and United States Space Force. The secretary of the Air Force is a civilian appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The secretary reports to the secretary of defense and/or the deputy secretary of defense, and is by statute responsible for and has the authority to conduct all the affairs of the Department of the Air Force.

The secretary works closely with their civilian deputy, the under secretary of the Air Force; and their military deputies, the chief of staff of the Air Force and the chief of space operations.

Civil control of the military is a doctrine in military and political science that places ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making in the hands of the state's civil authority, rather than completely with professional military leadership itself. As such, a "fundamental requirement of any nation is to ensure that the activities of its armed forces be subordinated to the political purposes of constitutional government; hence, the armed forces must be under civil control". The concept of civil control falls within the overarching concept of civil-military relations representing the "societal imperative that the military remain subordinate to civil authority and that it reflect, to an appropriate degree, societal values and norms".

Civil oversight over militaries puts the power to take military action in the hands of a civil authority, such as through government ministers or legislative bodies, or the democratic apparatus of the Crown in constitutional monarchies. Allowing the civil component of government to retain control over the military or state security illustrates the power of the citizenry, a healthy respect for democratic values, and what can be described as good governance. Giving power to the civil component of the government over what the military can do and how much money it can spend protects the democratic process from abuse. Nations that can achieve legitimate relationship between the two structures serve to be more effective and provide accountability between government and military.

The under secretary of the air force (USECAF, or SAF/US), sometimes referred to as the under secretary of the Department of the Air Force, is the second-highest ranking civilian official in the Department of the Air Force of the United States of America, serving directly under the secretary of the air force. In the absence of the secretary, the under secretary exercises all the powers and duties of the secretary and serves as acting secretary when the position of secretary is vacant. The under secretary of the air force is appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The secretary and under secretary, together with two military officers (the chief of staff of the air force and the chief of space operations), constitute the senior leadership team of the Department of the Air Force.