Frank Kendall III
Secretary of the Air Force
Frank Kendall III was born in January 1949 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He earned an undergraduate degree from the U.S. Military Academy, an MS from the California Institute of Technology, an MBA from Long Island University, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University. He served in the U.S. Army and was a lieutenant colonel when he took retirement from the Army Reserve.
His Army assignments included posting to Germany and teaching engineering at West Point. He joined the civil service working as a systems engineer in missile defense.
President Barack Obama appointed him to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, a position he held for six years. In July 2021, he was named Secretary of the Air Force by President Joe Biden. He was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in August 2021.
In the News…
The new B-21 Raider that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced a year ago has begun to be delivered to Air Force bases. Of the five bombers that have been in production at Northrop Grumman in California, Secretary Kendall has designated Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, Whiteman AFB in Missouri, and Dyess AFB in Texas to receive the new aircraft.
At the time he originally announced the new stealth bomber, Secretary Kendall said they anticipated it replacing the B-1 and B-2 to become “the backbone of the Air Force bomber fleet.”
The Air Force also recently announced the plan to establish a new Space Force nuclear wing at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. Secretary Kendall stated, “If our one-team… is going to win the one fight to keep our freedom, it will be because of the success of our Air and Space Forces.”
