# United States Air Force *Air service branch of the United States Armed Forces; in this record, the subject of one at-issue entry concerning a Minnesota legislator's service history.* The United States Air Force is the branch of the U.S. armed forces organized for air operations, and it sits within the Department of Defense. Its lineage runs to an Army Signal Corps unit formed on 1 August 1907. The National Security Act of 1947 made it a separate service, staffed by personnel transferred from the Army Air Forces.[^1] Its reserve elements include the Air Force Reserve Command and the Air National Guard.[^1] The Air Force enters the Minnesota record through the service history of David Kleis, a member of the Minnesota Senate from 1995 to 2005. The [[Legislature]]'s Legislative Reference Library lists U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve service in its record for him.[^2] A research dossier for the project's Stearns County package had been commissioned on the premise that Kleis was a [[Minnesota State Patrol]] trooper. It found no source supporting that premise and entered a correction.[^3] The record compiled here shows no other connection between the Air Force and the State of [[Minnesota]]'s programs. It also shows none between the Air Force and the federal actions against the State. Those actions include the suit announced by the [[United States Department of Justice]] on 14 January 2026 in release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified that case as a matter of general public importance.[^4] ## Who The Department of the Air Force, one of three military departments in the Department of Defense, administers the service. A civilian secretary of the Air Force heads the department and answers to the secretary of defense. The secretary is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The under secretary, four assistant secretaries and the general counsel are also presidential appointees who require Senate consent.[^1] The chief of staff of the Air Force is the senior uniformed officer. The chief of staff supervises Air Force units and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Some components are assigned to unified combatant commands, whose commanders hold operational authority over them. The secretary and the chief of staff keep administrative authority over those members.[^1] ## What Section 9062 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code states the service's purpose as, in part, "to preserve the peace and security, and provide for the defense, of the United States".[^1] The service lists five core missions: - air superiority - global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - rapid global mobility - global strike - command and control It describes their aim as "global vigilance, global reach, and global power".[^1] The documented record of the service's nuclear mission stands beside that self-description. After a 2007 nuclear weapons incident, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates accepted the resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. In 2014, morale problems and testing and cheating scandals arose among missile launch officers. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James then acknowledged a "systemic problem" in the service's management of the nuclear mission.[^1] ## When On 1 August 1907 the War Department formed the first predecessor unit inside the Army. By World War II, the Army Air Forces operated almost as an independent branch.[^1] President-signed on 26 July 1947, the National Security Act created the Department of the Air Force. The service became formally independent on 18 September 1947, when Stuart Symington took office as the first secretary of the Air Force. The act's National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense in 1949.[^1] ## How much The cached Wikipedia revision lists a budget of $179.7 billion. It does not give the year to which that figure applies.[^1] ## How many As of the cached revision (retrieved 27 October 2026), the service's personnel were listed as follows:[^1] | Category | Number | |---|---| | Active-duty airmen | 321,848 | | Civilian personnel | 151,360 | | Reserve airmen | 68,927 | | Air National Guard airmen | 105,104 | | Civil Air Patrol auxiliaries | about 65,000 | The same revision lists about 5,500 aircraft, an estimated 4,131 of them in active service, and 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.[^1] As of 28 August 2015, the Air Force Reserve Command comprised 35 flying wings, four flying groups and 67 flying squadrons. Across the active force and the Air Reserve Component, the service had 302 flying squadrons.[^1] ## In the at-issue record At-issue entry AI-Stearns-061, in the project's Stearns package, records the error and its correction. The commissioning brief for that package had identified its central figure as a Minnesota State Patrol trooper. The entry records that he was not. Its sources are the Legislature's database, retirement coverage and a congressman's floor tribute, and all of them record U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve service.[^2][^3] The entry gives two source domains, lrl.mn.gov and wjon.com.[^3] The entry states that the correction is printed rather than dropped. It is anchored to the March 2025 White House presidential action on eliminating information silos. The entry cites that action for the principle that "the auditor's own record must be as open as the auditee's".[^5] The underlying dossier states that no located source ties Kleis to the State Patrol. It therefore omits the law-enforcement-to-legislature arc from its analysis.[^3] It adds that "An absence of located evidence is not proof of absence."[^3] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - **David Kleis.** The Legislative Reference Library record gives the following details:[^2] - Senate District 16 (1995–2002) and District 15 (2003–2005) - Assistant Minority Leader in the 82nd and 83rd Legislatures - 3,969 legislative days - Committee assignments including [[Crime Prevention and Public Safety]] and [[Children, Families and Learning]] - B.A. from [[St. Cloud State University]] - U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve service The record compiled here does not state his party. - **Other sources.** The project's dossier names three further sources describing the same service: WJON's retrospective, Rep. Emmer's House floor tribute and a KSTP exit interview. The URLs for those three sources are not part of this record.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *United States Air Force* (revision 1382151694, retrieved 27 Oct. 2026) — origin and establishment dates, organization, statutory purpose and core missions, the 2007 incident resignations and the 2014 statement, and budget, personnel, aircraft and squadron figures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force [^2]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Legislators Past & Present*, record for David Kleis — Senate District 16 (1995–2002) and District 15 (2003–2005); Assistant Minority Leader, 82nd–83rd Legislatures; 3,969 legislative days; committee assignments; B.A., St. Cloud State University; U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve service. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10326 [^3]: Kleis Apex Dossier (1 Sept. 2026), §III, correction C-1, and at-issue entry AI-Stearns-061 — every located biographical source describes Air Force and Air Force Reserve service and none ties Kleis to the State Patrol; the primary record cited is the Legislative Reference Library legislator record. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10326 [^4]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — release title; Attorney General Bondi's certification of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^5]: The White House, *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (Mar. 2025) — the anchor of at-issue entry AI-Stearns-061. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/