Its hard to find a single guy from this period of 1990 to 1995 that can say a single positive word about this general. Last year I ran into some retired O-6 who was on one of McPeak’s staffs in the late 1980s, and he said two or three favorable things....then I brought up the dozen negatives....and he kinda nodded...and suggested that McPeak could be handed the Mona Lisa painting...and he would have suggested or found some way to “fix or improve” the painting....and that was his undoing. As this guy suggested...there was an entire generation of field officer that came up in the early 1990s and saw this behavior...thinking it would get them promoted. The idea still works today...with no one satisfied over any program.
This retired officer then told of the amusing requirement as a Lt in SAC....he was given a simple 2-page regulation and told to take a month to update or improve it. At the end of the four weeks...he made four suggested changes...adding two lines to the regulation. The SAC officer over him looked at the four changes...tossed out two of them, and accepted the final two. That was the third change in the regulation in fifteen years. That was how he learned to only change what needs to be changed...then move onto bigger and better things...like preparing to fight wars.
What I remember about McPeak is that he kept everything in constant chaos and turmoil. He changed the regulation numbering system, he changed the specialty codes, he changed the uniforms, he mandated that all regulations be only a single page - and they ended up being 5 pt type with no margins to meet some capricious standard that he made up. His decisions were arbitrary and not well thought out. They cost the taxpayers billions and wasted incalculable time and resources when the Air Force didn’t have them to spare. Every regulation in the Air Force had to be rewritten to meet his ridiculous whims. All of this detracted from the mission and hurt readiness.