THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                     (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                       June 2, 1999

               PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES F. WHITTEN PETERS AS
                        SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE

The President today announced his intent to nominate F. Whitten Peters to be Secretary of the Air Force.

Mr. F. Whitten Peters, of Washington, D.C., has been Under Secretary of the Air Force since November 1997. Prior to his confirmation, Mr. Peters was the Principal General Counsel for the Department of Defense, and Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel). Prior to coming to the Department of Defense, he was a partner in the law firm of Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., since 1978. Mr. Peters' areas of practice included general civil litigation, white collar criminal law and government contracts. A 1968 graduate of Harvard College, he served as a Navy line officer from 1969 to 1972. In 1976, Mr. Peters graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review. He then clerked for Judge Skelly Wright on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice William Brennan on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Secretary of the Air Force is the senior civilian in the organization, and as such, is responsible for all matters of Air Force manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, installations, environmental issues, weapons systems and equipment acquisition, communications, and financial management for the 380,000 active duty and 115,000 civilian Air Force personnel.

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