WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday announced his intent to nominate Shon Manasco as the Air Force undersecretary.
Manasco is currently the Air Force’s assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, but he has been acting in the role of undersecretary since December, when former Air Force Under Secretary Matt Donovan stepped into the position of the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for personnel and Readiness.
The White House statement announcing Trump’s intention to nominate Manasco did not mention when the president would officially tap him for the job. However, it could takes weeks or months for Manasco to move through the confirmation process, as the Senate is not set to get back into session until May 4 and has a backlog of nominations to move through.
Despite holding leadership roles in the Air Force, Manasco graduated from West Point in 1992 and served as a U.S. Army officer for part of his career, including a command position at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was director of finance and accounting for the Office of Military Support from 1995 and 1997.
Manasco also has experience in the private sector, most recently as executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the United Services Automobile Association. There, “he led the association’s business solutions, information technology, and innovation organizations, as well as corporate services, enterprise cyber and physical security, procurement, and business alliances,” according to the White House.
Valerie Insinna is Defense News' air warfare reporter. She previously worked the Navy/congressional beats for Defense Daily, which followed almost three years as a staff writer for National Defense Magazine. Prior to that, she worked as an editorial assistant for the Tokyo Shimbun’s Washington bureau.
