The Chief of Staff’s Bible is a tradition literally as old as the Air Force itself, but one very few have ever even heard of.
On his first days in office, the general in charge of the newly formed United States Air Force bought a Bible that’s been a part of every swearing in ceremony for Chiefs of Staff for nearly 80 years.
And in it contains the signature of all of the Air Force’s top general officers—the Chiefs.
“No documented history of the Bible exists,” Ann Stefanek, Media Operations Officer at Air Force headquarters told We Are The Mighty. “But a verbal history of the Bible maintains the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz purchased the book to be used in official swearing-in ceremonies.”
Spaatz became the Air Force’s first Chief of Staff on Sept. 26, 1947— a mere eight days after the National Security Act of 1947 created the service. Since then, each of his successors signed the Bible on their last day in office.
The story goes that when the Pentagon was evacuated during the attacks of September 11, 2001, Gen. John P. Jumper, who had only been in the office for a few days to that point, rescued the Bible when he evacuated the office.
It was reportedly the only item he took with him.
On June 22, 2016, Gen. Mark Welsh III, the 20th Chief of Staff, signed the Chief of Staff’s Bible, then walked out of the Pentagon with his wife by his side as the airmen who served with him cheered.
On July 1, the Air Force had a new Chief, Gen. David L. Goldfein. He mentioned the historic Bible in his first message to the Air Force under his command and how the relic reminded him of his obligation to his airmen.
“During my swearing in today I had the chance to put my hand on the chief’s Bible,” he said in a video posted to YouTube. “This is a book that’s been on display in the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s office and every chief on his last day in office signs the book. For me it was a real reminder that I stand on the shoulders of these giants; men who’ve led our air force with courage with compassion. And so my commitment to you as your 21st Chief in the 21st century is that I will work every day to be a leader of character I’ll leave nothing on the table.”
The names on the Bible’s pages include famous Air Force chiefs Spaatz, Curtis LeMay, and even the controversial Merrill McPeak, whose changes to the service’s dress uniform made him one of the most unpopular figures in Air Force history.
While the book remains an unofficial, undocumented tradition, in 1951 the Air Force Officers Wives Club donated a velvet-lined wooden box in which to store the Bible.
Both the Bible and the box are still on display in the Air Force Chief of Staff’s office.
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