New Air Force Commanding General Yen Ming (嚴明) assumed his post yesterday after his predecessor was demoted a day earlier regarding the misuse of public resources for private purposes.
Yen accepted the official seal of his post from Chief of the General Staff Lin Chen-yi (林鎮夷) at a changeover ceremony held at the air force’s general headquarters in Taipei.
Yen succeeds General Lei Yu-chi (雷玉其), who has been demoted to the post of deputy chief of the General Staff in charge of Air Force affairs after media reports said two days earlier that military personnel had been enlisted to serve as ushers at his son’s wedding banquet, raising questions about a possible misuse of public resources.
The reports caught the attention of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who immediately instructed the Ministry of National Defense to respond to the issue quickly and efficiently.
In a rare move, the ministry demoted Lei on Thursday and named Yen, originally a deputy chief of the General Staff, to assume Lei’s position.
Speaking at the ceremony yesterday, Lin exhorted Yen to fulfill his mission of upgrading the air force’s combat prowess and building the service into a modern, professional combat force to defend the nation’s security.
A graduate of the Republic of China Air Force Academy, Yen has worked his way up through the ranks of the air force, having served as a wing chief, an academy president, a chief of staff and a deputy commanding general.
He was promoted to the rank of general in October 2008, making him the first military officer to be promoted to the rank of general since Ma assumed the presidency.
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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