On January 4, 2015, the Daily Beast revealed an undated internal memo to Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh from General Herbert „Hawk“ Carlisle stating that pilot „outflow increases will damage the readiness and combat capability of the MQ-1/9 [Predator and Reaper] enterprise for years to come“ and added that he was „extremely concerned.“ Eleven days later, the issue got top billing at a special high-level briefing on the state of the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James joined Welsh to address the matter. „This is a force that is under significant stress—significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations,“ she told the media.