He is an alumnus of the National War College, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a 1994 Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Seminar XXI.

His operational background goes back to the final days of the Vietnam War; at the time, he was a crew member taking part in the 1975 airlift evacuation of Saigon.

[7] By 1991 he was chief of staff of the Joint Special Operations Task Force for Northern Iraq during the first Gulf War.

[9] Schwartz then contacted the commander in charge of the Canadian NORAD region, Lieutenant General Angus Watt and discussed the possibility of diverting the Korean Air 747 into Whitehorse, Canada since the 747 was running low on fuel and headed toward U.S. territory.

[10] In October 2002 following the assignment within the Alaskan Command, Lieutenant General Schwartz was promoted into Joint Staff J-3 director for operations which assists the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff about the current United States Armed Forces operations and plans.

[9] During his tenured as TRANSCOM Commander General Schwartz also coordinated with commercial airline in cooperation for providing military airlift.

Especially knowing that this was a complex process in which it required close collaboration with doctors, hospitals and evacuation crews.

However following the nuclear weapons incident in 2007 which resulted in the relieved of Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley, Schwartz was elevated into the position of the United States Air Force Chief of Staff and named his successor.

[15][16] General Schwartz is the first Air Force Chief of Staff with a background as an airlift and special operations aircraft pilot.

It is speculated that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates selected him because he did not have a background as a fighter or bomber pilot.

As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Schwartz functioned as a military adviser to the Secretary of Defense, National Security Council and the President.

[17] General Schwartz also estimated that in the future, 85 percent of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles would have a huge role within the Air Force and its operations.

[19]One of the primary goals of Air-Sea Battle Doctrine was interoperability of air and naval forces that could execute networked and integrated in-depth attacks in order to disrupt, destroy and ultimately cripple or defeat the enemy's anti-access/area denial capabilities to sustain and protect the operations area within the Indo-Pacific Region.

General Schwartz argued that to ensure the success of this doctrine, improved training, tactics and communications technologies between the Air Force, Navy and Marines, would be needed to allow them to work together better, during both wartime and non-combatant operations.