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Schwartz retires after a career spanning nearly four decades. As he left his office in the Pentagon for the final time Thursday, he was greeted by more than 200 Airmen and civilians who lined the hallways as a tribute, the Air Force reports.

His final year was peppered with problems at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, which has been roiled by accusations that instructors sexually assaulted female recruits, and with pilots reporting a lack of oxygen in the F-22 Raptors, a problem that grounded the planes and has since been tracked to a glitch with the vests pilots wear.

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