Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, the Air Force's first female four-star general, will retire this summer, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh announced on Friday.
Wolfenbarger, the daughter of an Air Force pilot, began her career in 1980 as a technical intelligence analyst in the armament division at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. She has served as head of Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, since June 2012.
On Friday, Welsh praised Wolfenbarger as a "brilliant" commander and thanked her for her service. Lt. Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, currently the top military acquisition official in the service, has been nominated as her replacement.
Wolfenbarger was only the second woman across the U.S. military services to pin on a fourth star when she was promoted to the rank of general three years ago.
In 1976, she was among the first 157 women accepted into the Air Force Academy.
"It has been my privilege and my honor to have been selected as the first a few times in my career: Starting with being in the first class of women that went to the Air Force Academy, culminating with being the first woman Air Force [general] in the United States Air Force," Wolfenbarger said Friday at the Air Force Association's 2015 Air War Symposium in Orlando.
"It has been my absolute honor and privilege – this is the most important – to lead airmen: Officer, enlisted and civilian. I wouldn't change a thing in the last three-and-a-half decades," she said.
Her experience at the academy set the foundation for the rest of her career, Wolfenbarger said in a 2011 speech in San Diego.
She described being challenged "physically, mentally and emotionally," and ultimately realizing "I could withstand those kinds of experiences and come out on the other end realizing I was far more capable that I ever thought I would be."
In 1976, cadets were welcomed to the academy by two-foot-tall letters spelling "Bring Me Men" that had been placed on the grounds more than a decade before.
One of Wolfenbarger's fellow female cadets, retired Col. Beverly Plosa-Bowser, told Air Force Times in 2012 how the service's first-female four star remained "very upbeat, very humble and very confident" even as some of the upperclassmen made it clear they did not think women belonged at the academy.
That attitude shifted over time, with male cadets in their own class coming to accept the women as colleagues with a common goal, Plosa-Bowser she said.
Through it all, "Janet was always academically on top. She was very, very capable," Plosa-Bowser said.
Wolfenbarger graduated in 1980 with a degree in engineering sciences; she went on to earn a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. She received a master's in national resource strategy in 1994.
Wolfenbarger held multiple positions in the F-22 system program office at Wright-Patterson and was the F-22 lead program element monitor at the Pentagon. She served as director of the B-2 system program for the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson. She commanded the Mobility Systems Wing of the ASC's C-17 systems group, was the service's director of the Air Force Acquisition Center of Excellence at the Pentagon and director of the AFMC Intelligence and Requirements Directorate at Wright-Patterson.
"I spent my career in acquisition/lifecycle management. I have my fingerprints on three awesome weapons systems: The F-22, the B-2, the C-17. I'm hopeful that my legacy will be partly those weapons systems and the length of time they'll stay in the inventory," Wolfenbarger said Friday.
"I think I've also had the time to affect our system – to make it better as a result of having gone through the work that I've done on those primary weapons systems."
At the National Museum of the Air Force earlier this month, Wolfenbarger was inducted into the AFMC Order of the Sword, "the the highest honor the enlisted force can bestow upon an individual for their conspicuous and significant contributions to the welfare and prestige of the enlisted force, to mission effectiveness, and to the overall military establishment," according to an Air Force news release.
"The Order of the Sword is not given to an officer because they have had a great career, or because they are a four-star general, or because they are the 'first in history,'" AFMC command chief Chief Master Sgt. Michael Warner he said to Wolfenbarger at the event. "All of those things apply to you, but we awarded you the Order of the Sword for your leadership -- your servant leadership," AFMC command chief Chief Master Sgt. Michael Warner said at the event.
"You never turned away the opportunity to talk and listen to your enlisted Airmen, with true and honest sincerity, and then you engaged on the issues and problems facing them. It is one thing to listen. It's a whole lot more to do something about what you hear. There is no other honor that allows us to properly thank you for your servant leadership. The Order of the Sword is truly befitting for what you have done and what you will continue to do as our general. You certainly didn't ask for it; you certainly didn't expect it. You earned it," Warner said.
During her decades of service, Wolfenbarger said at the event, "I have [striven] to be worthy. Most importantly, I have [striven] to be worthy to lead airmen."
Welsh told Defense News after the announcement that he will miss Wolfenbarger's "energy, her commitment, her passion for this and her years of experience in that particular arena."
"The good news is she has worked awfully hard as part of this reforming of AFMC, she was at the center of all that planning, and then had the ability to step into the leadership role and watch the implementation and execution for the last couple of years, so she's made just a remarkable contribution to our Air Force for the long term."
Pawlikowski has been in her current role for less than a year, but is ideally suited for the role. From June 2011 until June 2014, she was commander, Space and Missile Systems Center and Program Executive Officer for Space, where she oversaw the Air Force's space acquisitions. She has also drawn positive reviews from industry insiders for her time in Washington, with executives who have dealt with her calling her a positive influence as the service tries to change longstanding acquisition challenges.
Welsh said he was "excited" about Pawlikowski's move, but added that her replacement will not be named until a potential successor has been identified to the Senate.
"Ellen is a no-nonsense, straightforward, big thinking officer and I think she's going to be an exceptional leader to follow Janet and keep this momentum going," he said. "AFMC will be very well served by its new commander."
"This is a sad day in that we lose a great officer, but as is so often the case, a great day that another steps in and keeps charging."
Pawlikowski now becomes the third female four-star general in Air Force history, and, depending on when she is confirmed, the second in less than a year. In October, Gen. Lori Robinson pinned on her fourth star and took over as commander of Pacific Air Forces; observers of the service believe she is well positioned to become the first female chief of staff.
