Obama Nominee Could Become Air Force’s First Female General

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2012 — Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma has nom­i­nat­ed Lt. Gen. Janet C. Wolfen­barg­er to the rank of gen­er­al, and as com­man­der of Air Force Materiel Com­mand at Wright-Pat­ter­son Air Force Base, Ohio, Defense Sec­re­tary Leon E. Panet­ta announced today.

The pro­mo­tion would make Wolfen­barg­er the Air Force’s first female four-star general. 

“The sec­re­tary strong­ly sup­ports the president’s nom­i­na­tion, and he believes that Gen­er­al Wolfen­barg­er is an out­stand­ing Air Force offi­cer,” Pen­ta­gon Press Sec­re­tary George Lit­tle said today. “The fact that she would be the first woman to wear a fourth star in the Air Force, if con­firmed, is a tes­ta­ment to her skills, expe­ri­ence and dedication.” 

If con­firmed by the Sen­ate, Wolfen­barg­er would become the military’s sec­ond female offi­cer to receive four stars behind Army Gen. Ann E. Dun­woody, com­man­der of Army Materiel Com­mand, who was pro­mot­ed to gen­er­al in 2008. 

As the mil­i­tary deputy in the Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of the Air Force for Acqui­si­tion in the Pen­ta­gon, Wolfen­barg­er is respon­si­ble for research and devel­op­ment, test, pro­duc­tion, and mod­ern­iza­tion of Air Force pro­grams worth more than $40 bil­lion annually. 

A 1980 Air Force Acad­e­my grad­u­ate, Wolfen­barg­er began her career in acqui­si­tions as an engi­neer at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. She has held a vari­ety of assign­ments at head­quar­ters Elec­tron­ic Secu­ri­ty Com­mand and Air Force Sys­tems Command. 

Wolfen­barg­er has had over­sight of the F‑22 pro­gram at Wright-Pat­ter­son and in the Pen­ta­gon, and was pro­gram direc­tor for the B‑2 aero­nau­ti­cal sys­tems at Wright-Pat­ter­son. She com­mand­ed the Aero­nau­ti­cal Sys­tems Center’s C‑17 Sys­tems Group, Mobil­i­ty Sys­tems Wing. 

Wolfen­barg­er was direc­tor of the Air Force Acqui­si­tion Cen­ter of Excel­lence at the Pen­ta­gon, then served as direc­tor of the Head­quar­ters AFMC Intel­li­gence and Require­ments Direc­torate at Wright-Pat­ter­son. She was the vice com­man­der of Air Force Materiel Com­mand at Wright-Pat­ter­son before tak­ing her cur­rent position. 

Wolfen­barg­er holds master’s degrees in aero­nau­tics and astro­nau­tics from the Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy, and in nation­al resource strat­e­gy from the Nation­al Defense University. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)