Commandant assignment 'a dream come true' for 1986 graduate

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  A 1986 Air Force Academy graduate and B-1 Lancer pilot with more than 4,200 flight hours assumed command of the Academy's Cadet Wing in a ceremony July 9.

Brig. Gen. Richard Clark succeeds Brig. Gen. Sam Cox, who has been selected for reassignment as commander of Air Mobility Command's 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

As commandant, General Clark commands the 4,400-member Cadet Wing and more than 300 Airmen and civilian support personnel. His responsibilities include cadet military training and airmanship education, supervising cadet life activities and supporting facilities and logistics.

General Clark served as vice commander of 8th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) at Barksdale AFB, La., prior to becoming commandant of cadets here.

"We're excited to welcome the Clarks," said Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, who presided over the ceremony. "Welcome back to your Air Force Academy."

General Clark's previous commands include the 12th Flying Training Wing at Randolph AFB, Texas, and the 34th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, S.D. In addition, he was the director of Multi-National Force-Iraq's Joint Interagency Task Force - Iraq in Baghdad from April 2008 to April 2009.

"This is honestly unbelievable for me," General Clark said after assuming command of the Cadet Wing. "It's a dream come true."

The Academy's cadets stood in formation during the ceremony under the command of Cadet 1st Class Megan Hoskins. General Clark said he was proud of the cadets, particularly the Class of 2014, which is in its third week of Basic Cadet Training.

"You're some of the brightest minds in our country," he said. "When you took that oath of allegiance, you did something not many people in our country are willing to do. I'm proud of the character of our cadets ... you are the kind of people I want my kids to be around."

The general praised Cadet 3rd Class Clayton Elliott in particular for a good deed the cadet did for a stranger the evening before the ceremony.

"I was lying down on the ground, trying to get the perfect shot of my wife and kids with the Cadet Chapel in the background," General Clark recalled. "This young man walks up to me and says, 'Sir, can I help you take that picture?' And before you know it, he's on the ground even crazier than I was, trying to get that same photo."

He pledged to the cadets that he would make their dreams come true "just as so many people made my dream come true 24 years ago."

Immediately after graduating from the Academy in 1986, General Clark served as a junior varsity football coach and candidate counselor at the Academy. He completed undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin AFB, Texas, in 1988. His first duty assignment as a pilot was at the 2nd Airborne Command and Control Squadron, Offutt AFB, Neb.

The general has primarily flown the B-1 bomber during his career, but he is also rated in the EC-135 Looking Glass, KC-135 Stratotanker, T-1 Jayhawk, T-38 Talon and T-6 Texan II. His awards include a Legion of Merit medal, a Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Star Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Air Medals, an Aerial Achievement Medal, two Air Force Commendation Medals and a Combat Action Medal.

In addition to his bachelor's degree in management from the Academy, General Clark has a Master of Airpower Studies degree from the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell AFB, Ala., a master's degree in national security studies from the National War College at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., and a master's in strategic studies from the Naval Command and Staff College in Newport, R.I.