Pioneering officer to retire

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Matt Proietti
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  The 25th commandant of the National War College here and one of the first Air Force women to complete undergraduate pilot training will retire Sept. 1 after a 34-year military career. 

"There's a lot of magic, excitement and amazement in military aviation," Maj. Gen. Teresa Marne Peterson said Aug. 20 during a retirement ceremony at Fort Lesley J. McNair. "The beauty of flying is truly there." 

The general recalled the thrill she felt as a member of only the third undergraduate pilot training class to include women. She couldn't sleep the night before she started the T-38 Talon portion of her instruction and went to the Williams Air Force Base, Ariz., flightline to look at the aircraft, which were lit up by floodlights. 

"I just felt the energy of the place. I saw my future and I said, 'Wow.' It took my breath away," she said. 

General Peterson was the first woman to command an Air Force flying squadron when she took charge of the 42nd Flying Training Squadron at Columbus AFB, Miss., in December 1990. 

"Almost every assignment was a first," said retired Lt. Gen. Steven R. Polk, a former Air Force inspector general who officiated at the ceremony. "It's hard to do justice to that." 

Since January 2006, General Peterson has been commandant of the war college, the senior service school in the study of national security affairs. She is a command pilot with more than 2,600 hours in KC-10 Extender, C-141 Starlifter, T-37 Tweet and T-38 Talon aircraft. 

She received a bachelor's degree in photographic sciences in 1973 from Southern Illinois University and was commissioned as an aircraft maintenance officer, the first female to have that job at Moody AFB, Ga. She entered undergraduate pilot training and received her pilot wings in 1979, one of the first 30 women to do so. She flew Starlifters before becoming a T-37 instructor pilot. 

She has a master's degree in human resources management from Webster University in St. Louis and was appointed commander of the 42nd FTS at Columbus AFB in December 1990. She held the post for 19 months until she attended the National War College from August 1992 to June 1993. 

She served as chief of the Mobility Control Center for U.S. Transportation Command at Scott AFB, Ill., and commander of the 86th Support Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, until July 1997. 

General Peterson was vice commander and, later, commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus AFB. General Polk recalled her enthusiasm for the job when he visited her there when he was head of 19th Air Force. 

"When I went around the base with her, she knew everybody and cared about the people," he said. "She had built a wonderful team. That was really the sense that I came away with." 

General Peterson worked at Headquarters U.S. Air Force from June 2000 to March 2002, when she assumed command of the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire AFB, N.J. She was director of mobility forces at the Combined Air Operations Center, Prince Sultan AB, Saudi Arabia, from July to September 2002. She again worked at Headquarters U.S. Air Force before assuming the commandant's position in January 2006. 

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