Lt. Gen. James says farewell to Air Guard members

  • Published
  • By Sgt. Jim Greenhill
  • National Guard Bureau
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Lt. Gen. Daniel James III retired as the 11th director of the Air National Guard in a ceremony at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., on May 10.

He earlier bid farewell to members of the Air National Guard in a short speech that focused almost entirely on them and barely on himself.

“You’re very special people,” General James said in a March 28 ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., touching on Air Guard efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“They just don’t make them like you every day,” he said.

He received a standing ovation from the hundreds of Airmen in attendance. 

The next Air National Guard director has not been named. 

General James’s wife, Dana, and son, Daniel, were among those who gathered for the farewell ceremony. Recognizing the director’s tireless, seemingly continuous travel obligations to fulfill duties around the world, officers gave him a gift certificate for a recliner. They also said it seemed unlikely that the director would use it very much, even in retirement, because of his hard-charging personality.
 
General James became the Air Guard director in 2002, the first African-American to hold the post. 

“One of the things I didn’t want to change was the character of the people,” he said. 

His father, Gen. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr., was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and the first African-American to become a four-star general in the active Air Force. The son became a command pilot, flying more than 4,000 hours in fighters and trainers, including more than 300 combat missions in Vietnam. His awards include two Distinguished Flying Crosses.
 
General James served as operations group commander for the Air Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing in Texas before he became that state’s adjutant general, a position he held for more than six years. 

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred during his tenure as director. He compared their impact to the Kennedy assassination two generations earlier.

“For the rest of your lives you’ll always remember where you were and what happened,” he said.
 
He emphasized the Air Guard’s role in securing the nation’s skies immediately after the attacks and helping to move 48,000 Guard members to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
 
“You make it look so effortless,” he said. “Thank you all for what you do.” 

“Special people like you can do extraordinary things,” General James told the Airmen. “You’ve proved it in the past. You’ll prove it again.”