When Janet Wolfenbarger first signed on to be a U.S. Air Force cadet as a member of the first class to accept women in 1976, she said she was committed for five years.
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If someone had asked me after graduation if I was going spend the last couple decades in the (Air Force), I don’t know,
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she said. But she has and recently was promoted as a three-star general, becoming the highest ranking woman in the Air Force.
When Janet Wolfenbarger first signed on to be a U.S. Air Force cadet as a member of the first class to accept women in 1976, she said she was committed for five years.
“If someone had asked me after graduation if I was going spend the last couple decades in the (Air Force), I don’t know,” she said. “But some point very early on, I decided I would. I have had so many responsibilities and vibrant projects.”
Three decades later, Wolfenbarger, the daughter of Shirley and Eldon Libby of Paicines, was promoted to lieutenant general in December. It made her the highest ranking woman in the Air Force as a three-star general. She got word of her nomination by President Barack Obama before she even had been confirmed to the post of a two-star general.
“Up to two star, you are promoted based on past performance and also based on future potential,” she said. “Boards meet to select all the people at that point in their career that should be considered.”
To become a three-star general, it is contingent upon a position available at that level and a nomination by the president. There are a finite number of generals allowed in each branch of the U.S. military so Wolfenbarger’s nomination process started as another general announced his retirement. After the president nominates a candidate, it has to be approved by the Senate arms committee and then the entire Senate.
During that time, Wolfenbarger had to keep the nomination to herself.
“They do encourage you not to say anything,” she said, noting that she didn’t tell anyone, with one exception. “My husband knew, but not my daughter. We worried about a 12-year-old keeping it a secret.”
She got news that her nomination had been approved in December and her promotion ceremony was scheduled weeks after at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. She said her immediate family was able to make it out, including her parents, siblings and their families, as well as some aunts and uncles, even though they had just a few weeks to plan the trip.
Though her time in San Benito County was limited growing up, her family does have roots in the area, including the land in Paicines where her parents have a log home on a hill. Unlike the log cabin Wolfenbarger imagined when her parents talked of building a house that way, the home actually is large. Completed in 1999, Wolfenbarger said her mother wanted it to be big enough that all the Libby children could return with their families once a year for an annual family reunion. This year, 75 people showed up for the yearly event.
Wolfenbarger recollected how others in the area have taken pride in her accomplishments, too.
“My father, and he has brothers who live in the area, have a barber they use in Hollister,” she said, of B&R Barber Shop on Fifth Street. “He has my picture and my biography up there on the wall.”
During her visit last week for the reunion, Wolfenbarger stopped in to see him and say hello. They exchanged a few words and she gave him one of her military coins.
“Even the establishment has been supportive of me,” she said.
For her most recent assignment at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, Wolfenbarger worked on several tasks. First she was involved on a project of process work improvement, which she explained as looking at the life-cycle management of weapons systems. She worked with a team to look at every aspect from research and development to distribution and maintenance of weapons.
“It was pretty exciting,” she said. “I was really dedicated to that for five or six months. Then I was asked to work as director of staff.”
Look for the full, exclusive story in the Pinnacle on Friday.
