Eldon Libby of Paicines never expected that his daughter Janet Wolfenbarger would rise to the rank of four-star general and head of the Air Force Materiel Command when she entered the Air Force Academy as part of the first class to allow women cadets.
But Libby and his wife Shirley were able to attend the ceremony in 2012 that promoted their daughter to the highest-ranking female in the Air Force and the first female in the Air Force to be promoted to a four-star general.
“I never really considered it,” Libby told the Free Lance in June 2012, of his daughter’s move up through the ranks.
Eldon passed away in 2012 but Shirley is still a Paicines resident, and next week their daughter will retire from a 35-year career at a special ceremony June 8 at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Wolfenbarger was part of the first class of female cadets in 1976, and that experience stayed with her and provided a foundation she relied on throughout her career, she said in a press release from the Air Force Materiel Command’s public affairs.
“The Academy put me in situations that stretched me mentally, physically, emotionally and academically,” Wolfenbarger said in the statement. “I came out on the other side of those experiences knowing I am far more capable than I ever thought I could be. That knowledge gave me a belief in myself that I have relied on ever since.”
Looking forward, Wolfenbarger has mixed emotions, according to the press release.
“It has been an absolute privilege to serve as commander of the very command I grew up in,” Wolfenbarger said in the statement. “I am so proud of our Airmen—both in AFMC and across our United States Air Force—and the remarkable work they do every day. I am honored to have served alongside these heroes for the past three and a half decades.”
