Vet News: Gen. Howell Estes, USAF (Ret) /Space Man

General Howell M. Estes III, who retired from the United States Air Force in 1998 after 33 years of service, currently heads Howell Estes & Associates, Inc., a wholly owned consulting firm to CEOs, presidents, and general managers of aerospace and telecommunications companies worldwide.

A command pilot with more than 4,500 flying hours, Gen. Estes' military assignments included director for operations for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon.

At that time of his retirement, he was commander in chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (CINCNORAD) and the United States Space Command (CINCSPACE), and the commander of the Air Force Space Command (COMAFSPC) headquartered at Peterson AFB, Colorado.

As CINCNORAD, he was responsible for the air sovereignty of the United States and Canada, as well as for providing tactical warning and attack assessment; as CINCSPACE, he was responsible for directing space control and support operations including theater missile defense; and as COMAFSPC, he directed satellite control, warning, space launch, and ballistic missile operations missions through a worldwide network of support facilities and bases.

The general entered the Air Force in 1965 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has commanded both operational and maintenance squadrons, the Air Force's only stealth fighter unit, an air division and numbered air force. He flew 169 combat missions as an F-4 pilot during the Vietnam War. During the Gulf War, he served as deputy chief of staff for operations, Strategic Air Command.

Among his military decorations are the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal with 10 oak leaf clusters, and the Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters.

Gen. Estes is vice chairman of the Board of Trustees at The Aerospace Corporation, and is a member of the boards of the Space Foundation and SpaceDev, Inc., the world's first publicly-traded commercial space exploration and development company. He served as a consultant to the Defense Science Board Task Force on space superiority and more recently as a commissioner on the U.S. Congressional Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization.

Gen. Estes earned a bachelor of science in military science at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and a master of arts in public administration from Auburn University in Alabama. He is a graduate of the program for senior managers in government at Harvard's JFK School of Government, and also completed courses of study at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and at the National War College, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

He resides in Colorado Springs.