Owens reminds Class 17-10 to remain engaged

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Keith Holcomb
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Brig. Gen. Thomas Owens II, Assistant Adjutant General of Air New York National Guard, Latham, New York visited Columbus Air Force Base, to speak at Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 17-10’s graduation here June 9, 2017.

Owens is the primary advisor on all Guard matters to the Adjutant General. He assists the commander to ensuring mission readiness for the five New York Air National Guard flying wings, the Eastern Air Defense Sector and several geographically separated units.

He is a command pilot with more than 3,900 flying hours in the A-10, F-16, MQ-1, HC-130 and HH-6-G to include over 450 combat sorties over Southwest Asia. He has flown in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm, Operation Provide Comfort, Operation Northern Watch, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

He has commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels.

Owens started off with a large thanks to the 14th Flying Training Wing and the Local Community Partners.

“It’s been truly an honor to be a part of this graduation,” said Owens. “Col. Gosney and the entire team here at Columbus Air Force Base are an extraordinary team of Air Force professionals as well and the surrounding community here at Columbus and what they do to bolster and support this great mission here is vitally important.”

Owens congratulated the 24 new pilots on their next step into the U.S Air Force’s elite group of aviators.

“Do me a favor Class 17-10, please stand up, look around, everyone, let's acknowledge these expert aviators,” said Owens, “You are the newest, most highly trained Airmen in history, anytime and anywhere. Your time to engage is now.”

The pilots went through 13 months of intensive pilot training and will go to their next stations to learn their assigned aircraft. Owens wanted them to remember the keys to success.

“Pilot training is a tough time, but there’s no substitute for good hard work,” said Owens, “You’ve always got choices. The food you eat, the exercise you do, the sleep you get, the collaboration with your teammates, trying to study, you need to take care of yourself so you can be a good team member and then the team will graduate.”

Even with this accomplishment behind them, Owens delivered an important message to the graduating class.

“We as pilots, and Airmen, need to always be ready to engage,” said Owens. “You just don’t know when we are going to need you to go somewhere.”

The son of Owens, 2nd Lt. Thomas J. Owens III, SUPT 17-10, was sitting in the first rows with his classmates. Having his own son in the graduation crowd brought a different feeling to this graduation.

“It’s an honor and it’s very emotional,” Owens said after the speech, “It took me down memory lane in so many ways as I prepared, one of the things was looking for my slick wings to give to my son and in that we found pictures of my pilot training and it really brought back a lot of great memories.”

As 2nd Lt. Owens stood ready to earn his wings, Col. Gosney took a step back and handed off the pin to Owens II so he could pin on his son’s first set of wings.