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African-American woman first to command flying wing

  • Published
  • By AFRC News Service
  • 459th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
A former wing vice commander is the first African-American woman in the Air Force Reserve Command -- and the Air Force -- to command a flying wing.

Col. Stayce Harris accepted command of the 459th Air Refueling Wing in a ceremony here May 15.

Before replacing Brig. Gen. Richard Severson as commander of the 1,300-member wing, she was vice commander of the 507th ARW at Tinker AFB, Okla.

“I believe the Air Force and the military as a whole provides opportunities for all,” said Colonel Harris after the ceremony. “I am just an example of what we can do in the military.”

Colonel Harris was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of a career enlisted man. She gained an appreciation for travel and the military as the family moved from place to place.

In 1977, she graduated from 71st High School in Fayetteville, N.C. She was then accepted into the University of Southern California on an engineering ROTC scholarship. Colonel Harris spent her first year and a half in the Air Force as chief of industrial engineering and then as the squadron section commander of civil engineering at Hill AFB, Utah. She then attended pilot training at Williams AFB, Ariz., and became qualified in the C-141B Starlifter cargo aircraft.

In August 1990, Colonel Harris separated from active duty and became an airline pilot for United Airlines. She flies a Boeing 747-400 aircraft from the West Coast to Tokyo and Sydney, Australia.

For the last 14 years, she has balanced her Air Force career with her civilian airline career.

From April 1991 to February 1995, she was an air operations officer and C-141 pilot in the 445th Airlift Wing at March Air Reserve Base, Calif. She was a mobility force planner for the Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and operations in the Pentagon from February 1995 to January 1997. For the next three years, she served as an individual mobilization augmentee to the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon.

In February 2000, Colonel Harris returned to March ARB first as deputy commander of the 452nd Operations Group and then as commander of the 729th Airlift Squadron. From May 2002 to May 2005, she was vice commander of the 507th ARW at Tinker AFB.

“The Air Force has always been my passion,” she said, “so this is the job I really enjoy keeping because of the people. This is where my heart is.”

With more than 2,500 hours flying military aircraft and 8,000 hours flying for United Airlines, she will fly an abbreviated schedule with United Airlines out of Los Angeles while living in the national capital region.