Group Includes First Three-Star Commander From NORAD
The Civil Air Patrol Board of Governors welcomes three new
members, including the first three-star commander of Continental
U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region-1st Air Force
(NORAD) and Air Forces Northern (USNORTHCOM), U.S. Air Force Lt.
Gen. Stanley E. Clarke III. Other new Board of Governor members are
retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Leon Johnson, the national president
of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., and William A. Davidson, the former
administrative assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Clarke
III
Clarke, Johnson and Davidson are appointees of Secretary of the
Air Force Michael B. Donley. All will serve three-year terms on the
Board of Governors, CAP’s highest level strategic
policy-making body.
Clarke ( comes to 1st Air Force from the U.S. European
Command in Ankara, Turkey, where he was the senior defense official
and defense attaché for the Office of Defense Cooperation
Turkey. This is Clarke’s first assignment at Tyndall Air
Force Base, Fla. He received his third star before assuming command
after senior Air Force officials decided – based on the scope
of responsibility that falls to the 1st Air Force commander –
that the command position needed to be upgraded and filled by a
lieutenant general.
First Air Force is made up of four direct reporting units, 10
aligned Air National Guard units and a large number of active
aerospace control alert sites – including aircraft, air
defense artillery and up to 15,000 active duty, National Guard, Air
Force Reserve and civilian personnel, which include members of
Civil Air Patrol, the official Air Force auxiliary.
As the Joint Force Air Component Commander for NORAD and
USNORTHCOM, Clarke is directly responsible for developing
contingency plans and conducting full-spectrum Air Force air and
space operations in the continental United States, Puerto Rico and
the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as over the maritime approaches to
the U.S. The organization is also responsible for providing defense
support to civil authorities as the air component to USNORTHCOM.
Additionally, the 601st Air & Space Operations Center falls
under the 1st Air Force commander’s direction, which plans,
directs and assesses air and space operations for NORAD and
USNORTHCOM.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Leon
Johnson
Johnson, currently in his second year of a two-year term as
national president of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., retired from the Air
Force in 2004 with the rank of brigadier general after 33 years of
service. During his Air Force career, Johnson commanded a fighter
squadron and fighter group, was the vice commander of 10th Air
Force at the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, and served as
mobilization assistant to the assistant secretary of the Air Force
and director of operations at Air Education and Training
Command.
A command pilot with more than 3,500 hours of military flying
time in the T-37 trainer, A-37 and A-10 fighter aircraft,
Johnson’s missions included flights over Bosnia in support of
Operation Deny. As a civilian, Johnson worked for Trans World
Airlines and United Parcel Service, retiring from UPS with nearly
20 years of service as a management captain and chief pilot as well
as a variety of managerial roles. Most recently, he served as a
director of the Air Force Crisis Action Team in the Pentagon
following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
He is a member of the U.S. National Academies of Science and
Engineering Naval Studies Board.
William A. Davidson
As the administrative assistant to the Secretary of the Air
Force, Davidson served as a member of the Senior Executive Service
at Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. Prior to his
retirement in October 2011, he was the Air Force’s senior
career civilian adviser to the secretary, managing and supporting
administratively the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, its
1,650-member Secretariat and supported field operating agencies.
These include manpower, people, organization, budget, supply and
the secretary’s contingency fund; information, personnel and
industrial security; security oversight for U.S. treaty issues;
special access programs; and antiterrorism.
Before becoming administrative assistant in 1994, Davidson was
the deputy administrative assistant. He served as an active-duty
Air Force officer for 22 years, serving as an Air Force Office of
Special Investigations agent and chief of the Air Force Polygraph
Program. At the time of his retirement from active duty, Davidson
was the deputy for security and investigative programs at
Headquarters U.S. Air Force. He retired as a colonel and entered
the Senior Executive Service in 1990.
Civil Air Patrol’s Board of Governors consists of
representatives from CAP and the Air Force and civilians involved
in education, aviation and emergency management.
As three of the 11 members of the Board of Governors, Clarke,
Johnson and Davidson join other distinguished Air Force, CAP and
civilian advisers, including retired Air Force Maj. Gens. John M.
Speigel and Susan L. Pamerleau and retired Air Force Brig. Gen.
Sanford “Sandy” Schlitt. CAP members on the Board of
Governors are current National Commander Maj. Gen. Chuck Carr,
former National Commander Brig. Gen. Richard L. Anderson, current
National Vice Commander Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Vazquez and Lt. Col.
Edward F. “Ned” Lee.
The other member of the Board of Governors is Paul L. Graziani,
chief executive officer and co-founder of Analytical Graphics Inc.,
who was reappointed to a second three-year term on the Board of
Governors last year.
Anderson currently serves as chairman of the Board of Governors,
while Speigel is vice chairman.