WPAFB intelligence center gets new commander
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — The toughest part of leading the National Air & Space Intelligence Center is not being able to say much publicly about what it does, the center's outgoing and incoming commanders said Tuesday, June 17.
Col. Karen A. Cleary, who stepped down as its commander Tuesday to accept a new Air Force assignment in Colorado, informed her three children in an aside during her departing remarks that she would probably never be able to tell them of things that NASIC accomplished during her two years as commander, because most of its work is classified.
Extras
Still, Cleary said, the military and civilian employees of the center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base "find contentment just knowing that they're making a difference."
NASIC operates as the primary Department of Defense producer of foreign aerospace intelligence. The center's staff scrutinizes all available data on foreign aerospace forces and weapons to determine their capabilities and the degree of threat they could represent to the United States. The recipients of NASIC's reports include U.S. combat commands, the military intelligence community and the president.
Col. D. Scott George, who took over as commander of the 2,700-person center, said it is a challenge to inform the public about NASIC without saying too much.
"You've got to make the public aware in broad terms about what is going on with the program, but you have to be careful," George said in an interview after accepting the NASIC command in a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
There were hints in speeches during the ceremony about NASIC's noteworthy recent accomplishments: reporting on capabilities of Chinese and North Korean missiles, providing information about the safety of an area through which U.S. warships intended to pass, and increasing the sharing of sensitive reports with U.S. allies.
George and his family have settled into a home in Oakwood, just a block from Hawthorn Hill, the former home of Orville Wright.
George was most recently assigned to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, as commander of the 17th Training Group, the Air Force's training center for intelligence specialists.
Cleary is to report in July to her new job as director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
