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General's retirement plans include a dream trip to Antarctica

Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski is stepping down from No. 2 post at AFMC.

Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski, vice commander of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patt, is retiring after 35 years in the Air Force.

Chris Stewart/Staff photographer Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski, vice commander of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patt, is retiring after 35 years in the Air Force.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 11:06 PM Thursday, November 19, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski is retiring from the Air Force after a 35-year career in which she rose to become the service’s highest-ranking woman. Her plans for what to do next aren’t firm, except for this: She would like to visit Antarctica, one of the Earth’s coldest places.

It draws amused reactions from her family.

“My life goal is to get to Antarctica,” Gabreski said Thursday, Nov. 19. “It fascinates me. It’s a continent that not very many people on the planet get a chance to visit. It’s one of those unique places, because of the environment.”

Gabreski, 57, is accustomed to going to unexpected places. She entered the Air Force at a time when women didn’t fly airplanes and weren’t being admitted to the service academies. They tended to wind up in administrative, public affairs or intelligence jobs, she said.

She was among the officers who mentored a pioneering group of women admitted to the Air Force Academy. She built a career in logistics, supervising ever-larger operations. In 1999, Gabreski directed logistics efforts for NATO in the air war over Serbia, an intense, round-the-clock operation.

Senior leadership of the Air Force has put a renewed emphasis on diversity within the service, Gabreski said. The focus includes placing more minorities and women in jobs in which they have been under-represented, among them scientists and engineers.

In promoting the Air Force to young people, Gabreski tells them: “It’s more than about travel. It’s about responsibility, it’s about leadership.”

Since August 2005, she has been vice commander of the Air Force Materiel Command, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which directs a global logistics system and how Air Force aircraft and weapons are acquired, developed, tested and maintained.

Gabreski has two sons at Carroll High School. The family plans to stay in the Dayton area until the eldest son, Matthew, graduates in May 2010. Then, they will relocate to the area of Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., where Gabreski formerly served and maintains a house. The family will return periodically to visit friends in the Dayton area, Gabreski said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

What’s ahead

A retirement ceremony is today at 4 p.m. at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force for Gabreski, who is the Air Force’s highest-ranking woman. President Obama has nominated a Gabreski colleague at Air Force Materiel Command headquarters, Maj. Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, 51, to succeed Gabreski and be promoted to lieutenant general. That is subject to Senate confirmation.

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Thank you for your service and now go pick up a good camera and video camera and head to Antarctica, but be warned you'll want to go back again.

It is just incredible. I recommend going with a smaller group. The ships that only carry 49 passengers.

The Drake passage is a rollercoaster experience.

Sid
7:51 AM, 11/20/2009

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Most of Antarctica is indeed quite cold, but most tourists visit the Antarctic Peninsula near South America, where temps are relatively mild. When I was there, I wore shorts outside the first four days. On an unusually warm 50 degree day, I emailed my folks in single digit Minnesota to let them know how nice the weather was in Antarctica.

It's a beautiful, awesome, incredible environment, but watch out for the penguins. They're cute as can be, but they smell of digested krill.

Mark W
3:38 AM, 11/20/2009

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