Air Force Academy – Brig. Gen. Susan Y. Desjardins thinks the lessons she’s learned helping fight wars in the Middle East will come in handy in her new job as commandant of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Desjardins, a cargo and refueling plane pilot and commander, became the academy’s first female commandant Thursday at a ceremony on the academy’s indoor track.
“We have flown troops and equipment into Iraq and Afghanistan and returned with the remains of our fallen comrades,” she told the entire cadet wing, which stood at parade rest in dress blues. “That same willingness to overcome obstacles and accomplish our mission is needed here.”
Desjardins, 47, was tapped in October to replace Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, who was accused and subsequently cleared of allegations of proselytizing cadets.
She spent the past 13 months in South Carolina as commander of Charleston Air Force Base’s 437th Airlift Wing, the first woman to lead the 4,258 airmen in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Her Air Force career started in 1976, when she learned the academy was planning to accept female cadets.
Five days after graduating from New Hampshire’s Portsmouth High School, the daughter of a Korean War veteran joined the first 157 women to report for basic cadet training.
Desjardins went on to fly more than 3,800 hours in what airmen call “heavies,” air tankers such as the KC-10 that carry cargo and fuel. The Air Force didn’t allow women to fly fighter planes until 1993.
About that time, while working at the Pentagon, Desjardins met her future husband, congressional staffer Peter Lennon. The couple wed in 1996, and Desjardins kept her maiden name.
Lennon was working for the Defense Department in a Pentagon office when the building was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He survived.
Desjardins said she plans to build on the success of programs initiated over the past three years as the academy has battled a sexual assault scandal and allegations of religious intolerance.
“I try to ignore being the first woman to do this or that,” she said. “The important thing is the 4,400 young men and women I am now responsible for.”
