Photo By 1st Lt. Melody Daniel | LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. - Col. Charles W. "Wes" Nichols, Jr. is promoted to...... read more read more
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LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. – Arkansas Air National Guard Col. Wes Nichols stepped onto the stage at Herk Hall as a field grade officer and stepped off the stage as the state’s newest general officer at a ceremony here, Jan. 7, 2023.
Maj. Gen. Kendall Penn, Arkansas’ adjutant general, promoted Nichols to the rank of brigadier general in front of roughly 200 family and friends gathered into the base’s converted movie theater. For Nichols, the ceremony was 37 years in the making.
He enlisted in the 188th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith as a 17-year-old aircraft maintainer in 1985. Five years later, he commissioned a second lieutenant and was off to aircraft maintenance officer school at Chanute Air Force Base, Ill.
“Look at the math of being a general officer,” said Penn. “Out of all the thousands of second lieutenants that join the service every year, only about half of a percent ever make it to general officer ranks.”
Nichols thanked his family members, friends, his military family members and his mentors for helping him ascend to the flag officer ranks.
“For me, today is about saying thank you to my family, and more appropriately, the many families I’ve had throughout my life,” he said.
The general grew up on a cattle farm in Greenwood, Ark., where he learned the value of a strong work ethic. He also followed in his dad’s footsteps by serving in the Air National Guard. His dad was a charter member of the 188th when it was created at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in the early 1950s.
Throughout his military career, he excelled in classroom environments, graduating as a distinguished graduate from multiple military schools. He’s commanded at the squadron level, and served as a vice commander at the 189th Airlift Wing. Additionally, he served as the Joint Force Headquarters Air director of staff. Later in his career, he served deputy director of manpower, personnel, services, and recruiting at the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. In his most recent military assignment, he served as the director of manpower, personnel and recruiting at JFHQ-Air at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Ark.
| Date Taken: | 01.09.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 01.09.2023 10:42 |
| Story ID: | 436461 |
| Location: | ARKANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 536 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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