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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. John Insprucker

Col Kathleen O'Regan is honored upon the occasion of her retirement from the United States Air Force. Col O'Regan has pioneered the acquisition and operation of national security satellites and launch systems throughout her illustrious career. Her leadership impacted many of our most important space systems, including the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), the Titan IV program, and the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program made up of the Delta IV and Atlas V boosters. Her acquisition leadership, ranging from the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, and the Air Force Secretariat in Washington, DC, proved invaluable in forging the path for Air Force space systems. In her final active duty assignment, Col O'Regan served as one of the deputy program directors for the EELV program. In that assignment she conquered the challenges of gaining Nunn-McCurdy recertification of the EELV program to Congress, providing daily leadership of Government operations, establishing AF teaming with NASA at the senior leadership level, and establishing the excellence in AF management that directly led to the perfect launch record of the EELV program from first launch in 2002 to her retirement in the spring of 2007. Col O'Regan represented the Air Force's core values of integrity, service before self, and excellence! Despite the demands upon her time managing one of the Air Force's largest acquisition programs (EELV), she found time to serve as the career field representative from Los Angeles AFB to the AF's acquisition management career development team. She mentored numerous officers from across the base, finding time to guide and help the AF retain the space systems experts who will run the programs 20 years from now. When the AF converted program offices into a wing structure, Col O'Regan was key in defining the Launch and Range Systems Wing (SMC/LR). She guided the new wing, made up of the Air Force launch range acquisition and maintenance groups, the Delta I I/Delta IV group, and the Atlas V group, smoothing the turmoil as three AF organizations came together under one wing. Her abilities were recognized as she served as the vice wing commander for the first two commanders of SMC/LR. Her hard work, space acquisition expertise, dedication to space acquisition and operations as an Air Force core competency, and achievement of mission success throughout her career are honored by recognition on the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's Wall of Honor.