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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Coleen Lucas

Lt Col John C. Lucas (USAF Retired) was born and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas and a commission through the ROTC program into the United States Air Force. During a career that spanned 24 years (1984 to 2008), Lt Col Lucas was trained as a C-130E/H Navigator with basic, instructor, and evaluator time at Little Rock AFB Arkansas, Yokota Air Base Japan, and Ramstein Air Base Germany. He flew with the 61st, 345th, 36th, and 37th Airlift Squadrons and had extensive operational flight experience in Europe, Africa, Asia, North/Central/South America. He gained 3300 flight hours which included combat flight time in Kosovo. Lt Col Lucas was the Operations Officer and Commander of the 86th Operations Support Squadron at Ramstein AB at the beginning of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. His 137-person squadron was responsible for managing airfield and flight operations for the major European staging point for supplies and casualties. He held staff positions at Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command, and completed one deployment with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) staff in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2007. Lt Col Lucas culminated his active duty career as Deputy Chief of the Headquarters Air Mobility Command (HQ AMC) Operations and Training Division, where he was responsible for establishing and maintaining aircrew training policies and programs that provide operational commanders with trained and combat ready, airlift, aerial refueling, and aeromedical forces capable of meeting warfighter requirements. After retirement, he continued to support the Air Force for over 10 years as the civilian Deputy Chief of Operations and Training for HQ AMC. Lt Col Lucas then moved to Headquarters Air Force at the Pentagon where he currently develops Synthetic and Simulator policy for the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations (AF/A3). He is married and has four grown children (three sons and a daughter).