Barksdale General Tapped as Academy Commandant

John Andrew Prime - May 21, 2010

One of the top generals at Barksdale Air Force Base has been tapped to be the next commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy.

Brig. Gen. Richard M. Clark, now vice commander of the 8th Air Force, part of Air Force Global Strike Command, has been selected for reassignment to the Air Force's service academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., according to a release from the office of the Air Force Chief of Staff.

He will replace Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Cox, who will head to Scott Air Force Base, Ill., to serve as commander of Air Mobility Command's 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center, the release said.

Clark, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., and Richmond, Va., has been at Barksdale about a year. A 1986 graduate of the academy he now will lead, he is a command pilot with 4,200 flight hours, primarily in the B-1 bomber. His record of commands includes the 34th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and the 12th Flying Training Wing at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

Just prior to his assignment at Barksdale, he was director of Joint Interagency Task Force-Iraq with the Multi-National Force-Iraq in Baghdad.

His first assignment in the Air Force, from May 1986 through February 1987, was as junior varsity football coach and candidate counselor at the Air Force Academy.