Brig. Gen.-select Chilton strikes balance between service, family

  • Published
  • By Monica D. Morales
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  There's no escaping that any way you chose to describe Col. Catherine Chilton, it inevitably includes the word star.

The Electronic Systems Center mobilization assistant to the commander is a super-star mom, the wife of a four-star general, and soon her promotion to brigadier general will have her wearing her own.

"I was truly, truly surprised and quite humbled," she said. "What surprised me the most about the news of my promotion was how many people from way back - old bosses to co-workers to friends - reached out to congratulate me."

The long list of friends, colleagues and mentors runs deep after an Air Force career that spans various assignments, seven years of active-duty experience and another 20 years in the reserve individual mobilization augmentee program.

Returning to the Air Force as an IMA allowed her to follow a sense of giving back to her country, the colonel said, while also balancing work and family -- it kept her within geographic proximity of her husband, United States Strategic Command Commander Gen. Kevin Chilton, who was then entering a NASA astronaut program.

And it's with that same sense of striking balances that Colonel Chilton said she will approach her duties as Lt. Gen. Ted Bowlds' IMA here, striving to meet the center's mission while also working to incorporate the roles of the reserve force.

Although early in her tenure, the colonel said the course of her duties is clear cut. "My main goal is to assist General Bowlds in meeting his commander's intents, and provide the support necessary for ESC to be the center of excellence that it is," she said.

Another duty includes finding new ways to integrate the reserve force into the ESC mission and to assist in meeting the commander's needs -- such as having reservists participate in the compliance process, be it in preparing for inspections or providing added perspective.

"It's intended that reservists who have an outside view can help with those inspections and make us (ESC) more prepared for the next round we have," she said. "That will take some of the pressure off the active-duty and allow them to continue running their programs."

And while achieving ESC's priorities tops her own list of goals, the colonel said she will also invest time into the reserve program here, ensuring it maintains its already-strong tempo of running efficiently and continuing to prepare its members in every possible way.

Her most recent position was as the mobilization assistant to the Air Force Research Laboratory commander at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. In this job, she focused on "getting the AFRL story out" to inform different audiences -- other major commands and combatant commands - how the lab could help solve capability gaps.

"I worked on the same type of strategic plans [at AFRL] and ensured our technologies and the scientific research we were working on were striving to solve the gaps that our Air Force warfighters identified," she said.

It's this work at the lab that Colonel Chilton said has best prepared her for her Hanscom assignment, especially since her experience at Wright-Patterson also occurred under the leadership of General Bowlds, who was then AFRL commander.

"Coming here, I already have an understanding of the Program Priority List. I understand it, where he wants it to go and why that's so important in telling the ESC story to the warfighter, up the chain of command, and justifying the resources needed to support it," she said.

And sometimes the business of work brings her down a path that merges with that of her husband. Next month she will represent ESC at the STRATCOM Cyber Symposium - a venue hosted by her husband's command.

"It's an interesting challenge," she said. "Kevin and I have to be professional in representing our respective organizations, but it's one that I don't think is that unique in the Air Force, especially as time goes on." They are not the first Air Force family, she said, with two general officers.

When not busy with her IMA duties, Colonel Chilton does a different type of balancing - that of maintaining the schedules of her four daughters who range in age from 12 to 19.

"It's a balancing act," she said. "Family is just so important to us. Every now and then we have to call family or friends to come help with the girls, but that is a last resort."