Monday, February 18, 2013
VIENNA
Air Force Col. James D. Dignan will take over leadership of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and its 910th Airlift Wing on March 2.
A change of command ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. that day at the station.
Promoted to colonel on Feb. 17, 2012, Dignan will assume command from Brig. Gen. Brian Dominguez, who is returning to his previous assignment as vice commander for the 22nd Air Force, Dobbins Air Force Base, Ga.
Most recently, Dignan was commander of the 446th Operations Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
As commander of the 910th and the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Dignan will be in charge of the training and readiness of more than 1,600 Air Force reservists, and has operational control of 12 C-130H2 Hercules tactical cargo aircraft assigned to the airlift wing. He is also civilian leader for more than 400 Air Reserve technician and civil service employees.
Dignan was commissioned through the Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla., and received his “Wings of Gold” at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas.
A command pilot with more than 6,500 hours in trainer, reconnaissance, patrol and airlift aircraft, he has served as an officer and pilot in the Navy, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve. He has flown more than 100 hurricane-penetration missions in the WC-130H and has flown combat and combat-support missions throughout the Balkans, the Horn of Africa, and Southwest Asia.
In 1989, Dignan graduated from the University of the State of New York, Albany, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology. Among his numerous military education accomplishments are the Squadron Officer School; Air Command and Staff College; Leaders of the 21st Century, George Marshall European Center for Security Studies; Air War College; Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and a master’s degree in national resource strategy, National Defense University, Washington, D.C.
His assignments include a tour as deputy chief of plans to the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and Palestine, U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem.