JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. -- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. promoted Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly, incoming commander of Air Combat Command, to the rank of general during a promotion ceremony at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, August 28, 2020.
This promotion comes after a 34-year Air Force career and following his assignment as the deputy chief of staff operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
“These stars weigh, I think, about a gram each, but they feel a lot heavier than that right now,” said Kelly. “What it takes to do the mission that ACC encompasses is 94,000 of the best sons and daughters that our nation has ever produced. It is those sons and daughters that are on my mind today, and those 94,000 Airmen have spouses that mean as much to them as mine means to me.”
The family of Kelly had the honor of pinning on the rank of general during the ceremony in front of friends, other family members and ACC Airmen.
Kelly’s new job at ACC will be to organize, train, equip and maintain combat-ready forces for rapid deployment and employment while ensuring strategic air defense forces are ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime air defense.