Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke, the director of the Air National Guard, will retire, according to an internal Air Force memo. Clarke has served as ANG director since March 2013. He previously served as the commander of 1st Air Force and Continental US North American Aerospace Defense Command Region at Tyndall AFB, Fla. Clarke, who was commissioned in 1981, is a command pilot with more than 4,000 hours in the A-10, F-16, C-26, and T-38. The Air Force announcement did not include the official date of retirement.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
