ARLINGTON, Va. - An Alabama Air National Guard general officer who has served at the Pentagon for nearly a year has been named deputy director of the Air National Guard.
Brig. Gen. Stanley Clarke III is succeeding Maj. Gen. Charles Ickes II who has served as the Air Guard's deputy director since February 2005. Ickes has assumed his new duties as special assistant to the Air Force's Air, Space and Information Operations, Plans and Requirements.
Clarke will assist Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley, director of the Air National Guard, in formulating, developing and coordinating all policies, plans and programs affecting more than 106,000 Air Guard members serving in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.Â
Clarke, who joined the Alabama Air Guard in 1991, has been the deputy director for Strategic Planning at Headquarters, U.S. Air Force since last June. He was the assistant adjutant general for Air in Alabama from December 2005 until he began serving at the Pentagon in mid-2006.
"His most recent Air Staff assignment in strategic plans and programs will prove helpful as we continue through the Air National Guard reset," said McKinley in announcing Clarke's appointment as his deputy. "Brig. Gen. Clarke's varied experience in the field, at state headquarters and in Washington will be an asset to my team and the Air National Guard as a whole," McKinley added.
Clarke began his military service in January 1982 with undergraduate pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. He is a command pilot with more than 4,000 hours in fighter and transport aircraft.
He commanded the Alabama Air Guard's 160th Fighter Squadron for three years. Under his guidance, the squadron increased its combat readiness with the addition of the night vision, countermeasures, situational awareness display and Litening Pod upgrades.
Clarke has participated in numerous stateside and overseas deployments to include Operations Provide Comfort, Southern Watch, Coronet Nighthawk and Northern Watch. He also completed an Air Expeditionary Force tour to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia as the director of combat operations for U.S. Central Command Air Forces.
He commanded the 410th Air Expeditionary Wing, conducting combat fighter operations in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.