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AFIT’s new commandant brings Afghan experience

Brig. Gen. Walter Givhan assumed AFIT command after year in Afghanistan

Brig. Gen. Walter Givhan assumed command of the Air Force Institute of Technology, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on Oct 6. Givhan recently returned from a one-year assignment helping provide training for Afghan pilots as part of the U.S. effort to fight terrorists in Afghanistan. Staff photos by Ron Alvey

Ron Alvey Brig. Gen. Walter Givhan assumed command of the Air Force Institute of Technology, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on Oct 6. Givhan recently returned from a one-year assignment helping provide training for Afghan pilots as part of the U.S. effort to fight terrorists in Afghanistan. Staff photos by Ron Alvey

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 12:57 AM Sunday, November 8, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Brig. Gen. Walter D. Givhan, new commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology, is fresh from a one-year assignment helping provide training for Afghan pilots as part of the U.S. effort to fight terrorists in Afghanistan.

He hopes to share that experience at AFIT, the post-graduate study school that helps train the next generations of personnel from the Air Force and sister services, as well as civilians and foreign officers, in the latest war-fighting techniques, technology and scientific disciplines.

“We want to keep things linked to what’s going on in our operations,” Givhan, 52, said in an interview at the school.

His Afghanistan assignment ended in September. He reported to work at AFIT on Oct. 6.

AFIT marks its 90th anniversary Tuesday, Nov. 10. It was in 1919 that Col. Thurman H. Bane, then commanding officer at McCook Field in Dayton, suggested the concept of an aeronautical school within the Army, 28 years before the Air Force was created. Bane became the first commandant of what was then known as the Air School of Application.

One of the first instructors was Lt. Edwin Aldrin, father of Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr.

Buzz Aldrin graduated from AFIT in 1963 and went on to join Neil Armstrong in the historic July 1969 moon landing and walk.

Since Congress approved degree-granting authority in 1956, AFIT has issued more than 16,000 graduate degrees, including more than 350 doctorates.

Today, the school does research in cyberspace that contributes to Air Force efforts to defend against cyberattacks and to use cyberwarfare techniques against enemies. Enemies communicate through cyberspace and use it to spread misinformation about U.S. goals and military operations, Givhan said.

AFIT also has a center of systems engineering that can examine life cycles of unmanned aircraft to help the Air Force improve its support and maintenance of them, and a school of systems and logistics that provides acquisition training.

AFIT’s neighbors at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base include the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Aeronautical Systems Center, which respectively direct key research and support aircraft and weapons systems and the Air Force Materiel Command.

“We’ve got a lot of vital partnerships already ongoing,” Givhan said. “I hope to leverage and build on that.”

The Givhan file

Hometown: Safford, Ala.

Entered Air Force: 1981.

Career: Served as U.S. air liaison officer to the commanding general, French ground forces, for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Commanded a combat training squadron, an operations group, an air base wing and an air expeditionary wing. Most recently, served as commanding general of the combined air power transition force, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan. Has more than 2,500 flying hours in the T-37, T-38, T-1, AT-38, F-15 and A-10 aircraft.

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