Retired USAF General to Speak
Retired Brigadier General John Michel
by Randy Pierce
St. Clair County Veterans Assistance Commission Superintendent John Lawson will serve as the master of ceremonies for the 26th annual Veterans Day observance to be held in the southeast quadrant of the public square, now renamed the Honorary Veterans Memorial Square, in Belleville on Monday, November 11, from 11 a.m. until noon.
The guest speaker at this ceremony will be Retired United States Air Force Brigadier General John E. Michel, who served in several significant positions in Afghanistan including commanding general of North American Treaty Organization Air Training Command, NATO Training Mission/Combined Security commander and commander of the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing based in Kabul.
Michel entered the USAF in 1988 and served in several command and staff assignments in addition to his time in Afghanistan including liaison to North American Aerospace Defense Command-U.S. Northern Command for the United States Transportation Command and deputy for senior officer matters at the headquarters of the Air Mobility Command, both of those agencies located at nearby Scott Air Force Base. He has also commanded a tanker squadron, expeditionary operations group, air refueling wing and an air expeditionary wing.
Michel is a command pilot with more than 3,400 hours in seven different types of military aircraft.
