Colonel SANDRA A. “SAMMI” BONNEY

Col. Sandra A Bonney is the deputy commander of the 461st Air Control Wing at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. She is responsible for the wing transition from worldwide E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System employment to new and emerging ground-based tactical command and control weapon systems.  The wing trains, mobilizes and deploys combat mission ready personnel and equipment to designated theaters of operation, and conducts sustained operations providing uninterrupted Command, Control, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance in support of the joint force commander. Additionally, she is responsible for the mobilization and deployment of command and control systems and the Deployable Air Traffic Control and Landing System enabling both expeditionary airfield operations supporting combatant commanders’ Agile Combat Employment scheme of maneuvers and peacetime airfield operations supporting humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions.

Col. Bonney entered the Air Force in January 2000 through Officer Training School at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. She is a distinguished graduate of both E-3 Navigator Initial Qualification Training and E-3 Instructor Navigator Training. She performed deployed executive officer duties for the 363d Air Expeditionary Wing, later serving as Chief of Protocol, and then executive officer for the 552d Air Control Wing. She served as combat operations briefer to the Air Component Commander for U.S. Central Command, as the Command and Control Director of Operations for a major bilateral exercise and was actively involved in the Korean Theater and six named operations: Northern Edge, Noble Eagle, Eagle Assist, Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. She was also the 18th Wing Plans Officer at the largest combat wing in the U.S. Air Force at Kadena AB, Okinawa. As the Deputy Chief of Nuclear Programs and Requirements Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, she formulated and coordinated Air Force Materiel Command’s nuclear plans, policies and strategies and advised the Director for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration on MAJCOM-wide nuclear enterprise responsibilities. She next served on the Commanders Action Group for the AFMC Commander and subsequently as the Executive Officer to AFMC’s Executive Director.

After attending the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Intelligence University at Bolling AFB, Washington D.C., she served as an Assistant Director of Operations for the 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron before becoming Chief, Standardization & Evaluations, 552d Operations Group, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. Col. Bonney next served as Commander, 964th Airborne Air Control Squadron, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, where she led worldwide employment of 300 United States and Canadian Forces personnel and 6 E-3 aircraft valued at $1.98 billion in support of combatant commander and Joint Chiefs of Staff exercise and contingency plans. She was then the Commander of Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 835 at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, where she led the Aerospace Studies Department for the College of Arts and Sciences, supervising cadets from 7 universities. Prior to her current assignment, the Colonel was Division Chief of the Global Force Management Division, Joint Staff Regional Operations and Force Management Directorate, Pentagon, Virginia.