131st Bomb Wing to welcome new command chief

  • Published
  • By Rachel Knight
  • Missouri Air National Guard
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  Chief Master Sgt. Rich Pingleton, of Ballwin, will take his position as command chief for the Missouri Air National Guard's 131st Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base on Jan. 24, 2010, during the wing's unit training assembly.

Chief Pingleton has been with the Missouri Air National Guard for 21 years and spent six years prior to that in the active duty Air Force. He has deployed to countries including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

As a command chief, Chief Pingleton will be an advocate and voice for the enlisted force. He will also be an advisor for the wing commander on morale, education, and the health and welfare of the wing's Airmen. He said he is excited to take the position in late January because he wants to help continue the transition from Lambert to Whiteman Air Force Base.

"My number one goal is to take care of the people," Chief Pingleton said. "We are still in transition." Some Airmen currently working at Whiteman are continuing to commute from the St. Louis area.

"A big challenge for us is helping our Airmen use their talents to grab a hold of processes to own and let them see how they fit into a classic associate unit," he said. The 131st Fighter Wing came from a mission where they were self-supported on all aspects of the F-15 Eagle at Lambert Air National Guard Base. In 2005, when the Base Realignment and Closure Commission called for the transfer of the wing's F-15s, the wing was realigned for the new mission of supporting the United State Air Force in its B-2 Spirit Bomber mission at Whiteman Air Force Base and became known as the 131st Bomb Wing.

In 2000, Chief Pingleton was promoted to the chief master sergeant position. After being in that position a few years, he said he felt like he needed to do something with the training he had received and planned to become a command chief.

"I wanted to expand and use the leadership skills I have acquired over the years," Chief Pingleton said. "The wing was good enough to make me a chief master sergeant, so it is the least I can do."

Establishing a new mission at Whiteman while drawing down the F-15 mission at Lambert has required wing leaders to split their time between the two locations. Now, the Guardsmen are establishing themselves on Whiteman and have found that the new mission has opened up more opportunities for them.

"My focus for the first few years as command chief is developing wingmen, leaders and warriors," Chief Pingleton said. He plans to achieve this through his supervision to promote looking out for each other, being ready for battle and being a leader.

"You don't need a bunch of stripes to be a leader," Chief Pingleton said.

Chief Pingleton joined the military when he was 19 years old. Although he had relatives in the military, his main reason for joining was to "do something on a bigger scale and do something for my country."

He liked the military option because they took care of their people and offered stability.

His career started in munitions when he joined the Air Force and carried into to his Guard career. He then moved to aircraft maintenance where he crossed trained to become a crew chief. In 1998, he became the maintenance operations flight superintendent. When the position came to Whiteman in September 2009, he stayed behind at Lambert. On Oct. 1, he took the position of munitions accountability systems officer at Lambert on the full-time forefront. As the systems officer, he has the accountability of all ammunition that the 131st Bomb Wing and supporting units at Jefferson Barracks and Cannon Range, located at Fort Leonard Wood, along with some Navy units.

In his career as a Guardsman, Chief Pingleton said his most memorable accomplishment was leading a deployment to Iceland in 2006 for the Aerospace Expeditionary Force. He was in charge of the maintenance group where he took care of his people and planned on both the technical and supervisory level.

"There was a lot of job satisfaction in that," Chief Pingleton said.

Chief Pingleton has support behind his decision to become the command chief from his parents, Robert Pingleton, of Gulf Shores, Ala., and Patricia Pingleton, of St. Louis; his wife, Kelly Pingleton, of Ballwin; and his children, Rich Pingleton Jr., of Fort Campbell, Ky., and Hannah and Lily Pingleton, of Ballwin.

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-888-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.