Event Speakers

Major General (USAFR retired) Mason C. Whitney
Director of the Governor’s Offi ce of Homeland Security, Colorado

Major General (USAFR retired) Mason C. Whitney was appointed the Director of the Governor’s Offi ce of Homeland Security for Colorado by Governor Bill Ritter February 4th, 2008 and serves on the Governor’s cabinet. His responsibilities include planning and implementing the State Homeland Security Strategy, ensuring that effective risk management is used in assessing threats to Colorado, developing capabilities to achieve the Homeland Security mission, and evaluating preparedness. He served as The Adjutant General of Colorado from 2000 to 2007. He retired from the Colorado National Guard in April of 2007 with almost 39 years of commissioned service in the United States Air Force and the Colorado National Guard. His responsibilities as The Adjutant General included the command administration for 5,400 Colorado Army and Air National Guard members and state support for the 2,000 members of the Colorado Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. He also served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and was a member of Governor Owens’ cabinet from 2000 to 2007.

The general graduated from Kansas State University in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program in June 1968. He entered active duty in August 1968, attended undergraduate pilot training at Laredo AFB, Texas, and earned his pilot wings in August 1969. He served as a forward air controller at Ban Me Th out Special Forces Camp, South Vietnam, where he flew 343 combat missions in the O-2A aircraft throughout Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. After a tour in Air Training Command as an instructor pilot, he served in Tactical Air Command as a flight commander and wing standardization/evaluation offi cer at England AFB, Louisiana in the A-7D Corsair II aircraft.

The general joined the Colorado Air National Guard in August 1979 where he held the positions of chief of standardization/evaluation, fi ghter squadron operations officer, fighter squadron commander, deputy commander for maintenance, and wing vice commander. In September of 1990 he was appointed as the 140th Tactical Fighter Wing Commander and served in that position until May 1998. At that time, he was selected for the position of ANG Assistant to the Commander of Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Virginia and was promoted to Major General. Governor Bill Owens appointed him to the position of Th e Adjutant General of Colorado in February of 2000. General Whitney, a command pilot with more than 6,000 military fl ight hours, had 343 combat missions and 758 combat hours. He has fl own the O-2A, T-37, T-39, A-7, and F-16 aircraft. His major military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Vietnam Service Medal with four bronze stars, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, and the Colorado Meritorious Service Medal.

General Whitney has held positions as Chairman of the Air Directorate Field Advisory Committee of the National Guard Bureau, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Guard Association of the United States, a member of the Reserve Forces Policy Board of the Department of Defense, and the Chairman of the Air National Guard Modernization Committee of the Adjutants General Association of the United States. He presently serves on the Rocky Mountain United Services Organization (RMUSO) Advisory Board as well as the Air Force Association’s (AFA) Air National Guard Council.