From captain to two-star general in a day
October 3rd, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Everyone knows how it works: You do a good job and stay out of trouble, and you earn a promotion.
But usually it’s one rank at a time.
Enter the Georgia National Guard, which just received its newest adjutant general. Maj. Gen. Jim Butterworth is responsible for more than 14,000 personnel in the Georgia National Guard, the Georgia Air National Guard and the Georgia State Defense Force.
Butterworth’s new gig comes with a promotion — from captain to major general.
It’s a political move. Butterworth is a former Air Force and Air National Guard pilot with experience flying B-1s. He left the service in 2002 over concerns with the anthrax vaccine. Since leaving the service, he has worked for Delta Air Lines and served as a state senator. And it comes at a time of a major shake-up of Georgia National Guard brass.
If you ask big Air Force, though, Butterworth remains a major. And he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he doesn’t plan to show off his new stars while doing business in D.C.
“As I understand it, there are plenty of adjutant generals that show up [at the Pentagon] in a suit. That would be my intention,” Butterworth told the paper.
Tags: air national guard, b-1, georgia