Colonel, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
After graduating from LSU in 1969, Wayne Wroten joined the Air Force and entered Officer Training School. Second Lieutenant Wroten began his pilot training at Randolph Air Force Base and received his wings in 1970. His first assignment was flying out of Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Wroten said, “Having grown up in Baton Rouge, stepping off the plane into 44 below zero weather was a total shock.”
Leaving Alaska, Wroten went south and learned to fly the OV-10, an observation plane. He then went to Jungle Survival School and became a forward air controller on his way to Southeast Asia. From Thailand, for the next year, he flew 69 missions in the dangerous skies of North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Returning from the war to a stateside assignment, Wroten was assigned to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, training pilots in the T-38 from 1973 to 1976. By this time, he had married and decided to leave active duty to settle in Baton Rouge. But, he said, “I realized how much I missed flying.” So, he re-entered the Air Force Reserve and flew the A-37 and the A-10 in the 926th Tactical Fighter Group out of the Naval Air Station in New Orleans. Things started to heat up in the Middle East and by 1991, Wroten and the 926th were deployed to Desert Storm. It was the first time that an Air Force Reserve fighter unit would be activated and sent into combat. He told his wife that he could be gone for as long as two years. However, after 35 combat missions and six weeks, the war was over and he returned with the same 500 personnel and 18 aircraft that he left with.
In 1991, Wroten was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed Chief of Plans for the 926th Fighter Wing. He was promoted to colonel in 1998 and became the Maintenance Group Commander. His background and training had laid the foundation for his future advancement and his willingness to serve made him an obvious choice for promotion.
Colonel Wroten writes, “On September 10, 2001, I traveled to Washington, D.C., along with four other senior leadership members of the 926th Fighter Wing to meet with our congressional delegation. On the morning of September 11, 2001, we were in a meeting on the 5th floor of the Pentagon when the hijacked plane crashed into the building. None of our group was injured and we all returned safely to New Orleans.” Most everyone who was alive on September 11, 2001, remembers exactly where they were during the attacks on that date . . . and, most of us will never forget.
Colonel Wroten retired in 2003.