General Wolfenbarger retired from the U.S. Air Force, concluding her tenure as AFMC commander after more than 35 years of service.
On July 1, 2015, General Janet C. Wolfenbarger retired from the United States Air Force, concluding a distinguished military career spanning more than 35 years. Her retirement also marked the end of her tenure as commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), a post she had held since June 2012.
Wolfenbarger's career began with her entry into the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1976 as part of the first cohort of women admitted to the institution, and culminated in her historic tenure as the first woman to achieve four-star general rank in Air Force history. Over her career she served in numerous engineering, program management, and senior command roles, contributing to major Air Force acquisition and modernization programs.
Her retirement was marked by tributes from across the Air Force and broader defense community, recognizing both her technical accomplishments and her role as a pioneering figure for women in military leadership. Even after retiring from active duty, Wolfenbarger continued to be a prominent voice on defense, engineering, and gender-integration issues, later serving on corporate boards and chairing the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS).
Her retirement represented not an end but a transition point in a continuing public career devoted to advancing engineering leadership and women's roles in national security.