Utah State University Alumna Returns to Head Aerospace Studies Program

Growing up, Karilynne Wallace was fascinated by space. She enrolled at Utah State University in 1990 because of its world-class aerospace program, hoping for the chance to explore the skies overhead. Wallace never imagined she would one day direct them.

The first week of classes she approached Don L. Lind, professor emeritus of space physics, with one question in mind. He was a veteran Navy pilot and astronaut who flew on the space shuttle Challenger in 1985 and had been in charge of lunar operations for Apollo 11 — the 1969 mission that put the first men on the moon. Wallace thought he could tell her how to get there.

“Join the military,” he suggested, she said.

Wallace walked over to the ROTC building and immediately signed up.

“At that point, I wasn’t even sure I would stay the full four years (in the service),” she said.

Wallace had turned down a military scholarship just a few months prior because she was unfamiliar with the armed forces and how they could shape her future. Now a cadet in the Air Force, Wallace found herself spending more and more time in the Military Science building. She discovered that she was a part of something much bigger than herself — and she liked it.

“I enjoyed what I was doing,” she said. “I enjoyed the people I was working with. I enjoyed the camaraderie of it. I’ve been in it now for 17 years.”

Wallace, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, is the new director of USU’s Aerospace Studies program and commander of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Lt. Col. Wallace’s background leading our Aerospace Studies program here in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences,” said Dean John C. Allen. “Not only is she a Utah State University alum, but she brings a very sophisticated background in military intelligence that will enhance the sophistication of our ROTC students’ training. Her experience in the Pentagon will shape the futures of many of our graduates.”

Wallace is the first woman to hold the position and replaces Lt. Col. Robert Herndon, now the deputy commander of the Northwest region ROTC programs at Colorado Springs.

“I honestly had the best assignment of my career at USU,” he said. “I was flying C-5s after September 11. I’ve flown into Afghanistan and Iraq. I’ve done all that, but it’s a different level when you know you have an individual impact on people. The fun stuff was being there and teaching and interacting with the students.”

When he heard Lt. Col. Wallace would be taking over at USU, he knew the detachment was in excellent hands, he said.

After graduating with a degree in math in 1994, Wallace served as a range control officer at Vandenberg Air Force Base where she was in charge of air, land and sea traffic before satellite launches. Wallace controlled 213 sites and more than 900 range operations personnel for space lift and ballistic launches. She earned her master’s in space operations at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Her next tour of duty was as a test manager and analyst for space systems under the Space Warfare Center, after which she returned to Vandenberg as a flight commander in a training squadron commander of the training station. There she developed curriculum and taught the next generation of cadets responsible for overseeing the skies. Wallace was named instructor of the year and earned a master instructor rating. She then became the first female commander at the Vandenberg satellite tracking station where she was responsible for all operations, maintenance and personnel.

“You will not find a better candidate with the character, integrity and desire necessary to train and educate our future Air Force officers,” Brig. Gen. Jack Weinstein, deputy director of programs for the Air Force wrote in his letter of recommendation. “She leads by example and inspires all around her to perform at their best.”

Wallace’s next assignment took her to Washington, D.C., to study strategic intelligence. She conducted research in a protection strategy against countermeasure threats to a communication infrastructure using game theory at the National Defense Intelligence College.

Afterward, she was hand-selected to serve in the Pentagon, coordinating space and missile budget activities for more than 55 programs and integrating space and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance budget submissions for the Air Force. This was no easy task during a presidential transition year. Wallace and her team compiled multiple budgets, working 12- to 14-hour days, and learning more about politicking than she ever imagined. As her tour of duty was coming to a close, she saw USU was hiring.

“I had always had an interest and a desire to teach ROTC,” she said. “It just happened that the position here was supposed to be opening.”

She applied, was hired and suddenly back at USU for the first time in 17 years. Back to the campus she met her husband and inside the same building where she first decided to launch her military career two decades ago.

However, things have changed. Both Logan and campus are bigger, and there are about double the cadets as when she commissioned. But Wallace is different now, too. She is the commander in charge, and a mom to three little boys. This fall, she will teach courses on Air Force history and leadership.

“I’m looking forward to being able to help the cadets figure out what they want to do and prepare them to make that transition,” she said. “I want them to have the same positive experience I had. Even if they do not decide that they want to pursue a career in the military, I want them to have a good experience here and with the Air Force.”
 

Related links:

USU Aerospace Studies Program

USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Contact and writer: Kristen Munson, public relations specialist, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, (435) 797-0267, kristen.munson@usu.edu