He has also worked for Air Force Research Laboratory, which is based at Wright-Patt. From August 1994 to February 2001, he was program manager and senior research engineer for AFRL at Kirtland Air Force Base in, New Mexico. From February 2001 to March 2002, he served as chief technical adviser in the Space Vehicles Directorate at AFRL, also at Kirtland.
He also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at Ohio State University.
“Troy will work with our incredible secretary of defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, to ensure that our nation’s Air Force is the most effective and deadly force in the world, as we secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump said in a release Thursday.
Meink is a member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service, the deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space; and the director, executive agent, for space staff in Washington, D.C. He supports the under secretary at Air Force headquarters for “space matters and in coordinating activities across the Air Force space enterprise,” his official Air Force biography says.
Meink is from South Dakota, entering the Air Force in 1988 through the ROTC program at South Dakota State University. He began his career as a KC-135 tanker navigator and instructor and then a lead test engineer for the design and evaluation of ballistic missile test vehicles for the Missile Defense Agency.
As a rated officer, Meink completed 100 sorties including eight combat and 29 combat support missions in support of operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Provide Comfort, the Air Force said.
If confirmed, Meink will lead both the Air Force and the Space Force.
He has been nominated to replace outgoing Secretary Frank Kendall, who has had words of praise for Dayton and the base. “All roads lead to Dayton,” he said in a visit to Dayton this past summer.
“People certainly don’t need to be worried about an exodus from Dayton,” Kendall told the Dayton Daily News in an exclusive interview after his Life Cycle Industry Days keynote address in July. “On the other hand, I don’t see a mass influx either. I think it’s going to be fairly stable, as much as you would expect.”
As the Air Force reorganization (or “reoptimization,” as it’s called) to face China and Russia continues, the Air Force Materiel Command, headquartered at Wright-Patt, will remain the center of acquisition efforts, Kendall also said.
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