U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, Air Education and Training Command deputy commander, speaks with airmen at Luke Air Force base in Arizona, Sept. 16, 2025. Quinn last week was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and assumed command of AETC. (Rebecca Wagner/U.S. Air Force)
ENID, Okla. (Tribune News Service) — Lt. Gen. Clark Quinn assumed command of Air Education and Training Command last Friday during a ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. He was promoted to lieutenant general the day before.
He replaces Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson.
AETC is responsible for recruiting, training and educating of Air Force and Space Force personnel, according to the AETC website. AETC includes Air Force Accessions Center, two numbered air forces and Air University.
AETC operates more than 1,400 trainer, fighter and mobility aircraft, 24 wings and 11 installations, including Vance. It trains more than 293,000 students per year with approximately 60,000 active duty, Reserve, Guard, civilian and contractor personnel.
Quinn, who was deputy commander of AETC before his promotion, was also the commander of the 71st Flying Training Wing at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma from June 2014 to June 2016.
“He was the commander at Vance Air Force Base, so he it was his job to figure out how to increase mission, reduce costs and all of those type of things to provide our nation’s pilots,” Mike Cooper, city of Enid military liaison, said Tuesday. “So now they have someone that commands all of our training command, who understands the importance of increased mission capability.”
Cooper said having Quinn as head of AETC is good news for Vance.
“In fact, he flew the first plane on our runway when we expanded the runway, so he understands the importance of those types of things and the cooperation that it takes to do things, which is community, state and federal level, all working together,” Cooper said. “But now we have someone that really is hyper-focused on that and understands it, because he worked at the base level, commanded our base.
“He understands that we going to do everything we can to work for (military construction), we’re going to do everything for airspace protection, because our number one military value is airspace, so he knows, what we’ve done there, but mainly the cooperation between the community, state and federal level, working together to make things happen for that base.”
Quinn is a command pilot with more than 3,100 hours in the T-38, F-16 and F-15E. He has flown in support of operations Southern Watch, Noble Eagle, Iraqi Freedom, Unified Protector, Enduring Freedom and Inherent Resolve.
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