Promoted to general, he’ll lead Indiana Air National Guard
By MARK MILLER
Sometime Saturday afternoon at a ceremony at the 122nd Fighter Wing in Fort Wayne, Bluffton native and Norwell High School graduate Mike Stohler will have a star pinned to his uniform. Whether or not he is Wells County’s first general officer, he is most certainly the first Norwell graduate to become a brigadier general.
“It’s really amazing how fast the years have gone,” he told the News-Banner. “And obviously this is quite an honor, and I’m looking forward to the new challenges.”
As Col. Stohler, he has served as the commander of the 122nd for the past four years. As Gen. Stohler, he will be commander of the Indiana Air National Guard, overseeing not just the Fort Wayne base but also the 181st Intelligence Wing in Terre Haute.
His service will remain technically a part-time position; that does not, of course, include the full-time deployments he has been on. Hence, he will continue to serve as a commercial pilot for Delta Air Lines, primarily on international flights to Europe. His military responsibilities will typically consume about six days a month excluding any deployments and training events.
A 1986 graduate of Norwell, he began his IANG career while still in high school as a crew chief for the F-4 fighters in Fort Wayne. He studied aviation at Indiana State University and then immediately entered flight school — which included “weapons school” — in 1990. He was a pilot of the F-16 fighter jets from the time he graduated until 2009, which was when the 122nd switched to the A-10C Thunderbolt II.
Stohler has been on “numerous deployments” over his 37 years of service, the exact number he would have to calculate. All of them have been in the Middle East, including deployments in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Jordan and Qatar that included more than 160 combat sorties, totaling about 830 combat hours.
“My most memorable and rewarding flying was in combat,” he shared. “Combat aviation is where all of the skills and training are tested.”
His last deployment was a six-month assignment that began in the fall of 2014 when he was the commander at the Kuwait Air Base. His units included pilots and crews from three nations — Italy, Denmark and Canada, over 800 personnel in all.
The process of transitioning from a colonel to a general has several steps.
“First, there has to be an opening,” Stohler explained, which occurred upon a retirement up the chain of command. The adjutant general of the State of Indiana, Major General Dale Lyles, nominated him. That triggered the usual process of review by the Federal Recognition Board, followed by a required confirmation by the U.S. Senate and the final approval by the Secretary of Defense.
As a result of his promotion, Stohler will no longer be flying combat jets. According to the unit’s Facebook page, Stohler has logged more than 4,100 hours piloting the F-16 Fighter Falcon and the A-10C Thunderbolt II.
“That’s the bad part,” he admitted. “But I’ve been at it 32 years, which is longer than most. It’s been a good run.”
His final flight was celebrated by his entire unit on Saturday, April 23.
“We flew over Bluffton for the last time,” he said.
Stohler is the son of the late David Stohler, who was also a fighter pilot and retired from the IANG as a colonel and vice wing commander of the 122nd.
“I was inspired by seeing (him) flying jets at Fort Wayne for over 30 years,” he said. “He flew F-84s, F-100s, and F-4s. My mother encouraged me to follow him into aviation and that is what I did.”
His mother, Judy Stohler, still lives in Bluffton. His wife, Michelle Brown-Stohler is an attorney in Bluffton and they have one son, Carson.
“I can honestly say as much as I will miss strapping on a fighter jet and soaring into the air, I will genuinely miss the people I worked for during my time as Wing Commander,” Stohler concluded. “They are professionals in every sense of the word. I respect all of them and their families for their sacrifice to our community, state, and nation. I consider my promotion to be as much the result of their dedication to the mission as mine.”
miller@news-banner.com
