Rocket Man

By Molly Blake

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Cotton ’86 doesn’t spend much time sitting at his desk.  After all, he’s got 33,600 square miles and 11,000 airmen spread out over four states under his command. And nothing makes him more proud than talking with the men and women in his command, be it an Air Force civil engineer sitting on a front-end loader, security forces at the entry gate or crew members maintaining the 450 inter-continental ballistic (ICBM) Minuteman 3 Missiles he oversees.

“That’s what I live for,” says Cotton, commander of the 20th Air Force, Air Force Global Strike Command and of the U.S. Strategic Command. “I listen to their challenges and their innovative ideas.”

And those ideas are critical because, as Cotton says, “nuclear deterrence is the bedrock of democratic existence for the U.S.” Particularly, he says, with the resurgence of what Cotton calls “nation states” such as Iran, Russia and China.

“The capability that my command has as one important part of the nuclear triad is very relevant in today’s day and age,” says Cotton. “Having that capability and options gives the president a hedge.”

Cotton took command in November 2015. That’s when he and his wife Marsha moved to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, and hung his NC State flag outside his house. He reluctantly hung a UNC flag, too. “We are a house divided,” jokes Cotton, whose daughter Brianna is a Tar Heel.

A leader since his days as a resident adviser in Metcalf Hall and as a cadet in NC State’s ROTC program, Cotton began his career in Minot, N.D. He rocketed from that first assignment to the Pentagon, Cape Canaveral, Fla., and elsewhere, collecting accolades along the way. He’s earned the Defense Superior Service Medal and The Legion of Merit, among others.

Over his three decades in the service, Cotton’s dedication has never waned and, despite the many moves to different bases, neither has his family’s. His son joined the Air Force and is serving as an intelligence analyst. Cotton and his wife will move again, in the fall of 2017, but he doesn’t know where. But one thing he does know — he’ll proudly fly his NC State flag.

NC State will celebrate the class of 2023 during its spring commencement ceremony at PNC Arena on Saturday, May 6 at 9 a.m. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, the commander at United States Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and an NC State alumnus, will deliver the commencement address.