Hurst selected as Kentucky's next adjutant general for Air

  • Published
  • By Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs
Col. Warren H. Hurst has been selected as the Commonwealth's next assistant adjutant general for Air, Kentucky's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Edward Tonini, announced Friday.

Hurst will assume the post effective Oct. 19, replacing Brig. Gen. Mark Kraus, who has been named Air National Guard assistant to the commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Hurst currently serves as commander of the Kentucky Air National Guard's Louisville-based 123rd Airlift Wing.

"The Kentucky Air National Guard has emphasized building a great bench of leaders capable of maintaining our position as the best Air National Guard unit in the nation," Tonini said. "Colonel Hurst will continue Kentucky's national reputation of unequaled excellence and unbridled service into the future."

Over the past year, Hurst led the wing through a successful Air Force Consolidated Unit Inspection consisting of five higher headquarters-directed unit mission evaluations; demonstrated wing homeland defense/homeland security mission capabilities for state and federal response operations for the four-star-general commanders of Air Mobility Command and U.S. Transportation Command; conducted the first-ever mass physical fitness test for wing personnel, ensuring compliance with Air Force fitness standards and earning praise from the director of the Air National Guard; and coordinated with the National Guard Bureau to add the wing's 123rd Contingency Response Group to the national Domestic Operations Emergency Response Plan force package.

A C-130 command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours, Hurst has served in various operational and headquarters staff assignments, including duty as an instructor and evaluator pilot for 12th Air Force and Air Forces Southern.

He has held staff positions at the Tanker Airlift Control Center and Headquarters, Air Mobility Command. He also has flown C-130 combat and humanitarian relief operations worldwide to include operations in Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, Central and South America, and the Middle East.

"Colonel Hurst served for the previous five years as the first commander of the 123rd Contingency Response Group, setting the standard for and developing national policy in this high-profile mission area," Tonini added, noting that Hurst is qualified as a Joint Task Force-Port Opening commander.

Concurrently, he served as the 1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern) director of mobility forces for eight National Level Exercises for homeland security/homeland defense and coordinated civil-military air relief efforts during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He also served as deputy director of mobility forces to the Pacific Air Forces commander in response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan in 2011.

Hurst holds a master's degree in strategic studies degree from the United States Army War College. He is a graduate of the Harvard University Leadership in Homeland Security Program and Advanced Joint Professional Military Education at National Defense University, Joint Forces Staff College.

"Please take the time to congratulate Colonel Hurst for his selection to this very prestigious position," Tonini said.