Veteran of the Week: Chris Wellborn

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By Nick Sellers | Staff Writer 

 MADISON – Growing up in Jackson, Miss., Chris Wellborn was always seeking to go higher. Into the sky, that is.

After graduating high school in 1985, Wellborn knew he wanted to join the United States Air Force.

“I wanted to fly,” he said. “I just always knew I wanted to serve.”

So Wellborn enrolled at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and graduated in four years with a degree in general engineering. After graduation, Wellborn went to the now-closed Mather Air Force Base for navigation school near Sacramento.

Wellborn then served two years overseas in England before making his way back to the states at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, N.M. He spent four-and-a-half years flying EF-111A aircraft, from 1993-98.

After serving in Clovis, Wellborn was assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C., to fly F-15E Strike Eagles.

Wellborn’s next assignment was at the Pentagon, where he was working during the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The emphasis changed after that, but we were back to work pretty quickly,” he said.

Wellborn spent a total of four years at the Pentagon before another assignment in England. After that, Wellborn served an assignment at Randolph Air Force Base in Schertz, Texas, near San Antonio as a commander. It was at that location that Wellborn decided to get out of active duty.

“I had done what I wanted to do,” Wellborn said. “I had achieved the goal to be commander.”

In the transition to civilian life, Wellborn sought out the Huntsville area specifically, as he had visited before on a business trip and enjoyed the area.

He and his wife, Suzanne, and their three children live in historic downtown Madison on Front Street. He currently works for Booz Allen Hamilton.