General Gregory S. Martin retired from the United States Air Force in September 2005 as the Commander of the Air Force Materiel Command after having served thirty-five years on active duty.

After graduating from the United States Air Force Academy in 1970 and pilot training in 1971, General Martin began his career as a fighter pilot with a combat tour in Southeast Asia.  Over the next twenty years he served in a variety of staff and flying assignments, which led to his selection as fighter wing commander on three successive assignments.  For the remainder of his career, General Martin served in senior level staff assignments on the Joint Staff, the Air Staff and the Secretariat of the Air Force before being selected as the Commander of United States Air Forces Europe and Commander of NATO’s Allied Air Forces Northern Europe.  While in Europe, General Martin commanded joint and combined air forces supporting and participating in Operations Northern Watch over northern Iraq, Operations Joint Forge and Joint Guardian in Bosnia and Kosovo, Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. 

In his final assignment, General Martin commanded nearly 80,000 military and civilian personnel responsible for:  The Air Force’s Science and Technology programs executed through the Air Force Research Laboratory;  all personnel and infrastructure required to support the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition’s management of all aircraft, munitions, and command, control, communications and computer system acquisition programs;  the Air Force’s Developmental Test and Evaluation activities; and the Air Force’s logistics, engineering and depot maintenance operations.  The Air Force Materiel Command is responsible for executing a budget of nearly $40 Billion per year, or approximately half of the Air Force’s annual budget at that time.

Since retiring from the Air Force, General Martin has become an independent consultant.  He has served as a committee director on two Defense Science Board Studies and Chaired the Board of Directors for the National Academies’ Air Force Studies Board for eight years.  He performs mentoring duties as an Adjunct Contract Professor for the US Air Force, serves as a Senior Fellow for the National Defense University and is an associate professor for the executive development programs at the Universities of North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.  Additionally, he has served on several advisory and Boards of Directors for a number of defense and aerospace industry corporations. He has also served for five years as the President of the National War College Alumni Association and five years as the Chairman of the Falcon Foundation, which provides scholarship funding for promising young men and women aspiring to attend the United States Air Force Academy.  Most recently General Martin has been engaged with both the Air Force Academy and the Air Force Academy Foundation in establishing the USAFA’s Institute for Future Conflict.