George Kotti
LHS Class of 1965 |
He was named to both the All Black Hills Conference Football Team with an Honorable Mention Award; and the Black Hills All Conference Team for basketball. George was awarded the John Finola Athletics Scholarship, the Lead Women’ Club Mechanical Drawing Award and the Gerald Zwetzig Student Council Memorial Award. Colonel Kotti attended and graduated from the United Air Force Academy in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. He also graduated from the Air Force Institute of Technology with a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering Facilities. Colonel Kotti was assigned as a scientist/engineer with the Air Force Weapons laboratory where he served both as a test operations manager and test director for several highly important large scale blast and shock experiments on structures for different strategic missile basing concepts. George has held numerous operational flying assignments and is a Command Pilot with over 3,000 hours. program to upgrade the KC-135 refueling fleet of aircraft Colonel Kotti managed a highly successful, multi-billion dollar program to upgrade the KC-135 refueling fleet of aircraft. He was selected to command the 71st Refueling Squadron at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, where his aircrews supported air refueling operations throughout the world. He also commanded the 2nd Support Group also at Barksdale, where he oversaw all support activities for an 18,000 acre base with over $100 billion dollars in assets and served over 20,000 active duty military, reserve and civilian personnel, military retirees and their families. During Operation Desert Storm, Colonel Kotti commanded the 4404th Support Group (Provisional), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. As commander he directed the combat support activities of all Air Force locations in the Middle East Theater of Operations. Closer to home, Colonel Kotti served as the Inspector General, 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth, AFB. In 1999, Colonel Kotti served as a pastor at three different congregations in Rapid City. He also served as Executive Director of the Hot Springs Area Chamber of Commerce where he was instrumental in gaining national recognition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation when they named hot Springs, SD as one of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations in 2009. George is also a past Chairman of the Board of the Black Hills Badlands and Lakes Association.
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