Lt. Col. John M. Lussi, a 20-year Air Force veteran, is the new Air Force ROTC Detachment 35 commander at California State University, Fresno.
Lussi succeeds Lt. Col. Samuel Vandiver, following assignment to Beale Air Force Base, north of Sacramento. Lussi was the chief mission planner for U-2 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. Vandiver was assigned to Beale after his Fresno State duty.
Trained as a navigator on C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, Lussi has flown missions to more than 60 countries with combat and combat support time in the Balkans and Middle East. He was an acquisitions program manager in the Air Force Materiel Command and an advance agent for Air Force One, the president’s aircraft.
Lussi earned a mathematics degree from Pennsylvania State University and graduate degrees in operations management from the University of Arkansas and management information systems from Bowie State University in Maryland.
The Fresno State detachment was founded in 1948, just one year after the Air Force became an official branch of America’s military, and is one of the nation’s oldest AFROTC units. It is one of the top-achieving AFROTC units, winning the prestigious Right of Line Award for Best Detachment in the Nation in the medium-size category during the 2007-08 academic year.
Related link:
Air Force ROTC at Fresno State
