Bair shows leadership in the armed forces
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Margaret Bair
Brig. Gen. Margaret H. Bair
Age: 54
Community: Fontana
Family: Husband, Jim; children Matt, Kris and Mike.
Civilian job: Nurse at Mercy Walworth in Lake Geneva. She works post-acute care—the area that used to be called “the recovery room.”
National Guard job: Chief of staff for the Wisconsin Air National Guard. She’s the principal adviser to the commander of the Air National Guard concerning the administration, training, tactical deployment and supply of state Air National Guard units.
Service history: Joined the Air Force in 1976 as a registered nurse on active duty in the United States Air Force. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1978, captain in 1980.
Joined the Air Force Reserve in 1981, serving as a clinical nurse. Joined the Montana Air National Guard in 1986 and was promoted to major in 1988.
In 1994, she transferred to the Milwaukee-based 128th Medical Squadron of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1996 and became the squadron’s commander in 2000. She was promoted to colonel in 2002, and in 2005, she assumed command of the whole medical group.
She has served as chief of staff for the Wisconsin Air National Guard since 2008 and was promoted to her present rank in 2009.
Military awards and decorations include: Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal with one bronze oak leaf cluster, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with one silver oak leaf cluster, the National Defense Service Medal with one bronze serve star, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Air For Longevity Service Award Ribbon with one silver and one bronze oak leaf cluster, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” device, numeral two and silver hourglass and the Air Force Training Ribbon.
Hobbies: Golf, knitting and reading.
Music: Classic rock including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger.
FONTANA — Day job: registered nurse at Mercy Walworth in Lake Geneva.
Weekend job: brigadier general in the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
Life’s work: serving her country.
In 2009, Gov. Jim Doyle promoted Margaret H. Bair to brigadier general, making her the first woman to serve as a general in the Wisconsin National Guard.
Bair described the experience as “amazing and humbling at the same time.”
“To be entrusted with the leadership and training of our young people—it’s humbling,” Bair said.
Bair grew up in a family of eight children. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was a doctor. Although she had siblings in the armed forces, hers wasn’t a particularly military family.
“It was just something that always interested me,” Bair said. “It looked exciting, and it was something different.”
After graduating from nursing school in 1976, Bair joined the Air Force as a registered nurse and trained to be a flight nurse.
Instead of spending time in the skies, she served at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., and in hospitals in Japan and elsewhere.
After her active duty was over, she joined the Air Force Reserve and later the Montana Air National Guard.
Eventually, she became commander of the Wisconsin National Guard’s 128th Medical Group. Since June 2008, she has served as chief of staff for the Guard.
She and her husband, Jim, waited until she was through with her active duty service to start a family.
Now, her children—Matt, Kris and Mike—are all young adults.
They were all younger than 5 when she and Jim were called up during Desert Storm.
“Our assignment was to backfill for active duty troops,” Bair said.
She was sent to a hospital in Grand Forks, N.D., and Jim, who was also in the National Guard, was sent to the other end of the country.
Her kids went to her in-laws in Iowa.
Still, she persisted in her Guard service.
Brig. Gen. John McCoy is Bair’s boss in the Guard.
“I think that, in general, everybody that gets to this rank has to work well with others and know how to accomplish things through other people,” McCoy said.
He sees Bair’s abilities coming from the “cumulative effect of her experiences”—working in a variety of units and with diverse groups of people.
“She’s an asset,” McCoy said simply.
Not surprisingly, Bair’s proudest moments aren’t about herself. They are about the people who have benefited from her training and gone on to succeed in the field.
“I think my proudest moments were as commander of the 128th Medical Group,” Bair said. “Seeing them being deployed and being successful and coming back and feeling good about what they had done.”
Bair’s career has never been about herself. It has been about service to the men and women who serve their country in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan—and those who serve Wisconsin.
“I’m honored to do it,” Bair said. “I’m honored to take care of those people. They’re the brave ones.”
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