A 1983 graduate of Trigg County High School and among its noted halls of Distinguished Alumni, Scott Alan Howell’s list of career achievements is as decorated as the day is long.
From 2018 until 2021, the semi-retired United States Air Force lieutenant general most recently served as the 15th commander of the Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina — considered an elite post for what he refers to as “the best counterterrorism, reconnaissance and direct-action group in the world.”
In constant contact with Washington, D.C., during this time — even during vacations and family functions — he helped plan, coordinate and facilitate an average 10-to-12 missions a day, many of them unspeakably high-risk and geopolitical in nature.
But before he logged more than 2,600 flight hours himself, before he became Trigg County’s first-ever graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, and before he married another Trigg Countian, Susan, he was simply a Wildcat — playing football for Buddy Perry, basketball for Ray Maggard, and going about classic rural life in south western Kentucky.
Howell hadn’t visited the Cadiz Rotary Club since 2006, but changed that Tuesday afternoon — privately reflecting on key career moments with a group of people he and his father, J.D., knew so well through the years.
On the record, however, Howell explained that while his father served three years in the U.S. Coast Guard, a career in the military wasn’t originally on his radar.
Howell admitted he didn’t originally come into the Air Force with a great sense of patriotism or call of duty. In fact, he contemplated leaving the service when his dad called to see if he wanted to “come home, and run the Cadiz Milling Company” — less than five years after he had completed flight school.
Today, Howell notes the Air Force’s denial of leave “fortuitous” — even when those first few days in basic training were understandably “scary” — and it was early exposure to JSOC that changed his life.
From that point forward, Howell said he was around a “better grade of human being,” because he was around “harder workers, hard-nosed people that” reminded him of people who grew up around in Trigg County — where a low hum of military respect has always existed, and is only amplified by Fort Campbell’s promise and proximity.
When he first joined JSOC, he was but one of 68 pilots in his squadron, which was commanded by a lieutenant colonel and was part of a 600-person group.
All he wanted to do was fly helicopters, but it also became his first real test of leadership.
According to Cadiz Rotarian Eric Bleidt, the urban legend had always been that Howell called mom and dad collect from a pay phone in Iraq, during the early days of Desert Shield — in what was the American build up to Desert Storm and the Gulf War.
Howell confirmed the call was not collect from a pay phone, but instead from an AT&T tent in the middle of a foreign conflict, and he had two questions for the folks back home.
“How is everybody?” and “What are those Kentucky Wildcats up to?”
When Tuesday’s meeting closed, Dr. Scott Sutherland presented Howell with a freshly-printed “Hometown Heroes” banner — just like the hundreds of others that now hang along Main Street, showcasing those who maintained service above self.
