{"id":11109,"date":"2026-03-22T17:31:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=11109"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:17:06","slug":"commander-of-the-175th-wing-promotes-to-brigadier-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2026\/03\/22\/commander-of-the-175th-wing-promotes-to-brigadier-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Commander of the 175th Wing promotes to brigadier general"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Story by\u00a0Senior Airman Sarah Hoover<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MIDDLE RIVER, Md. \u2013 Maryland Air National Guard Col. Joed Carbonell-L\u00f3pez, commander of the 175th Wing, was promoted to brigadier general during a ceremony at Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport, March 22, 2026.

Maryland Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead, adjutant general for Maryland, hosted the promotion ceremony and recognized Carbonell-L\u00f3pez\u2019s family for their role in supporting him, as well as highlighting his multifaceted career.

\u201cThroughout his career he has built organizations, inspired teams, taken on the hard jobs and has most importantly done this with humility,” said Birckhead. \u201cI have no doubt that he will carry on this responsibility with the same excellence that has defined his career. I\u2019m confident that he is ready to lead, fight and win across all domains.\u201d

In 2000, while attending the University of Maryland, Carbonell-L\u00f3pez commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. As a career cyberspace operations and intelligence officer, he conducted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war throughout the Central and Special Operations Command areas of responsibility and cyberspace operations as part of the Cyber National Mission Force.

He has led at the squadron, group, and wing levels, and held staff assignments at the National Security Agency, U.S. Special Operations Command, the National Guard Bureau and the Cyber National Mission Force.

In support of U.S. and Coalition operations in the Middle East, Carbonell-L\u00f3pez has deployed to support Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and is a joint qualified officer.

During the ceremony, he emphasized his gratitude for having made it to this point in his career, acknowledging his reliance on faith and family for their endless support leading up to this moment.

\u201cMy parents successfully changed the course of their lineage. I\u2019m keenly aware of how far my family has come from our humble beginnings, and my family has continued to serve, advance and excel against all odds,\u201d said Carbonell-L\u00f3pez. \u201cWe have never allowed adversity, challenges, roadblocks, or society to define what we could or could not achieve or become. We have always refused to be a statistic.\u201d

As a civilian, he has served within the National Security Agency as a division chief and technical director. During his tenure, he led and operated two major programs for the director of the National Security Agency and director of National Intelligence and deployed as the agency\u2019s technical director.

\u201cI want to thank all of my teammates during my time at the National Security Agency as a federal civilian,\u201d Carbonell-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cTogether we were able to transform how the agency supports combat operations and I\u2019m grateful to have been part of that journey with you.\u201d

Additionally, he has served as the director of Operations, Cyber National Mission Force, U.S. Cyber Command at Fort George G. Meade. Immediately prior to assuming command of the 175th Wing, he served as the commander of the 179th Cyberspace Operations Group at Mansfield Air National Guard Base in Ohio.

Throughout his career, he has spent time teaching as an adjunct professor in multiple fields of study, and acknowledged his colleagues in academia for his own professional growth while encouraging young scholars.

\u201cYou and your family\u2019s past do not define your future, they only inform it,\u201d Carbonell-L\u00f3pez said addressing his family, loved ones and all those in attendance. \u201cYour future is God and yours to create, so don\u2019t let anyone tell you that your dreams are impossible. You are the primary reason I serve because I want to ensure you have a safe and secure future to achieve your impossible dreams.\u201d

In his role as wing commander, Carbonell-L\u00f3pez oversees more than 1,400 Airmen across three operations groups, one mission support group, one medical group, and one civil engineering element. He oversees a budget in excess of $46 million in addition to over $37 million in base infrastructure and real property.

\u201cTo all my Battle Buddies, Shipmates, Wingmen and fellow Guardsmen, thank you for your friendship and mentorship along my journey,\u201d said Carbonell-L\u00f3pez. \u201cIron sharpens iron, and each of you have sharpened and shaped me into the officer, leader and man I am today.\u201d
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Story by\u00a0Senior Airman Sarah Hoover MIDDLE RIVER, Md. \u2013 Maryland Air National Guard Col. Joed Carbonell-L\u00f3pez, commander of the 175th Wing, was promoted to brigadier general during a ceremony at Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport, March 22, 2026. Maryland Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead, adjutant general for Maryland, hosted  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":11117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11119,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11109\/revisions\/11119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}