Meet the new Operations Group Commander

  • Published
  • By Airman Cortney Hansen
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  After 21 years and several assignments around the country, Col. Edward Rimback joined Team Malmstrom this past October to serve as the 341st Operations Group's new commander.

In 1988, Colonel Rimback graduated from Kean University, in Union, N.J., with a Bachelors of Science and Quantitative Methods, and was commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1989.

Colonel Rimback's first assignment was as an ICBM Missile Launch Officer with the 90th Strategic Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. His Air Force career has consisted of various positions including staff tours at the Space Warfare Center, Schriever AFB, Colo., as a flight commander at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and on the Air Force Space Command staff, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. He served as a legislative fellow for the Honorable Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado in 2002, and followed that duty with a Headquarters Air Force tour at the Pentagon as legislative liaison for the Secretary of the Air Force.

As legislative liaison, he worked the Congressional Engagement Plan for the Secretary of the Air Force, the Under Secretary, the Chief of Staff and the Vice Chief; making sure who they went to see, and what they were going to speak about, was well formulated and on point.

"I loved the opportunity to be in the midst of senior leadership, and to understand how decisions were truly getting made," Colonel Rimback said.

In 2005, after serving as Legislative Liaison, Colonel Rimback was assigned to Minot AFB, N.D., to serve as the commander of the 742nd Missile Squadron. Shortly thereafter he was appointed the deputy group commander of the 91st Operations Group at Minot.

After attending the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and receiving his Masters of Science and National Resource Strategy in 2008, he traveled to Fort Belvoir, Va., to be the deputy program manager, followed by deputy director, Cooperative Threat Reduction Directorate at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency until he received orders to Malmstrom AFB in 2010.

"Air Force leadership looks at a community, and in the missile community, I think I have experienced the broad spectrum," Colonel Rimback said. "I've been to F.E. Warren, to Minot and now I'm rounding out my experience by coming to Malmstrom."

Although a part of the missile community, Colonel Rimback's favorite station wasn't a missile base. His favorite assignment was Vandenberg AFB, Calif., because that's where he met his wife, Anne-Marie.

"Vandenberg was probably where I grew from being a very young officer to a more experienced, well-seasoned officer, going into field-grade ranks," he said. "But quite honestly, the best part was that I had the opportunity to meet and grow with my wife."

As husband and proud parent of two; Iman, 20, and Adam, 8; Col. Rimback has had to accept what he says is the hardest part of his career - the strain it puts on his family.

"The tough part is the effect it has on them, and you know you're causing that effect by being in the United States military," he said. "What we're looking forward to is settling in, getting established and then finding some routine for our life."

As new OG commander, Colonel Rimback hopes to keep his Airmen motivated in order to sustain the level of excellence that's required in the nuclear enterprise.

"When I speak to people going out into the field, we talk about daily excellence being the road to perfection," the colonel said. "We're going to have some challenges, and every once in a while, we might stumble, but as long as we continue to travel on that road to perfection through daily excellence, then we're going down the right path. What we cannot tolerate are people who consciously, knowingly and intentionally decide to deviate off of that daily excellence."