Alumni Spotlight: Lt Col Jonathan Fullenkamp

For our inaugural Alumni Spotlight on the recently launched NEWS page, we thought it would be fitting to feature a member of the FIRST Air Camp! Way back in the summer of 2010, then UD graduate Johathan Fullenkamp was a Lead Counselor at the initial Middle School camp. Starting next summer, he will be taking command of the NRO Cape, the National Reconnaissance Office’s Launch Squadron at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

We are proud to claim to be a small part of his burgeoning career, and grateful to have such a stellar cast of stars be a part of the Air Camp story.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan B. Fullenkamp is the Program Manager, Special Programs, within the Survivability Assurance Office (SAO), National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Va., responsible for the cost, schedule, and performance of a $1B+ joint DoD and IC portfolio of advanced payloads. In this role, he leads an integrated product team in charge of designing, building, integrating, and testing a cutting-edge technology portfolio critical to National Security Space. He regularly interacts with leaders from Congress, NSC, OSD, ODNI, USSPACECOM, and USSF on future mission payloads that are key to fielding asymmetric capabilities.

Lieutenant Colonel Fullenkamp earned his commission in 2011 as a Distinguished Graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the University of Dayton. His career has spanned the spectrum of acquisitions and operations, to include assignments at the Air Force Research Lab, Air Force Institute of Technology, Headquarters National Reconnaissance Office, Space Delta 9, U.S. Space Command, and the Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency (DARPA). Prior to his current assignment, Lieutenant Colonel Fullenkamp was the Department of the Air Force, Space Force Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

My new role will be as Commander, NRO Cape. Although there is not a direct corollary, much of what I learned as an Air Camp counselor was the idea of taking a leap of faith. Thanks to one of my professors at the University of Dayton, I was fortunate to get connected with Air Camp and to be a part of the inaugural AC. However, with that came the responsibility of trying something new and leading when there were still many unknowns. That lesson of saying “yes” even when I didn’t have everything mapped out in front of me, is a lesson I’ve carried with me since.”

“One of my favorite memories from my time at AC was when we spent part of the day at the Dayton Wright Brothers Airport. That airport is special to my family as it is the same place my father learned to fly and earned his PPL over 50 years ago, setting the stage for his Air Force journey. Getting the opportunity to spend the day teaching the next generation about the beauty of flight and inspiring them at the same place my father fell in love with flying was incredibly special to me.”