WEST PLAINS, Mo. – United States Air Force Lt. Col. Samuel K. Joplin will give the keynote address at Missouri State University-West Plains’ 2017 commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 20, in the West Plains Civic Center arena.
“We’re pleased to have Lt. Col. Joplin speak to our graduates this year,” Missouri State-West Plains Chancellor Drew Bennett said. “Through his service in the Air Force and the Louisiana Air National Guard, he has made a significant contribution to our country. He is a great example of how someone from West Plains can make an impact that reaches far and wide.”
Joplin, son of Ken and Sandy Joplin, West Plains, currently is an F-15 instructor pilot with the 159th Fighter Wing of the Louisiana Air National Guard at Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base, New Orleans, Louisiana, according to an official biography. The wing employs the F-15C Eagle in various air-superiority and air-defense missions while maintaining a 24-hour Airspace Control Alert detachment in support of Operation Noble Eagle.
He was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1999 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He earned his wings in 2001 at Laughlin Air Force Base (AFB) in Texas. His flying assignments included duties as an instructor pilot, flight examiner, chief of flight operations and demonstration pilot. In 2011, he deployed to Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
He is a command pilot with more than 3,600 flight hours in various aircraft, primarily the F-15C. He also has logged more than 700 combat hours. While serving as a traditional guardsman, he also is a Boeing 777 pilot at FedEx Express.
Joplin earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1999 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. He also graduated from the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in 2006 and from the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in 2010.
He has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters, Aerial Achievement Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster and Air Force Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters.
For more information about commencement activities, contact the Missouri State-West Plains academic affairs office, 417-255-7272. For more information about Missouri State-West Plains, visit the university’s website.
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