As Brig. Gen. Amy S. Bumgarner prepares to turn over command of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, she leaves an agency that spent the past three years sharpening its counterintelligence posture, modernizing capabilities and adapting to a changing national security environment.
But if you ask her, the most important measure of that work has always been the people behind it.
“It’s all about our people,” Bumgarner said. “At the end of the day, the success of this command comes down to whether we took care of them and gave them what they needed to execute the mission.” That approach helped shape some of the most significant changes of her tenure.
One came in late 2023, when Bumgarner directed AFOSI leaders to overhaul the agency’s counterintelligence strategy for an era of strategic competition. Completed in early 2024, the effort helped guide how AFOSI approached technology protection, emerging threats and new operational requirements.
The command also produced measurable investigative results. In July 2025, AFOSI reported more than $1.83 billion in fraud-related settlements, penalties and restitution over the previous two years. But Bumgarner is careful not to claim that record as her own.
For her, command meant setting priorities, making decisions and giving people the direction and support they needed to act.
The investigations, operations and daily work belonged to the thousands of agents, Airmen, civilians and professional staff across AFOSI, she said, and her role was to make sure they were prepared to do it. But before she could define what a commander owed an organization, she first had to find her place in it.
Finding the right fit
Born and raised in Burleson, Texas, Bumgarner studied government and history at Southeastern Louisiana University with an eye toward federal law enforcement, not a career in the military. She commissioned through Officer Training School in 1995 and was assigned to communications.
With a liberal arts background, Bumgarner said she was surprised, and a little apprehensive, when she learned she was headed into communications. But the work ultimately proved broader than she expected. She began looking for opportunities to cross-train, initially considering intelligence.
A few years later, an announcement seeking officers with communications experience introduced her to AFOSI, an agency she knew little about at the time. Bumgarner researched the agency, applied to cross-train and joined AFOSI in July 1999.
The assignments that followed widened her view of the organization. She served as a field agent, commanded detachments, worked at the Air Force Academy, deployed to Afghanistan and later led an AFOSI region before taking command of the U.S. Air Force Special Investigations Academy in 2017.
Two years later, she moved to Quantico, Virginia, to lead AFOSI’s Investigations Collections Operations Nexus Center, later renamed the AFOSI Center.
“I was very nervous about going to be the Center’s commander because I thought, ‘Man, that is a big job,’” Bumgarner said.
But what she found there changed her understanding of leadership. The Center was filled with specialists in law enforcement, counterintelligence, cyber and other mission areas who knew their fields more deeply than she did. “I had a lot of subject matter experts that knew how to do this stuff,” she said. “They weren’t looking to me to be the expert on those things. They were looking to me for leadership.”
As the Center’s commander, Bumgarner learned among other things, that leadership meant providing oversight and giving experts room to apply their knowledge within the commander’s intent.
“I understood at that point, operations are going to happen,” she said. “And our people are going to be there to take care of it.”
In July 2021, Bumgarner became AFOSI vice commander, later renamed deputy commander, under retired Brig. Gen. Terry Bullard, then-commander of AFOSI.
From the seat immediately below the commander, she saw how much ultimately arrived at the front office, from operations and personnel issues to resources, information technology, inspector general matters, international partnerships and high-visibility issues requiring engagement with senior Department of the Air Force leaders.
Weight of command
When Bumgarner took command of AFOSI in May 2023, those responsibilities became hers. She entered the job and said her focus was less on imposing a personal vision than understanding what the organization needed.
“This was never about, ‘Hey, what’s my vision? Where do I want us to go?’” Bumgarner said. “I always did reflection on that and thought, ‘What does the command need from me as a leader?’”
That approach was tested early. Col. Tara Lunardi served as Bumgarner’s deputy commander, but as she settled into the position, her battle with cancer worsened. Around Thanksgiving 2023, Lunardi told Bumgarner she needed to step away and focus on her health and treatment.
Lunardi suffered a stroke the following January and died Feb. 7, 2024. For Bumgarner, Lunardi was more than the officer serving beside her. The two had come through the organization together, their careers repeatedly crossing as they advanced through AFOSI.
Bumgarner said the loss was difficult, but it also created an immediate leadership challenge in a position she knew well from her own time as deputy commander.
In the months that followed, AFOSI drew on leaders from across the command to keep the front office moving as deputy commander. First Col. David Bethel, then commander of AFOSI Region 2, came to Quantico for several weeks while continuing to lead his region. He was followed by Col. Bob Smolich and Col. Sean Phillips, both Individual Mobilization Augmentees, whose ability to step into the headquarters role highlighted the depth and flexibility AFOSI’s Reserve component provides.
Each colonel helped provide experienced leadership during the transition, but the rotating arrangement could not provide the continuity the deputy commander position required, she said. That changed when Col. Brian Stelma joined the front office full time.
The experience also reinforced what Bumgarner saw as one of the commander’s most important responsibilities, she said, which is providing stability when circumstances did not.
“The commander position needs to be the calm,” Bumgarner said. “It’s okay to say, like, ‘Look, I don’t know what the answer is right now.’ Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t know. Here’s what we need to still figure out. But I promise you, we’ll keep you informed.”
‘A small part in time’
When Bumgarner looks back on her tenure, she does not describe command as something that belonged to her. “This was my small part in time to get to lead this organization,” she said.
She also knows one distinction will remain attached to that time regardless of how AFOSI’s strategies, missions or priorities change. She was the first woman to lead the agency. And years from now, she knows people will walk past the portraits of former AFOSI commanders will see hers and recognize that. But she said she hopes the assessment does not end there.
“I hope people look back and ask, ‘What defined her time in command? What did she focus on, and how did she lead through the challenges?’” Bumgarner said.
Her answer is not a particular investigation, dollar figure or new strategy.
“I hope what resonates is that I constantly made decisions and focused on taking care of our people,” she said, adding that meant giving people the training, resources and confidence to act while making clear she would stand with them when risks came with the mission.
AFOSI will continue to evolve after Bumgarner leaves Quantico, just as it did before she took command. For her, that is part of the nature of the job, she said. Commanders set priorities, make decisions and eventually hand the organization to someone else.
Which is the case Aug. 25, when Brig. Gen. Laura DeJong takes the helm. The flag will pass, the mission will continue and Bumgarner’s portrait will join the commanders who came before her. What she hopes remains is simpler. Bumgarner said she hopes the people she led felt prepared and trusted to act, and knew when the mission required difficult decisions, she would stand with them.
“At the end of the day,” she said, “I had their back.”
| Date Taken: | 08.24.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.24.2026 13:04 |
| Story ID: | 573091 |
| Location: | QUANTICO, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | BURLESON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, After three decades of service, AFOSI’s 20th commander retires, by Thomas Brading, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
