Barrientos becomes the 21st member of the WHINSEC Hall of Fame.

WHINSEC Alumni and current Commanding General of the Honduran Air Force becomes the 21st inductee to the WHINSEC Hall of Fame.

FORT BENNING, GA – On May 7, 2021, BG Javier Rene Barrientos Alvarado, Honduran Air Force Commanding General, became the 21st member of the WHINSEC’s Hall of Fame. Barrientos joins the ranks of fellow Honduran BG Tito Livio Moreno Coello, and is the first HAF member inducted to the HoF here at the Institute.

The WHINSEC HoF recognizes outstanding and lasting contributions of former students whose significant work, values and contributions reflects greatly upon the Western Hemisphere, Country, Organization, WHINSEC and themselves.

Barrientos became an aviator in 1989 as he graduated from the Captain Roberto Barahona Lagos Military Aviation Academy. Following a number of assignments, where he continued to perform in positions of increased responsibility, he attends training at MacDill Air Force Base in 2001. After the attack in September 11, 2001, Barrientos volunteered to assist on the initial recovery efforts at Ground Zero in NY. In 2004 where he returns to the U.S., and attends the Squadron Commander Course at the Inter American Air Force Academy.

Selected in 2007, Barrientos comes to WHINSEC and attends the Command and General Staff Officer Course in 2007 – 2008.

Upon his return to his native Honduras, he continues to serve with distinction and in 2012 commands the Coronel Hector Caracciolo Moncada Air Base, home of the F5E/F Tiger II combat aircraft.

After successful command, in 2018, Barrientos attends the High Strategic Studies Course for Senior Officials at the Center for National Defense Studies in Madrid, Spain.

Barrientos, assumed the command of the Honduran Air Force in Jan 2019.

During his remarks, WHINSEC Commandant, COL John Dee Suggs Jr., talked how more than twenty-five thousand students are part of the WHINSEC family; how they have returned to their countries of origin taking with them a little of WHINSEC in them, a small part of the Institute’s soul. We have always ask them to take those educational seeds, and share with their fellow compatriots.

“Of those twenty-five thousand WHINSEC family members, very few have been bestowed such an honor of being nominated and inducted to the Hall of Fame. General Barrientos, Sir, you have reached to the top of your profession; many successes, many accomplishments. Today we honor you and recognize you as a cultivator of everything that WHINSEC believes in. We ask of you to continue being a voice for Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Democracy. We (WHINSEC) salute you; you are amongst us. Siempre Listos,” he concluded.

For his part Barrientos commented, “ I am honored to be here, with you all, with my family. As I am standing here, listening to you all, my mind races remembering so many events. To me, these 38 years of service has been a way of life, a passion. That passion that makes us does things with the best disposition. My experience with WHINSEC is a key moment on my life. I learned so much here; as I took a lot of what I learned here and put into practice, and it has been an effective and successful formula. WHINSEC is a great institution, a great educational institution. What you learn here, you can take back home; put it into practice and that is the winning formula.”