Flying High Again

With the new academic year quickly approaching, and a renewed sense of excitement washing over Charleston Southern, Glover confessed his “greatest joy” comes from the confirmation that God has placed him in Charleston, at this university, at this time, to serve the next generation of leaders.

“When cadets graduate and are commissioned, they reach out to me and say, ’Thanks. The experience was awesome. You’ve done a great job getting us prepared.’  That is what I really love. It shows me I’m doing the job I need to be doing.”

A Collaborative Approach

All marketing and PR aside, Charleston Southern has stacked the deck in its favor. 

In addition to the Lowcountry lifestyle, Christ-centered academic vision, and a community that thrives in aeronautics training and professional development, the university offers an accredited Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-certified Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics with an emphasis in Air Traffic Management, Aerospace Management, Aeronautics: Professional Pilot, and a Bachelor of Technology in Aviation Maintenance Management. 

“A large portion are coming in with a desire to either be a pilot or do like an RPA pilot, like a drone pilot for the Air Force,” said Glover. “When we talk about being an RPA pilot, there are a lot of people that connect with that because they’ve done that kind of thing on a small scale before. And so, we’re seeing a big increase in people that want to do both.”

The strategic collaboration among CSU’s technology, aerospace, and ROTC programs is growing enrollment and raising the university’s profile.

“In my first year, we made sure students were getting a quality education that is preparing them for the active-duty side,” noted Glover. “But I think it is the cadet activities that really set us apart.”

For the first time in program history, CSU attracted a four-star general to visit the university. General Thomas A. Bussiere, a retired Air Force Global Strike Commander, shared valuable insight into what it means to be an officer.

“He met with our university leadership, but he spent about four hours with our cadets,” said Glover. “Not only our cadets here, but also the University of South Carolina and Citadel cadets. General Bussiere had an opportunity to really mentor, shape, and provide leadership. We had big leadership people coming and speaking to the cadets.”

In addition, Detachment 772 also welcomed Chief Master Sergeant Chad Bickley, the Air Education and Training Command chief, who spoke with the cadets and shared his perspective on what it means to be a leader and an officer.

“From that moment on, he put every bit of effort he had into it, and he just found out he’s going to be a C-17 pilot,” said Glover. “I’m incredibly proud of him for his resilience and responding in that great way to be able to push through and just to be able to get to the goal of being a C-17 pilot.”

Tyson’s father, Brian LeClaire, served as a flying crew chief and later as quality assurance over C-17s at Joint Base Charleston. LeClaire, who retired as a senior master sergeant, encouraged his son to follow suit, pointing Tyson to the aeronautics program.

“My senior year of high school, my Dad told me CSU was launching an aeronautics program,” said Tyson. “I was like, that sounds awesome because I don’t want to fix the planes. I’d much rather fly them.”

Tyson LeClair completed his pilot training in July in Mississippi, then … “I’ll either go straight to the training base in Oklahoma, or I’ll get sent to my first base and wait for a training assignment,” he said. “But what I do know is I’ll be flying a C-17.”

Like Father, Like Son.

A Divine Assignment

“When I graduated from the ROTC program at Georgia Tech, I had such a great active-duty cadre team growing us into leaders that I wanted to be that person for somebody else,” said Glover. “I told myself, if I ever get the opportunity at the end of my active-duty Air Force career to go back and be an Air Force ROTC instructor, that’s what I want to do.”

Glover’s active-duty service in the Air Force stretches across 18 years. After graduating from Georgia Tech, he was assigned as a C-17 pilot at Joint Base Lewis–McChord (JBLM) in the Pacific Northwest, eventually landing his first assignment in Seattle.

In 2012, Glover moved from Seattle to Joint Base Charleston and the 16th Airlift Squadron before becoming a C-17 instructor and an evaluator in Altus, Oklahoma, where he trained cadets to become aircraft commanders, instructors, and airdrop specialists.

Glover left Oklahoma for New Jersey to attend the Air Force Institute of Technology to be part of the Advanced Studies of Air Mobility, a specialty program where he earned a master’s degree in transportation and air supply management and received the award for best dissertation.

I went to a staff assignment for Air Force Central Command at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina. “I had done flying and air mobility, and now I oversaw all aircraft in the Middle East. I matured as an Air Force officer during that time.”

Glover eventually returned to Oklahoma and was assigned director of operations for the C-17 squadron; the number two guy under the squadron commander. “But after that job, I was selected to become the operations support squadron commander,” he said. “I had 175 people. We were doing weather, tactics, aircrew flight equipment, intel, and airfield management—air traffic control and RAS. That was my role.