Donald Dunbar took over Wisconsin National Guard at height of Iraq, Afghan wars

When Donald Dunbar was appointed Wisconsin's top military officer in 2007, state National Guardsmen were in the middle of numerous deployments to war zones as the surge was unfolding in Iraq and terrorist attacks and bombings increased in Afghanistan.

Dunbar resigned as Wisconsin Adjutant General on Monday following a scathing federal report that determined he willfully ignored sexual assault allegations within the ranks of the state's more than 10,000 Army and Air National Guard members.

Before Gov. Jim Doyle appointed him to adjutant general, Dunbar led the 128th Air Refueling Wing based at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, a job he took over in 2005.

As adjutant general, Dunbar was also the governor's homeland security adviser, the state's senior official on cyber matters and a leader in the state's emergency management system since National Guard troops are sometimes activated for natural emergencies like floods, blizzards and tornado cleanup.

Dunbar was commissioned in the Air Force in 1984 and accumulated more than 3,000 flying hours in a variety of planes including the B-52, C-26 and KC-135, the same plane used by the 128th Air Refueling Wing.

He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as commander of the 385th Air Expeditionary Group based in Turkey.

Dunbar, a two-star Air Force general, was one of the longest serving adjutant generals in the U.S. 

Dunbar will be replaced on a temporary basis by the assistant adjutant general of the Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Gary Ebben.

Ebben earned his Air Force commission in 1982, the same year he received a bachelor's in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1984 he joined the 176th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Truax Field in Madison as an A-10 aircraft commander.

Ebben has more than 3,000 flying hours including 285 combat hours. He served in several command position at Truax Field and was vice commander of the 115th Fighter Wing from 2002 to '08.

Ebben spent 3½ years as commander of the Combat Readiness Training Center at Volk Field in central Wisconsin before he was appointed assistant adjutant general of Wisconsin's Air National Guard in 2012.