- Office
Columbus, OH 43210
Col Patrick Kolesiak is the Commander of Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) Detachment 645, Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Studies at The Ohio State University. He is responsible for every aspect of the AFROTC program at Ohio state and its numerous crosstown schools. He leads a staff of four officers, two non-commissioned officers, and a civilian university employee in recruiting, training, motivating, and educating close to 150 cadets each year in a 4-year academic, military training, and character development program leading AFROTC university graduates to a commission in the United States Air Force or Space Force. Additionally, he roughly executes Air Force and Ohio State budgets, tuition, and scholarship programs totaling $2 million annually.
Col Kolesiak is a 24-year, career civil engineer officer who entered the Air Force in 2001 after receiving his commission through the AFROTC program at the University of Notre Dame. His previous experience includes headquarters tours and deployments at the Air Staff, Air Force major command, joint/coalition task force, and theater support component command levels. He has numerous deployments to Afghanistan in support of Provincial Reconstruction Teams and special operations-led Village Stability Operations. He was a member of the initial cohort of the Afghanistan Pakistan Hands program, providing subject matter expertise to Operation Enduring Freedom task force commanders. Furthermore, he was part of the initial entry team into Liberia to combat the 2014 Ebola crisis, and later served as the Air Expeditionary Group Deputy Commander for Hurricanes Harvey and Maria response and recovery. Col Kolesiak previously served as the squadron commander for the 99th Civil Engineer Squadron, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron, and the 52d Contracting Squadron. He has also commander of the 55th Mission Support Group and dual-hatted as the Commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, Detachment 7 and Chief of the Site Support Division, Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, Edwards AFB, California.
Education
2001 Bachelor of Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
2001 Aerospace Basic Course, Maxwell AFB, Alabama
2006 Master of Architectural Design and Urbanism, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
2006 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Alabama
2011 Air Command and Staff College (correspondence)
2014 Master of Military Art and Science, Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
2015 U.S. Air Force Fire Marshal School, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas
2020 National Defense Fellow, International Security Program, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Assignments
Aug. 2001 - June 2002, Operations Liaison Officer, 393rd Bomb Squadron, Whiteman AFB, Mississippi
June 2002 - Aug. 2004, Architect Contract Manager and Readiness Flight Commander, 509th Civil Engineer Squadron, Whiteman AFB, Mississippi
Aug. 2004 - June 2006, Graduate Student, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Ind.
June 2006 - Nov. 2009, Instructor and Course Director, Civil Engineer and Services School, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio with additional duty as Provincial Reconstruction Team Deputy Commander, Forward Operating Base Lion, Panjshir, Afghanistan
Nov. 2009 - May 2011, Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands Engineer, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio with additional duty as Reconstruction Engineer, Camp Julien, Kabul and District Augmentation Team Leader, Khakrez Strongpoint, Kandahar, Afghanistan
May 2011 - June 2013, Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands Operations Officer, Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Florida. with additional duty as Lead Advisor to the Afghan National Army General Staff Engineer, Camp Eggers, Afghanistan
June 2013 – June 2014, Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
July 2014 – April 2015 and Dec. 2015 – May 2016, Operations Flight Commander, 52d Civil Engineer Squadron, Spangdahlem AB, Germany
April 2015 – Sep. 2015, Director of Staff, 52d Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem AB, Germany
Sep. 2015 – Dec. 2015, Commander, 52d Contracting Squadron, Spangdahlem AB, Germany
June 2016 – June 2017, Commander, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron, Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea
July 2017 – July 2019, Commander, 99th Civil Engineer Squadron, Nellis AFB, Nevada
Aug. 2019 – June 2020, National Defense Fellow, International Security Program, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Mass.
July 2020 – July 2022, Deputy Chief and Chief, Facilities Division, Directorate of Civil Engineers, Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon, Washington DC.
Aug. 2022 – June 2023, Commander, Detachment 7, Air Force Research Laboratory; and Chief, Site Support Division, Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, Edwards AFB, California.
July 2023 – present, Commander, 55th Mission Support Group, Offutt AFB, Nebraska
Major Awards and Decorations
Bronze Star Medal with one oak leaf cluster
Meritorious Service Medal with seven oak leaf clusters
Air Force Commendation Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Air Force Achievement Medal
Army Achievement Medal
Other Accomplishments
2015 Air Force Lance P. Sijan Award, Field Grade Officer Category
2015 Air Force Major General Dean Fox Award
2015 52d Fighter Wing Field Grade Officer of the Year
2015 USAFE Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs Grateful Nation Award
2015 DoD Installation Excellence Award Special Recognition Winner
2014 Command and General Staff School Valedictorian and Top Air Force Graduate
2011 AFSOC Field Grade Officer of the Year
2008 Ezra Kotcher Award for Curriculum Development, Air Force Institute of Technology
2006 University of Notre Dame, School of Architecture Graduate School Valedictorian
2001 University of Notre Dame, School of Architecture Undergraduate Valedictorian
Publications
Architecture as a Diplomatic Tool: A Proposal for the New American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. University of Notre Dame: Notre Dame, Indiana, 2006
Simplified Facility Design. Air Force Institute of Technology: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 2008
Building Military Diplomacy: Sociospatial Effects of Overseas U.S. Military Base Design (FOUO). Command and General Staff College: Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2014
“What’s Called Nation-Building”: Strategic Failures, Faulty Assumptions, and Six Critical Mistakes in Afghanistan. Harvard Kennedy School of Government: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020
Effective Dates of Promotion
Second Lieutenant July 7, 2001
First Lieutenant July 7, 2003
Captain July 7, 2005
Major Sep. 1, 2011
Lieutenant Colonel Sep. 1, 2016
Colonel April 1, 2022
(Current as of July 2025)