A Colonel finds her place

JOINT BASE ANACOSTIA-BOLLING, Washington, D.C.— With highly polished shoes, a pressed uniform and a cadence echoing across the drill pad, a 14-year-old girl found herself leading her high school's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps drill team. The commands she called carried across the formation with a confidence that belied her age. Surrounded by mentors, teammates and a mission larger than herself, she discovered not only a passion for military service, but also a sense of belonging that would shape the next 25 years of her life.

That JROTC drill team leader now commands the 11th Operations Group at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, overseeing the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, U.S. Air Force Band, Arlington National Cemetery Chaplain Corps Operations, and the Air Force Memorial.

U.S. Air Force Col. Kelli R. Moon’s service has spanned 25 years and has given her a sense of belonging, taught her the cost of service and allowed her to have a hand in shaping a more people-centered Air Force for the Airmen who followed her.

Moon was born and raised in Belton, South Carolina and her Air Force career began long before she raised her right hand in 2001.

“I like to say I’ve been wearing an Air Force uniform since I was 13,” she shared. “I joined AFJROTC at my high school in 1993.”.

There, she gained mentorship, self-confidence and a deeper sense of self.

“My two commanders and our senior enlisted leader saw strengths in me that I didn’t yet see in myself, and they pushed me to grow in ways I didn’t think were possible.”

Moon fell in love with the JROTC drill team and was one of the first women to join the team in her high school.

“I felt like I had found my place,” she reminisced. “So ending up as the operations group commander has felt like a full-circle moment.”

Moon graduated from Belton-Honea Path High School in 1997 and went on to the ROTC program at the University of South Carolina. There, she commissioned as a second lieutenant and came into the Air Force as a personnelist in 2001, just months before 9/11.

“Like anyone who joins the military, I understood there was always a possibility of being called into harm’s way, but I don’t think I ever truly believed it would happen in my career,” she shared. “That changed almost overnight when 9/11 happened. The world shifted, and so did the Air Force I was stepping into.”

Moon’s first assignment was at Lackland Air Force Base, the training ground for enlisted Air Force recruits. She was quickly introduced to the human side of military service at the basic training installation and often felt pressure to suppress vulnerability to be taken seriously as an officer and a leader.

“One of the earliest challenges I faced was simply feeling like I had to prove myself,” she said. “I really felt like I had to have this tough exterior.”

“I remember being told by the training instructors to stop smiling at trainees during my time at Lackland,” she reminisced. “I had to keep reminding myself to be more strict.”

Even so, Moon would occasionally encounter a leader who emphasized connection and compassion, and it stuck with her.

During a graduation ceremony at Lackland, a general officer noticed Moon was visibly nervous before she spoke in front of a crowd.

“He told me, ‘The fact that you are nervous means you care.’” she shared. “That quote stayed with me throughout my career.”

At the time, the comment seemed simple, but Moon said it became one of the earliest reminders that empathy and leadership could co-exist.

Keeping that thought in the back of her mind, Moon continued to pour herself into her job and taking care of Airmen.

“Taking care of people has been the sentiment that has kept me going since the beginning,” she said.

In the Air Force, Moon found her sense of belonging and wanted to ensure Airmen who came after her always felt like there was a place for them to belong as well.

During her time at Lackland, she noticed there was a lack of historical representation displayed for incoming female Airmen, and she sought to change that.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” she reflected.

Moon helped bring in four, former WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) to dedicate a room honoring their contributions to military aviation.

“I wanted to show the youngest lieutenants and Airmen that you belong here,” she shared.

As she continued to progress in her Air Force career, she noticed a lot of her Airmen were struggling with access to childcare.

“Even though I don't have children of my own, my personal passion within the force was to fight for childcare for service members.”

Moon, along with other members of the Women’s Initiative Team at the Pentagon, worked with Congress to include provisions for increased access to childcare for military service members in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed and became law.

Over time, Moon’s understanding of service deepened through moments of loss. This lesson was brought to a head when she was an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. As an Air Force instructor on an Army post, Moon still felt the pressure to present herself as tough. But beneath that exterior, Moon had grown deeply connected to the cadets she taught.

“I remember getting the news that one of the cadets from my very first year there had been killed in Afghanistan.”

She served as a pallbearer when he was brought home to be buried at West Point.

Moon remembered standing on the flight line in her service dress and seeing the plane land carrying the body of her former cadet, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tim Steele.

“Having to take him off of that aircraft was a special moment. I was honored to do it, but it was a hard time,” she said, eyes glistening. “Standing there, carrying someone I had taught and mentored changed me. It made the cost of service painfully real.”

The experience left a lasting impression on Moon and deepened her understanding of the responsibility leaders carry long after service members leave their care.

Following her West Point assignment, Moon served as a mortuary affairs officer, ensuring that fallen service members were treated with dignity and their grieving families were cared for with compassion.

“It was sacred work,” Moon said. “It taught me that leadership isn’t just about guiding people in life, it’s also about honoring them in death.”

The experience invited her to challenge the mindset of maintaining a hard exterior.

“It’s not good to hold this in,” she said. “You have to let people see that you’re not just cold.”

That mindset ultimately reshaped the way Moon approached leadership.

By the time she became a squadron commander, Moon no longer viewed vulnerability as something that weakened authority; it actually opened up interpersonal connectivity and built trust with the people she led.

As she was serving in squadron command, there had been an uptick in suicides in the Air Force and there was a squadron-wide meeting to address it.

“I decided I was just going to tell them my personal story of losing one of my close friends to suicide during the call,” she said.

Moon’s story was well-received with an outpouring of support. She knew she had made the right move by choosing to lead with compassion and transparency. Little did she know that mindset and her reputation for putting people first would ultimately save an Airman’s life in the future.

During her time as a squadron commander, Moon was working late in her office when a knock at the door startled her.

“It was an Airman who was struggling with their mental health and they were thinking about committing suicide,” she said. “She told me, ‘I was getting ready to go into the janitor’s closet because I knew someone would find me here tomorrow. But I saw your light was on so I decided to come talk to you.’”

For Moon, that moment permanently reinforced the importance of vulnerability in leadership.

“I was her light that night,” Moon shared, tears welling.

In that moment, Moon realized the parts of herself she once tried hardest to suppress had become some of her most important tools as a leader.

“As I approach the end of my career, I have learned to feel more comfortable in being expressive and letting people see who I am and what I love. Those little things have come out,” she said.

Decades after first watching military drill performances as a teenager in AFJROTC, Moon now leads the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, U.S. Air Force Band and Arlington National Cemetery Air Force Chaplain Corps Operations.

As she stands on the brink of retirement, Moon looks forward to rediscovering the passions she set aside throughout her military career and continuing the journey of getting to know who she is outside of her service.

She is looking forward to exploring her passion for the arts and is excited to further her love of theater, storytelling and creativity.

“I learned that I could rediscover the passions I had as a kid,” she shared, smiling. “This is my time now to figure out, even if it’s something I just do on the side. Maybe it'll go somewhere, maybe it won't. But it is the real me.”

For the once-shy teenager who found purpose and camaraderie on a drill team floor, Moon’s service has come full-circle as she finishes her Air Force career commanding organizations dedicated to honor, remember and care for service members.