Alumnus promoted to brigadier general, leads U.S. Special Operations forces

Sometimes, the best thing an internship does is close a door.

That was the case for David Tabor ’92. As a first-year student at Birmingham-Southern, Tabor was certain he was headed to medical school. And then came his stint working at a hospital during the January term his sophomore year.

“That’s when I realized that was not what I wanted to do,” Tabor said.

Fortunately, he soon found another passion that guided him toward his current role as vice director for strategy, plans, and policy for the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees special operations for all five branches of the U.S. armed forces. Late in his sophomore year—later than most people—he joined ROTC after a friend convinced him to take the officer’s qualifying test which, when it came back, qualified Tabor permission to attend pilot training after graduation.

“That sounded like a great option for where I was in my life—what an adventure!” Tabor said.

Still, it’s a long road from a pilot in training to becoming a brigadier general tasked with coordinating the Department of Defense’s unified special operations center for countering weapons of mass destruction, which is Tabor’s primary responsibility. He credits his BSC experience for leading him there—especially the broad liberal arts approach he experienced on the Hilltop.

“I think most people in education acknowledge that the notion of specializing very early is probably a detriment in the long run. It becomes a one-dimensional view of things,” said Tabor, who majored in history. “That’s probably the benefit of coming from BSC: I took a lot of science, a lot of humanities, a lot of arts courses.”

In fact, he said one his best classes ever was an art history class at BSC taught by Dr. Lloyd Slone, the late professor emeritus, whom Tabor describes as a chain-smoking, Yankees-jacket-wearing character who cared deeply about his students.

“His tests were notoriously difficult, but I also remember that he sat down individually with every student after the exam to go over every question that you missed,” Tabor said. “That kind of personal connection with the professors and the staff really meant something.”

So much so that he’s made it a principle of his own leadership. As he’s moved up the military chain of command, Tabor makes a point of sitting down with employees to understand their passions and goals and connect them to institutional priorities. He drew that not just from his relationship with professors, but also the way then-BSC President Dr. Neal Berte took time to sit down with him as a prospective student, and his mentoring by George Jenkins, then-BSC’s vice president of development, whom he met as a student intern.

He also fondly remembers Professor of History Dr. Henry Randall, whose detailed stories not only drew him into his major, but also came in handy in his first assignment in special operations when he was sent to the United Kingdom. He spent three years there, flying a large special operations transport helicopter and participating in the Bosnian crisis and war in Serbia.

Shortly after 9-11, he was deployed to fly in Afghanistan. After returning, Tabor began a shift from piloting to leadership, working first as an aide-de-camp for an Army general, then heading to the Staff College for a master’s degree in joint campaign planning; he spent time at the Pentagon and earned a second master’s in strategic studies at the Army War College.

But that wasn’t the end of his flying experience; Tabor took over a squadron years later at Hurlburt Field, Fla., where he helped train U.S. troops to fly Russian Mi-17 helicopters. He returned to Afghanistan himself in 2011 as commander of the 438^th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group, followed by command of the Aviation Tactics and Evaluation Group at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

“I’ve literally been all over the world. I’ve gotten to work with a lot of foreign militaries, teaching them,” he said. “I would say every experience that I’ve had has been extraordinary in its own way.”

Now based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Tabor was promoted to brigadier general in August 2017. One thread through all of his adventures, he said, has been a strong drive to give back—a drive he said he learned in college.

“When I think back on my experiences at Birmingham-Southern, some of the most lasting impressions were the culture of service,” Tabor said. “I had certainly been brought up with that kind of mentality, but both through the school and the extracurricular activities I did there, there was a real focus on giving back to the community. That really stuck with me and convinced me I wanted to do that throughout my life.”