Chay Derbigny

Chay Derbigny
Special Operations Pilot, USAF

Chay Derbigny is an active-duty special operations pilot in the United States Air Force. He has deployed eight times and amassed over 1,600 combat hours, 325 combat sorties, and more than 3,480 total flight hours worldwide in multiple special operations aircraft. He currently serves as an instructor and executive officer for the Commandant at the Air Command and Staff College, the world’s premier professional military education college for mid-career officers and civilians.

Prior to serving as an executive officer, Chay was the Chief of Tactics and Mission Commander of the C-146A aircraft. Deploying two times in this aircraft, he commanded rapid intra-theater movement of the nation’s elite special operations forces into remote, austere, and blacked-out airfields with minimal support. Chay began his career flying U-28s. As an instructor on the U-28, he deployed five times to the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan, flying intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance combat missions against high-value national security threats.

Chay is a 2008 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Engineering Management. While at the Academy, he served as a two-year team captain and three-year starter on the Baseball team. He also once held the Academy’s vertical jump record at 42.5 inches! Chay is a distinguished graduate of Squadron Officer School and earned a Master of Sports Administration from Ohio University and a Master of Military Operational Art and Science from the Air Command and Staff College.

Chay currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama with his wife and two children.