Major General Chris O. Divich is commander of the Air Force Military Training Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. A major component of the Air Training Command, the center is responsible for commissioning high-quality second lieutenants through the Officer Training School; conducting basic military training for all personnel entering the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard; providing technical training in nearly 100 courses; and providing English language training for foreign military personnel.

General Divich was born in Doland, S.D., in 1934, where he graduated from high school in 1952. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree in education and received his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He completed Squadron Officer School in 1960, Air Command and Staff College in 1967 and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1976.

He entered the U.S. Air Force in September 1956 and in January 1958 completed pilot training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas. He served as a KC-97 pilot, aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Schilling Air Force Base, Kan., from March 1958 to October 1963. The general was then assigned to Dow Air Force Base, Maine, as a KC-135 commander and, later, standardization and evaluation pilot.

General Djuric was commissioned in 1983 through Officer Training School. She has operated space systems at three space wings and Headquarters 14th Air Force. In 2004, she deployed to Southwest Asia as Director of Space Forces for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. She has commanded at the squadron, group, wing and education center levels, and has served on staffs at the Air Force Personnel Center, U.S. Pacific Command, Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prior to her current assignment, she was Commander, Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Stevan Mandarich, 90, a retired Navy rear admiral and decorated combat veteran of World War II who lived in Washington until the early 1980s, died Dec. 6 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in a retirement home where he was being treated for Alzheimer's disease.

Adm. Mandarich, who was born in Arizona and raised in California, was a 1933 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. In the early days of World War II, he flew from the carrier Wasp in the Atlantic. Later in the war, he flew a Hellcat in the battle for Tarawa and commanded an air group on the carrier Lexington. Along the way, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and three awards of the Air Medal.