James “Lionell” Owens, a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, retired after 46 years of active-duty military and civilian service for the United States Air Force (USAF) on September 30, 2026. While a student at UCA, Lionell served as Secretary-General of the Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) in 1975 and was selected as the Outstanding Student in the College of Science and Humanities in 1976. After graduating from UCA in August 1976, Lionell attended law school at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and earned a Juris Doctorate degree in 1980. Lionell entered active-duty military service in the USAF as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate and Area Defense Counsel at Keesler Air Force Base (AFB) in Mississippi from 1980 to 1982. He served as Chief of Military Justice and Chief of International Law at Clark Air Base (AB) in the Philippines from 1982 to 1985. Lionell served as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), including as commander of five different AFOSI detachments in the U.S. (Lackland AFB and Brooks AFB) and Saudi Arabia (Riyadh AB) during Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch. Lionell subsequently was assigned to CENTCOM Forward and returned to Saudi Arabia in 1998-99 as CENTCOM’s Theater Counterintelligence Coordinator.
Upon his return to Texas, Lionell commanded Det 252, AFOSI’s 60-member Antiterrorism Specialty Deployment Team (AST), through 9/11, the deployment of three AST teams to support Operation Enduring Freedom, and AST’s preparations for Operation Iraqi Freedom until his retirement from active-duty military service as a Lt. Colonel on January 1, 2003. Lionell immediately began working as a civilian special agent with AFOSI, including serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom as Deputy Director of Counterintelligence for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq from June to December 2003. Lionell served as an Instructor at AFOSI’s Special Investigations Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, in Glynco, Georgia from 2004 to 2006; Force Protection Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen in 2006; Chief of Counterintelligence and Warfighting, AFOSI, 4th Field Investigations Region, Randolph AFB, Texas from 2006 to 2010; Chief of Criminal/Fraud Investigations and Death Case Reviewer, 5th Field Investigations Region, Ramstein AB, Germany from 2010 to 2012; AFOSI’s Criminal Investigations and Operations Consultant, 3rd Field Investigations Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio, Lackland, Texas from 2013 to 2016; AFOSI’s Sex Assault Investigations and Operations Consultant, Joint Base San Antonio, Lackland, Texas from 2016 to 2023; and Command Inspector, Inspector General Inspection Team, Headquarters AFOSI, Quantico, VA, with duty at JBSA Lackland, Texas from 2023 to 2026.