Strengthening America

Strengthening America From USAF Space Command

BY ANNA DERBYSHIRE ('90)

BRUCE HOLLYWOOD IS ENJOYING HIS DREAM JOB in Washington D.C. as the Executive Director of the United States Air Force Space Command. Hollywood is a 1984 graduate of Southern Nazarene University. The first time Hollywood visited the Bethany campus he says, “I was home. It was just that feeling.” He transferred from Texas Tech in Lubbock and the 2nd floor of Snowbarger became home base.

One of the important things he found at SNU was the incredibly strong support system. “The professors wanted to see you succeed. All the people around you wanted you to succeed.

Young men don’t always make the best decisions, but one of the professors, or church leaders, or friends would step in.”

He remembers a time when his good friend, Robert Canino, stepped in. “Robert probably doesn’t realize what he did, just him being him. At that moment I was down, he was a very calming reassuring friend.” Hollywood worked driving buses for Putnam City, and roofing, but one semester he couldn’t finish paying his school bill. “I did not know what I was going to do,” he recalls. The business office manager called Hollywood to the office and

"ALL THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU WANTED YOU TO SUCCEED."

told him “Herman Plott (a friend’s father from Lubbock) just paid your bill. Welcome back to school.” It was that level of kindness, and the strength of those relationships, that still bears fruit in Hollywood’s life. “I am still in touch with friends from there. It was a great and amazing time.”

After graduation from SNU, he joined the Air Force and had a great desire to become a pilot. He began training but suffered severe damage to his right ear that disqualified him from the program. After the initial disappointment, he was grateful to move on to the next thing—space training.

By 2005 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. He was gearing up for his annual move with his family when a heart attack stopped him in the parking lot of the Pentagon, suddenly changing his direction.

First, his heart attack motivated him to find his birth mother. He always knew he was adopted because his adoptive father was Irish, and his mother was Norwegian, but he had distinctly Asian features. After a failed attempt to find her, the Japanese Embassy finally notified him that they had located her. His great desire to thank her for sacrificially giving him up for adoption to pave the way for his good life was finally fulfilled. And for three years he had many meaningful visits with his birth mother before a heart attack took her life.

The second result of his health issue was that he retired from the Air Force in 2007. This led to civilian work with the Joint Operational War Plans team, and on behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for a decade he worked to strengthen National Security. His work with the Joint Chiefs opened the way to become a member of the initial cohort of the White House Leadership Development Program, where he was assigned to work on Veterans Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.

In March, Hollywood was chosen for his current position where he is working to develop the new combatant command to insure military and cyberspace protection. It will be up to Congress to decide to create a new U.S. Space Force, or to instead create an efficient and effective department within the Air Force.

Hollywood describes himself as a “short, moderately talented, unattractive son of a sergeant from outside of Lubbock, Texas“ who, from the safety net on the second floor of Snowbarger, found the strength of lifelong friendships and now works every day to strengthen America.

“I always look forward to that great feeling of accomplishment—the harder the challenge, the more rewarding it is. You have to look at it that way. Sometimes challenges are very onerous. One of the greatest things in life is motivating people around me so we can reach a goal together. Leading and mentoring the next generation...that is the most rewarding piece.” 

ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS IS MOTIVATING PEOPLE AROUND ME SO WE CAN GET THERE TOGETHER

Bruce in the Oval Office with Fellows from White House Leadership Development Program Speaking at Japanese American Leadership Conference