Sarah Zabel retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2018 as a major general and embarked on a new career as a science writer. She currently works from her home in Bayview, Idaho.
The second of four children, all girls, Sarah was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. She moved with her family first to Arizona and then to Texas, where they settled in a small town near San Antonio. Graduating from high school in 1983, Sarah became a member of the cadet class at the U.S. Air Force Academy, from which she graduated with a degree in computer science in 1987 and was commissioned a second lieutenant.
Then-Lieutenant Zabel entered the Air Force as a communications-computer systems officer, and stayed attached to the field as it transitioned over more than 30 years to meet the opportunities and challenges posed by technological advances. She obtained a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as masters degrees from the Air Command and Staff College (2001) and the Army War College (2007). She served in many command roles, as the 43rd Communications Squadron commander at Pope Air Force Base, NC, 9th Mission Support Group commander at Beale Air Force Base, CA, and the 75th Air Base Wing commander at Hill Air Force Base, UT. She deployed to the Middle East in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom from 2003 to 2004. Zabel served in multiple staff positions as well, including the Air Staff, Joint Staff, U.S. Transportation Command, and as Vice Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency.
On her retirement in 2018, Sarah decided to delve into her life-long love of learning and become a science writer. Inspired, intrigued and frustrated by an enduring friend’s battle with depression, she set herself the task of first coming to understand, and then to explain for other lay-persons, the science behind that terrible illness. Sarah does occasional consulting and other activities associated with her time as one of the military’s leaders in cyberspace operations and security, in the provision of communications and other services to a community, and leadership of a diverse workforce.
