Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, the commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service who made history as the service’s first female fighter pilot, was one of 23 general officers nominated Tuesday to receive their second star.
Brig. Gen. Chance Saltzman, who is Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein’s special assistant on multi-domain command and control, has also been nominated for major general. Goldfein also put Saltzman in charge of a major effort to improve the Air Force’s command and control in 2016.
Leavitt was at the top of her class when she finished pilot training in 1992, and was given her first choice of aircraft to fly — as long as it wasn’t a fighter, bomber, special operations aircraft, or any of the other planes that were off-limits to women at the time. But one year later, the Defense Department dropped restrictions on women flying combat aircraft, and she got her chance to fly her original choice, the F-15. She has more than 3,000 flight hours, including more than 300 combat hours over Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2016, Leavitt became the first woman to head the 57th Wing at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, and in June 2018 she took over Air Force recruiting. In an interview with Air Force Times last summer, Leavitt said AFRS needs to figure out faster, better and more technologically-advanced ways to find leads on potential recruits, sign them up, and quickly move them through the process of becoming airmen.
Leavitt advised the creators of the superhero movie “Captain Marvel” last year to help the filmmakers accurately portray what it is like for a woman serving in the Air Force.
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The list of nominations for major general:
♦ Brig. Gen. Christopher Azzano, commander of the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Materiel Command, at Edwards Air Force Base, California
♦ Brig. Gen. Kenneth Bibb, director of air, space and cyberspace operations at AFMC headquarters, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
♦ Angela Cadwell, director of cyberspace operations at North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
♦ Brig. Gen. Sean Farrell, director of the Air Force security assistance and cooperation directorate at AFMC’s Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson
♦ Brig. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, deputy director for global operations, J-3, Joint Staff at the Pentagon
♦ Brig. Gen. Michael Guetlein, program executive, programs and integration, Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama
♦ Brig. Gen. Timothy Haugh, director, Cyber National Mission Force, U.S. Cyber Command headquarters at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland
♦ Brig. Gen. Eric Hill, deputy director, strategy, plans and policy, J-5, U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida
♦ Brig. Gen. David Iverson, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, Air Combat Command, Southwest Asia
♦ Brig. Gen. Lance Landrum, deputy director for requirements and capability development, J-8, Joint Staff, Pentagon
♦ Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, commander, Air Force Recruiting Service, Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas
♦ Brig. Gen. Michael Lutton, deputy director, nuclear, homeland defense and current operations, J-3, Joint Staff, Pentagon
♦ Brig. Gen. Corey Martin, U.S. senior defense official/defense attache, U.S. Embassy, U.S. European Command, Tel Aviv, Israel
♦ Brig. Gen. Tom Miller, director, logistics, engineering and force protection, ACC headquarters, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia
♦ Brig. Gen. Richard Moore, chief of staff, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa headquarters, Ramstein Air Base, Germany
♦ Brig. Gen. Aaron Prupas, director of intelligence, ACC headquarters, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia
♦ Brig. Gen. Chance Saltzman, special assistant to the Air Force chief of staff for multi-domain command and control, Air Force headquarters, Pentagon
♦ Brig. Gen. Michael Schmidt, program executive officer for command, control, communications, intelligence and networks at AFMC’s Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts
♦ Brig. Gen. William Spangenthal, director, operations and communications, AETC headquarters, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas
♦ Brig. Gen. David Tabor, assistant commanding general-support, Joint Special Operations Command, U.S> Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
♦ Brig. Gen. Andrea Tullos, director of security forces, deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering and force protection, Air Force headquarters, Pentagon
♦ Brig. Gen. John Wilcox, director of operations and communications, Air Force Global Strike Command headquarters, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
♦ Brig. Gen. Craig Wills, deputy chief, Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, CENTCOM, Baghdad, Iraq
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
