Margaret H. Woodward served as the Combined Forces Air Component Commander (CFACC), the first female to do so in Air Force history, during Operation ODYSSEY DAWN, the U.N.-sanctioned 2011 military intervention in Libya. Born in Maryland in 1960, Woodward spent the...
Robert H. “Bob” Wolff was a combat aviator and POW in World War II. Following the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Bob enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps. In April of 1942 he was called to active duty and began his training as an aviation cadet,...
Robert J. Shoens was the pilot of the B-17 Flying Fortress Our Gal Sal, assigned to the 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group based at Royal Air Force Station Thorpe Abbotts in England. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he benefitted from his parents’ military legacy....
Zachary J. Rhyner, a Combat Controller assigned to the 24th Special Operations Wing, is an extraordinary hero and warrior. Born in Medford, Wisconsin on 21 June 1986, he enlisted in the United States Air Force in 2004. After completing Combat Control training in...
James R. “Jim” Kirk was a courageous ball turret gunner who flew 27 combat missions in the B-17G “Flying Fortress” during World War II. After two semesters at the University of Michigan, Jim was drafted in March 1943. Following basic training,...
Maxine Edmondson Flournoy was a member of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. Born in Wheaton, Missouri on 30 March 1921, she obtained her pilot’s license in 1941 through the Civil Pilot Training program at Joplin Junior College...
Leon F. “Lee” Ellis flew 53 F-4C Phantom missions before he was shot down and taken prisoner in North Vietnam. Born on 9 October 1943 in Commerce, Georgia, Ellis graduated from the University of Georgia in 1965 with an Air Force ROTC commission and...
Benjamin Alvin Drew, Jr. is a NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel who completed two space flights and was the 200th person to walk in space. Drew was born on 5 November 1962 in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the United States Air Force...
General Rafael del Pino is a former fighter pilot who served at the highest levels in the Cuban Air Force during the Cold War. Born on 22 September 1938, in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Del Pino joined Fidel Castro’s Revolutionary Movement in 1956 and fought with...
Colonel Bruce Crandall flew over 900 combat missions through two tours of duty in Vietnam, earning the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007 for bravery and heroism during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. Born in 1933, Crandall grew up in Olympia, Washington. In 1953,...
Captain Roscoe C. Brown, Jr. commanded the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group and downed the most advanced enemy aircraft of World War II, the Me-262. After his graduation from Springfield College in 1943, Brown enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an...
Alcide S. “Bull” Benini was a World War II combat veteran and a founding father of the Air Force’s Combat Control Teams (CCT). Bull began his military career in the Army just prior to United States involvement in World War II and retired as a Chief...
