lieutenant general daniel p. leaf

A native of Shawano, Wis., General Leaf earned his commission as a distinguished graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Air Force ROTC program in 1974.  He commanded a flight, two squadrons, an operations group and two fighter wings and has directed joint operations. 

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After receiving his commission from UW Madison, General Leaf attended pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.  He left pilot training as a distinguished graduate and was awarded the Flying Training Award and the Air Training Command’s Commander’s Trophy.  In 1995, General Leaf served as the J-3 for Joint Task Force-Southwest Asia and flew the F-15C over Southern Iraq enforcing U.N. sanctions on the Saddam Hussein regime.  He deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, with one of his 20th Fighter Wing squadrons in 1998 and flew the F-16CJ on Operation Northern Watch suppression of enemy air defense missions over Northern Iraq. 

 

During Operation Allied Force, General Leaf commanded the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing, which included F-16CG, F-16CJ, F-15E, F-117A, A-10A and EC-130 aircraft squadrons.  He flew and led F-16CG day and night combat missions against fixed and mobile targets in Serbia and Kosovo.  During Operation Iraqi Freedom, he served as the Director, Air Component Coordination Element with the Coalition Land Forces Component Commander in Kuwait and Iraq.  In that role, he served as the Air Component Commander's direct representative to the Land Commander during planning and initial major combat operations.  The General is a command pilot with more than 3,600 flying hours, including Allied Force, Joint Forge, Northern Watch and Southern Watch combat missions.  Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Leaf retired as the Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii on June 1, 2008.

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 “I attended UW-Superior the first two years, transferred to Madison in the summer of 1972 after field training at Wright-Patterson.  I had a three year scholarship and was the Cadet Corps Commander (as we were called then) first semester of my senior year, and wan an Arnold Air Society member.  I worked all through college and did not participate in activities outside AFROTC.  I had glamorous jobs like working in a gas station, being an insurance investigator, and shoveling horse manure. As the Corps Commander, I directed the return to grooming standards (haircuts).  The rules had been ignored for a few years due to the campus atmosphere during the Vietnam War.  That didn’t make me very popular, but I couldn’t see surrendering to the pressure of the radical students.” - Lt. Gen. Leaf

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https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/104990/lieutenant-general-daniel-p-leaf/