Jeannie M. Leavitt | |
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Brig. Gen. Jeannie M. Leavitt, USAF
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Born | c. 1967 |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/branch | United States Air Force |
Years of service | 1992 – present |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Commands held |
333d Fighter Squadron 4th Fighter Wing 57th Wing |
Battles/wars |
Operation Southern Watch Operation Northern Watch Operation Iraqi Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom |
Awards | |
Spouse(s) | Col. Craig Leavitt |
Jeannie Marie Leavitt (née Flynn; born c. 1967) is a United States Air Force general officer. She became the United States Air Force's first female fighter pilot in 1993, and was the first woman to command a USAF combat fighter wing.
Leavitt was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to James (an Air Force enlisted man) and Pat Flynn. She attended Bishop DuBourg High School, a private Roman Catholic school in St. Louis. After graduating in 1985 and before joining the Air Force, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in California.
Leavitt began her Undergraduate Pilot Training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas in 1992. She was being trained as a T-38 instructor pilot at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio when restrictions on women flying combat missions were dropped in April 1993. Thereafter she began formal combat training in the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle, becoming the service's first female fighter pilot.
Leavitt's F-15 flight hours have included 300 combat hours, mostly over Afghanistan and Iraq. On one mission, during Operation Southern Watch in 1996, she supported a Royal Air Force Tornado GR1 under threat from an Iraqi Roland surface-to-air missile.