Highly Educated Woman Makes Air Force History

Jeannie Leavitt is the new commander of the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Colonel Leavitt, who was the nation’s first woman fighter pilot in 1993, is now the first woman to command a combat fighter wing in the U.S. Air Force. She was also the first woman to graduate from the elite Air Force Weapons School. The 4th Fighter wing is one of only three F-15E units in the Air Force. She will command 5,000 active duty military personnel and 12,000 civilian workers on the base.

Colonel Leavitt has flown more than 300 hours in combat missions, mostly over Iraq and Afghanistan. She joined the Air Force in 1992 after completing ROTC training at the University of Texas. During her time in the Air Force, she has earned four master’s degrees.