Dean, Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies
Lieutenant General (Ret.) David A. Deptula was the principal attack planner for the Operation Desert Storm air campaign; commander of no-fly-zone operations over Iraq in the late 1990s; director of the air campaign over Afghanistan in 2001; joint task force commander (twice); and air commander for the 2005 South Asia tsunami relief. He is a fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours – 400 in combat – including multiple command assignments in the F-15. During his last assignment as the Air Force’s first deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), he oversaw the transformation of America’s military ISR and drone enterprises. Deptula retired from the Air Force in 2010, and currently serves as Dean of the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies, and holds the Risner/Perot Chair as a Senior Military Scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy.