Major General James Nelson Post III is a former United States Air Force officer who served as Director of the United States Air Forces Central Command's Air and Space Operations Center, and Director and Vice Commander of the Air Combat Command. A command pilot with over 4,850 flying hours, he led combat missions in support of Operations Northern Watch, Operation Southern Watch and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was relieved of his command in April 2015 for discouraging personnel under his command from communicating with the United States Congress.
Biography
Raised in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, he graduated in 1978 from Boonton High School. Post graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in June 1983. He undertook pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas from June 1983 to June 1984, and lead-in fighter training at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from July to September 1984. From October 1984 to June 1985 he learned to fly the F-4D Phantom II at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida with the 308th Fighter Squadron. He was then posted to Germany, where he served with the 23d Fighter Squadron, flying the F-4E Phantom II from Spangdahlem Air Base.
Returning to the United States, Post became an F-16 Falcon evaluation pilot with the 62nd and 63rd Fighter Squadrons at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. This was the beginning of a long association with the F-16, which would eventually see him complete over 4,000 hours flight time in the aircraft when he flew his 2,565th sortie in March 2011. In 1990, he was a distinguished graduate of the Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. He then earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Troy University in 1991, and completed the Fighter Weapons Instructor Course at the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in December 1992. From January 1993 until January 1994, he was an F-16 Instructor and Evaluation Pilot and the Weapons Officer and Flight Commander of the 35th Fighter Squadron, which was based at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. Between February 1994 and June 1996, he was an F-16 Instructor and Evaluation Pilot, Chief of Standardization and Evaluation, and wing weapons officer, of the 35th Fighter Wing, at Misawa Air Base in Japan. He won the Air Force's Anthony C. Shine Award for Fighter Pilot of the Year in 1996.
From July 1996 to May 1997, Post was a student at the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was then posted to The Pentagon in Washington, DC, as Operations Officer, Western Hemisphere, Operations Directorate (J3) in June 1997. He graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in 1998. In July and August 1999, completed the F-16 transition course at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. He was an F-16 Evaluation Pilot with the 77th Fighter Squadron, Operations Officer with the 79th Fighter Squadron, and then commander of the 55th Fighter Squadron, all at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. From July 2002 to June 2003, he was a student at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, earning a Master of Strategic Studies degree. He was Senior Deputy Commander of the 56th Operations Group at Luke Air Force Base from July 2003 to March 2004, and Vice Commander of the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah from April 2004 to July 2006. He was in charge of Standardization and Evaluation with the Twelfth Air Force at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona from August 2006 to January 2007. He commanded the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base from February 2007 to October 2008, and then the 609th Air and Space Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He flew 280 combat sorties. From August 2009 until January 2010, he was Director of Plans and Requirements at Headquarters, Twelfth Air Force. From February 2010 to August 2012, he was commander of the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.