| Mark D. Kelly | |
| Branch: | United States Air Force |
| Serviceyears: | 1986–2024 |
| Rank: | General |
| Commands: | Air Combat Command Twelfth Air Force Ninth Air Force 455th Air Expeditionary Wing 354th Fighter Wing 4th Fighter Wing 333rd Fighter Squadron |
| Battles: | War in Afghanistan |
| Awards: | Defense Superior Service Medal (2) Legion of Merit (3) |
Mark Damon Kelly (born) is a retired general in the United States Air Force who served as the commander of Air Combat Command from 2020 to 2024. He previously served as the deputy chief of staff for operations from August 2018 to August 2020.[1] He is a command pilot with more than 6,000 flying hours. His pilot experience is including 800 combat hours in Tactical Fighter-Aircraft.
Kelly was commissioned through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at Southwest Texas State University in February 1986.[2] Kelly received his commission from the Air Force ROTC program at Southwest Texas State University in 1986. He earned his pilot wings at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training School at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.
Upon commissioning and earning of his pilot wings, Kelly was first assigned as an instructor pilot with duty as the executive, standardardization and evaluation officer for the 80th Flying Training Wing, also located at Sheppard Air Force Base, specializing in the Cessna T-37 Tweet Training Aircraft. He received his training for piloting the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle from August 1991 to April 1992, under 461st Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.[3] [4]
As a colonel, Kelly served as vice commander of the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho from 2007 to 2008. His general officer assignments include command of the 354th Fighter Wing from 2012 to 2014, wing commander of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing in 2014, and commander of the Ninth Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina from July 31, 2015, to May 17, 2016.[5] [6]
In 2016, Kelly received his third star and relieved Lieutenant General Mark Nowland as commander of Twelfth Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Southern, the air component of the United States Southern Command, on October 3 of the same year.[7] In August 2018 Kelly was appointed as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations of the United States Air Force, also relieving Nowland in the post. The position was one of the ten senior positions within the Air Staff, and in this capacity, Kelly was responsible with the tasked for development and implementation of policy which was directly supporting global operations, force management, weather, training, and readiness across the air, space and cyber fields.
In June 2020, it was announced that Kelly would be appointed to the rank of general, and assigned to succeed the retiring James M. Holmes as the thirteenth commander of Air Combat Command. The nomination was received in the Senate on June 8, 2020, and confirmed on July 20, 2020.[8] [9] His promotion ceremony and subsequent assumption of command were both officiated on August 28, 2020, at Joint Base Langley–Eustis.[10] [11] Air Force chief of staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. delivering the change-of-command ceremony remarks.[4]
In this capacity, Kelly is responsible for organizing, training, equipping and maintaining the Air Force's combat-readiness, primarily through ACC's purpose as the primary provider of combat-ready forces to the service's major commands and service component commands.[4] As ACC commander, Kelly also oversees the development of strategy, doctrine, concepts, tactics, and procedures for air, space, and cyber-power employment and assists sister agencies with intelligence, surveillance and crisis response capabilities.
Kelly presently oversees an overhaul of the Air Combat Command's fighter training enterprise, based upon the new concept of "Rebuilding the Forge" that began under Kelly's predecessor, James M. Holmes. ACC summarily began a transition into using newer technologies to facilitate the training and assessment of fighter pilots, including the addition of the upcoming T-7A Red Hawk alongside front-line combat jets as training aircraft. This would reduce wear on such combat jets and leave more combat capacity for real-world contingencies.[12] The concept was targeted to yield 60 percent more operational hours for F-22 Raptors and could save costs per flying hour by three to five times.
Speaking at the 2021 Air Force Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Kelly emphasized the importance of American air superiority and the modernization of the fighter force, stating that a war with the People's Republic of China could end badly if the United States ever gave up air superiority to its competitor.[13] At the same time, Kelly reaffirmed his commitment to shifting the fighter force to compete with China's, evolving from previous peer based adversaries such as Iraq and the Soviet Union.[14] He stated that reinforcing the Air Force's ability to assume immediate control of the air was what foreign armed forces counted on, and that such a capability was necessary to maintain in the Air Force.[15]
Rating: command pilot
Flight hours: more than 6,000
Aircraft flown: T-37, T-38, F-15E, F/A-18, F-16, F-35A
| US Air Force Command Pilot Badge | ||
| Headquarters Air Force Badge | ||
| Unidentified badge |
| Rank | Date[16] | |
|---|---|---|
| Second lieutenant | February 12, 1986 | |
| First lieutenant | February 12, 1988 | |
| Captain | February 12, 1990 | |
| Major | November 17, 1997 | |
| Lieutenant colonel | May 10, 2002 | |
| Colonel | January 1, 2007 | |
| Brigadier general | September 14, 2012 | |
| Major general | September 2, 2015 | |
| Lieutenant general | October 3, 2016 | |
| General | August 28, 2020 |