Mark D. Kelly

Mark Damon Kelly (born September 19, 1962) He previously served as the deputy chief of staff for operations from August 2018 to August 2020. 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 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.

Air Force career Brigadier General Kelly piloting a Lockheed-Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon during his tenure as commander of 455th Air Expeditionary Wing. 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.

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.

Lieutenant General Mark D. Kelly, Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, gives a speech during the Air Force Association's annual conference on September 17, 2018.

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. 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. His promotion ceremony and subsequent assumption of command were both officiated on August 28, 2020, at Joint Base Langley–Eustis. Air Force chief of staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. delivering the change-of-command ceremony remarks. 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. 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. 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.

Kelly retired from active duty effective March 1, 2024. 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