Cesar Rodriguez

After his combat service, Rodriguez continued to serve with the U.S. Air Force until November 30, 2006 when he retired with the rank of colonel.

During 1999's Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia, Rodriguez was deployed as part of the NATO campaign against the Yugoslavs. On the first night of the campaign, March 24, 1999, several Yugoslav MiG-29s rose up to resist the NATO air attacks. Two MiGs took off on the opening night from Nis Air Force Base. The first was damaged from a missile strike from a Dutch air force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter, while the second flown by Yugoslav pilot Major Ilijo Arizanov was engaged and shot down by an F-15 Eagle piloted by Rodriguez. The MiG-29s of the Yugoslav air force were very old and suffering severe problems with their systems. Arizanov was having trouble getting his radar working when he was shot down by Rodriguez. This would be Rodriguez's final kill, making him the leading MiG-killer since the Vietnam War and tying him with two other USAF pilots for the most aerial victories since the Vietnam War.

His first operational assignment was flying the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II at Suwon Air Base, South Korea; in 1985 he was selected to attend the Instructor Pilot Course at Randolph AFB, Texas then spent the following 3 years as an AT-38 Instructor Pilot at Holloman AFB, New Mexico; in 1988 he transitioned to the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and was assigned to the 33d Tactical Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida. Rodriguez flew missions in support of the invasion of Panama in 1989 and following service in Operation Desert Storm served on the staff of 9th Air Force at Shaw AFB, South Carolina then attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. Beginning in 1995 he was Chief of Force Requirements and Executive Officer to the Commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe at Ramstein Air Base, Germany then returned to operational flying as a pilot and Chief of Safety with the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, UK; he next served as Assistant Chief of Safety at Air Combat Command Headquarters in Virginia and then attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In 2002 he was assigned as Deputy Commander of the 366th Operations Group at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho and also deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom serving as Operations Group Commander for the 332d Air Expeditionary Wing, the largest flying unit in Central Command. His final assignment was as Commander of the 355th Mission Support Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona; he retired in November, 2006. His numerous awards include the Legion of Merit, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Air Medal with 11 oak leaf clusters.

Cesar Antonio Rodriguez is a former United States Air Force officer and pilot who served from 1981 to 2006. With three air-to-air combat victories, he joined Thomas Dietz, Robert Hehemann, and Robert Wright (all USAF officers) as the closest to becoming an air ace than any U.S. pilot since the Vietnam War. Rodriguez scored his first two kills in 1991, during the first Gulf War, against a Mikoyan MiG-29 and a Mikoyan MiG-23 of the Iraqi Air Force. His third kill came against a MiG-29 of the Yugoslav air force during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Rodriguez was born in 1959 at El Paso, Texas; son of a career U.S. Army NCO he lived on various military bases and graduated from Antilles High School at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico in 1977. He received a degree in Business Administration from The Citadel in 1981 and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, after attending Undergraduate Pilot Training he was awarded pilot wings in November 1982.