Gen. James B. Hecker is the Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe; Commander, U.S. Air Forces Africa; Commander, Allied Air Command, headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany; and Director, Joint Air Power Competence Centre, Kalkar, Germany. He is responsible for the air and missile defense of 32 NATO alliance member nations while commanding U.S. airpower across more than 19 million square miles. This area includes 104 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the Arctic, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, possesses more than a quarter of the world’s population and generates more than a quarter of the world’s gross domestic product.

Gen. Hecker was commissioned in 1989 through the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has completed numerous flying, staff and command assignments and is a command pilot with more than more than 3,600 flying hours in the F-15C, F-22, MQ-1B, HH-60, C-208 and T-38C. Prior to his current assignment, Gen. Hecker was the Commander and President of Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.