Joseph W. Ralston

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Joseph W. Ralston

Joseph W. Ralston (born November 4, 1943 in Hopkinsville , Kentucky ) is a former general in the US Air Force and was Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from 2000 to 2003 .

Military career

Ralston graduated from Miami University in Oxford , Ohio in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, received his officer license and was promoted to second lieutenant on July 24, 1965 . He then completed pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas from July 1965 to August 1966 . This was followed by promotion to First Lieutenant on January 24, 1967 and training to become an F-105 pilot at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada by April 1967 . On July 24, 1968 Ralston was promoted to captain and until October 1969 in an F-105 of the 67th Tactical Combat Squadron, later the 12th Tactical Combat Squadron, used at Kadena Air Base in Japan . After training on the F-105 as a "Wild Weasel Pilot", Ralston served from January 1970 to October 1970 with the 354th Tactical Combat Squadron at the Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand . Afterwards Ralston trained himself to pilots on the F-105 in the 66th Weapons Combat Squadron at Nellis AFB until December 1971. Until June 1973, he was at Langley Air Force Base , Virginia in the office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Procurement at Tactical Air Command Headquarters as a Procurement and Project Officer for the F-15 program. In June 1973 he was assigned to the 335th Tactical Combat Squadron, was promoted to major on December 1, 1973 , and served there as assistant operations officer and later as head of the standardization and assessment division of the 4th Tactical Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina .

From June 1975 to June 1976, Ralston graduated from Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas and also obtained a Masters in Human Resources Management from Central Michigan University in 1976 . In June 1976 he was assigned to the US Air Force Headquarters in Washington, DC to serve as a procurement officer for the tactical combat units in the office of the assistant chief of staff for research and development. During this use took place on April 1, 1978, the promotion to Lieutenant Colonel . In July 1979, Ralston finally became an Operations Officer ( S-3 ) and shortly thereafter commander of the 68th Tactical Combat Squadron at Moody Air Force Base , Georgia . In July 1980 there was again a staff assignment as a special assistant and later executive officer of the commander at the headquarters of the Tactical Air Command at Langley AFB in Virginia. In this role, Ralston was then promoted to Colonel on June 1, 1981 .

From August 1983 to June 1984 he graduated from the National War College at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington (DC) and then served as a special assistant for low observables technology in the office of the assistant chief of staff for research, development and procurement until February 1986 . From February 1986 to March 1987, Ralston commanded the 56th Tactical Training Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida . From March 1987 Ralston then served as assistant chief of staff for operations and after his promotion to Brigadier General on March 1, 1988 as assistant chief of staff for procurement at the headquarters of the Tactical Air Command at Langley AFB.

In 1989 Ralston graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts . Then in June 1990 he was appointed Director of Tactical Programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Procurement in Washington, DC. In this role he was promoted to major general on August 1, 1990 . From December 1991 to July 1992, Ralston then served as director of operational procurement in the office of the assistant chief of staff for planning and operations at US Air Force Headquarters.

On July 13, 1992 Ralston was promoted to Lieutenant General and in the same month took over command of the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the 11th US Air Fleet , as well as the Joint Task Force Alaska on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. From July 1994 to June 1995, he served as the assistant chief of staff for planning and operations at US Air Force Headquarters. On July 1, 1995, Ralston was promoted to General (OF-9) and took over command of the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB in Virginia a month earlier , which he held until February 1996. From March 1996 to April 2000, Ralston was then named vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff .

General Ralston with the Moroccan Chief of Staff, 2001.

When General John M. Shalikashvili retired from the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1997 , Ralston was actually the first candidate for the post. However, he withdrew his name when it became known that he had an affair with a CIA employee while separated from his wife during the 1980s . As a result, the post of chairman went to General Henry H. Shelton and Ralston remained in the post of vice chairman until 2000, when he became - a year earlier than usual - General Wesley Clark on May 3, 2000 as commander of the US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe succeeded . On January 17, 2003, Ralston passed command to General James L. Jones and retired on March 1, 2003.

In August 2006, US President George W. Bush appointed him coordinator of security issues between the United States, Turkey and Iraq . He is also a board member of URS Corporation of San Francisco .

Ralston is a trained fighter pilot with more than 2,500 flight hours on the aircraft types F-105D / F / G “Thunderchief” , F-4C / D / E “Phantom II” , F-16A “Fighting Falcon” and F-15A / C “Eagle” " .

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Online NewsHour: Ralston Quits as Joint Chiefs Candidate ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (www.law.duke.edu from June 9, 1997; English)
predecessor Office successor
Wesley Clark Supreme Allied Commander Europe
2000-2003 		James L. Jones
personal data
SURNAME Ralston, Joseph W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American military, Supreme Allied Commander Europe
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Hopkinsville , Kentucky