White House Taps 20 Air Force One-Stars for Promotion

President Donald Trump has nominated 20 Air Force brigadier generals for another star, according to a June 22 Pentagon announcement, including the heads of recruiting, ICBM acquisition, and a top training center.

All of the generals will stay in their current jobs as major generals, once confirmed by the Senate.

Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Nelson is one of the nominees. As the head of the Air Force Accessions Center, he oversees all recruiting for both the Air Force and Space Force. He took on that job in summer 2025 amid a recruiting hot streak and has extended it—in April, the center announced it had reached its goal for 32,000 Active-Duty enlisted recruits in fiscal 2026 five months early, It is the most new Airmen the service had brought into the fold in more than two decades.

Brig. Gen. William Rogers is also slated for a second star. Rogers is the program executive officer for intercontinental ballistic missiles at the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, making him responsible for both maintaining the aging Minuteman III missile and developing the new Sentinel ICBM. It’s a massive effort that defense officials have described as one of the biggest projects in Air Force history, and Rogers works with Gen. Dale R. White, the new direct reporting program manager for the Air Force’s critical major weapon systems.

Rogers has been in his job since August 2024, just after Sentinel emerged from a review process triggered by cost and schedule overruns. Since then, officials have claimed some progress on the program, including breaking ground on a prototype launch silo in March and a schedule shift to have a first test launch in 2027.

Brig. Gen. David C. Epperson, nominated to move up a rank, leads the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, which oversees high-end training, test, and evaluation. The center includes five wings with more than 13,000 personnel and the Nevada Testing and Training Range. It hosts the annual Red Flag exercises that serve as the Air Force’s premier combat training each year.

The Warfare Center is also home to the Experimental Operations Unit which is leading the service’s effort to develop tactics, techniques, and procedures for human pilots to control semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.

Nelson, Rogers, Epperson and the 17 other nominees represent about one-twelfth of all Air Force general officers. A service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine there are currently 249 GOs: 167 in Air Force positions, 64 in joint billets, and 18 brigadier general selects.

Brig. Gen. Peter M. Bonetti is the director, Strategic Plans, Programs and Requirements, Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, La.
Brig. Gen. Jon A. Eberlan is the director, Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Headquarters Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.
Brig. Gen. David C. Epperson is the commander, U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, Air Combat Command, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
Brig. Gen. Lance R. French is the deputy assistant secretary for Contracting, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Jesse J. Friedel is the commander, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
Brig. Gen. Richard A. Goodman is the director, Operations, J-3, Headquarters U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
Brig. Gen. Steven M. Gorski is the director, Intelligence and Information, J-2, Headquarters North American Aerospace Defense and U.S. Northern Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.
Brig. Gen. Mary K. Haddad is the mobilization assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Glenn T. Harris the is the director, Operations, Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale Air Force Base, La.
Brig. Gen. Frank R. Kincaid is the mobilization assistant to the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs, Requirements and Analysis, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Brian S. Laidlaw is the director, Operations, Headquarters Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.
Brig. Gen. Jason E. Lindsey is the director, Strategic Plans, Programs, Requirements and Analyses, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Brig. Gen. William A. Matney is the special assistant to the Chief of Air Force Reserve, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Nelson is the commander, Air Force Accessions Center and commander, Air Force Recruiting Service, Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.
Brig. Gen. Kenneth J. Ostrat is the director, Plans, Programs, and Requirements, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
Brig. Gen. Nathan L. Owendoff is the deputy director, Global Integration, J-5, Joint Staff, Directorate for Strategy, Plans and Policy, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Max E. Pearson is the deputy chief of staff, Intelligence, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Brig. Gen. Mark D. Richey is the mobilization assistant to the Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.
Brig. Gen. William S. Rogers is the program executive officer, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Air Force Materiel Command, Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
Brig. Gen. Travolis A. Simmons is the special assistant to the Commander, Air Education and Training Command, Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.
Brig. Gen. Stephen P. Snelson is the deputy commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

The 20 nominees this week are one of the biggest batches of potential major generals the Air Force has put forward in some time. In 2025, the biggest group was six. In 2024, the major group was 18.

The general officer promotion process starts with services selecting their candidates, which are then put together in a recommendation package by the Secretary of Defense and reviewed and approved by the President to send to the Senate.

Other Promotions

These recent nominations comes just a few days after the Senate voted June 18 to confirm two other Air Force nominees to new jobs: Lt. Gen. Daniel H. Tulley will stay at his current rank and take charge of Air Mobility Command, while Maj. Gen. David G. Shoemaker will pin on a third star and become head of the 7th Air Force and deputy at U.S. Forces Korea.

Still more nominations are still pending.

Maj. Gen. Paul D. Moga, the commander of 3rd Air Force within U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, was nominated at the same time as Tulley and Shoemaker to become the next superintendent of the Air Force Academy and move up a rank. Six other officers were nominated for three-star jobs on June 4 and have not been confirmed:

Lt. Gen. David R. Iverson: deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces 
Maj. Gen. Daniel T. Lasica: commander of Air Forces Central, 9th Air Force, and Combined Forces Air Component Commander for U.S. Central Command 
Maj. Gen. Paul R. Fast: chief of Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command 
Maj. Gen. Larry R. Broadwell Jr.: deputy commander of Air Combat Command 
Maj. Gen. David J. Sanford: director of the Defense Logistics Agency 
Brig. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis: commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center