Joseph Tomczak

Major Joe Tomczak is an active-duty special operations pilot currently attending the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, the service’s graduate program for strategy. Following graduation, he will be assigned to the Pentagon as a staff officer at Headquarters Air Force.

Prior to his current studies, Joe served as the deputy director of the Strategic Initiatives Group at the Headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command. In that role, he advised the three-star commanding general and aided the realignment of the organization’s policies and programs for strategic competition with China and Russia. Joe’s operational experience includes five combat deployments and more than 320 missions conducting close air support in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. In 2019, he commanded the final AC-130U gunship deployment of the war in Afghanistan.

Joe graduated with a B.S. in political science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, which included an exchange semester at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is a distinguished graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and holds a Master of International Policy and Practice from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.