Ricardo Aponte Brigadier General Ricardo " Rico " Aponte ( born c . 1949 ) is a United States Air Force officer who was the first Hispanic Director , J - 7 , of the United States Southern Command , located in Miami , Florida . Early years . Aponte was raised and educated in San Juan , the capital of Puerto Rico . After receiving his primary and secondary education , he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico and joined the campus ROTC program . On December 29 , 1972 , he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force . Assignments . Aponte was assigned to Moody Air Force Base in the state of Georgia and completed his pilot training in August 1974 . He was then reassigned to the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing at Cannon Air Force Base , New Mexico as pilot - weapons system officer and aircraft commander General Dynamics F - 111 D . He was promoted to First Lieutenant on May 1 , 1975 . At Cannon Air Base , Aponte flew the F - 111 F and D models , the 02 - A and T - 38 aircraft . Aponte became a Captain on May 1 , 1977 and served as aircraft commander and instructor pilot of the F - 111F aircraft of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing , Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom from August 1978 to May 1981 . During this period , he earned his Master of Science degree in management science from Troy State University . In May 1981 , he returned to the United States and served as instructor pilot of the 0 - 2A aircraft , assigned to the 549th Tactical Air Support Training Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida . During this period , Aponte attended the United States Marine Corps Weapons and Tactics Instructor School in Marine Corps Air Station Yuma located in Arizona , the United States Air Force Squadron Officer ' s School and United States Air Force Air Command and Staff College ( the latter two by correspondence ) . He served at Patrick Air Force Base until May 1984 , when he was sent to Howard Air Force Base in Panama . Aponte was promoted to major on October 1 , 1984 and was the chief of the Latin American Political Military Affairs Division and deputy director for Latin American Affairs . On June 1988 , Aponte was reassigned to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico where he served as aircraft commander F111 - D , 523rd Tactical Fighter Squadron and from 1989 to December 1989 as chief , Quality Assurance of 27th Tactical Fighter Group . Air Force Reserve . In August 1990 , Aponte joined the Air Force Reserve and was assigned to Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations Western Hemisphere Division in the Pentagon in Washington , D . C . . At the Pentagon , Aponte was the international political officer who led the reserve officers assigned to the Western Hemisphere , European and Defense Attached Directorates . In 1992 , the U . S . Air Force Demonstration Squadron , The Thunderbirds , selected him as the Spanish Language Narrator for their highly successful Latin America Tour . He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on June 18 , 1993 and completed by seminar Air War College in 1994 . From November 1999 to January 2001 , he served as individual mobilization augmentee to Deputy Under Secretary International Affairs . He was promoted to the rank of Colonel on August 1 , 1997 . In January 2001 , he was assigned as a mobilization assistant to the deputy to the Chief Air Force Reserve . There he led transformation efforts and was a tiger team member in response to frequent mobilization and demobilization issues resulting from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom . United States Southern Command . In April 2003 , Aponte became the Deputy Director for Operations , Headquarters United States Southern Command in Miami , Florida . Aponte was promoted to Brigadier General on March 1 , 2003 . In October 2004 , he was named Director , J - 7 , of the United States Southern Command . His directorate is the focal point for transformation initiatives , knowledge management , experimentation and gaming within the U . S . Southern Command . The directorate seeks out new concepts and rigorously tests them both in simulation and as part of operational experiments . The first transformation initiative was the startup of the Secretary of Defense mandated Standing Joint Force Headquarters ( SJFHQ ) . The SJFHQ , consists of planning , operations , knowledge management , and information superiority experts who form the backbone of the Joint Task Force command structure in the event of contingency operations . Aponte retired July 1 , 2007 .