Ronald Fogleman Ronald Robert Fogleman ( born January 27 , 1942 ) is a retired General in the United States Air Force who served the 16th Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1994 to 1997 , and before that , from 1992 to 1994 as Commander - in - Chief of the United States Transportation Command . Biography . Air Force career . A 1963 graduate from the United States Air Force Academy , he holds a master ' s degree in military history and political science from Duke University . A command pilot and a parachutist , he amassed more than 6 , 800 flying hours in fighter , transport , tanker and rotary wing aircraft . He flew 315 combat missions and logged 806 hours of combat flying in fighter aircraft . 80 of his missions were as a " Misty FAC " in the F - 100F Super Sabre at Phu Cat Air Base between 25 December 1968 and 23 April 1969 . Fogleman was shot down in Vietnam in 1968 , while piloting a F - 100 . He was rescued from being captured by clinging on to an AH - 1 Cobra helicopter that landed at the crash site . In early assignments he instructed student pilots , performed combat duty as a fighter pilot and high - speed forward air controller in Vietnam and Thailand , taught history at the Air Force Academy and conducted flight operations in Europe — including duty as an F - 15 Eagle aircraft demonstration pilot for international airshows . He commanded an Air Force wing , an air division , a numbered air force , a major command and a unified command . Fogleman was the first graduate of the United States Air Force Academy to advance to Chief of Staff of the Air Force . He retired September 1 , 1997 . Bosnian War Controversy in June 1995 . During the Bosnian War NATO Forces were establishing a no - fly - zone . On the second June two patrolling US F16 aircraft of that operation came under attack by a Serbian SA - 6 surface - to - air missile . One plane was consequently hit and the pilot , Scott O ' Grady ejected . Minutes after the landing , Serbian forces were closing in on his position , but he managed to escape and radioed for help on the 4th day , transmitting intermittent to lessen the chance of detection . These radio calls were picked up by US Forces . General Ronald Fogleman , at the time Air Force Chief of Staff told press reporters during a promotion ceremony that " intermittent " transmissions were picked up . An " enraged " NATO official described this with " I was dumbfounded he said that " and " I mean , why not just announce to the bad guys , ' We think he ' s alive and kicking , and we hope we find him before you do ' ? " according to information published in the TIME magazine . However this ' leak ' did not thwart a US Marine rescue operation involving several aircraft and helicopters that was launched later . Although the rescue forces came under small arms fire and missiles were fired by shoulder - held surface - to - air launchers on the way back , O ' Grady was successfully extracted . Post - Air Force career . He currently has a seat of Boards of Directors of Alliant Techsystems , AAR Corporation , Mesa Air Group , Inc . , and World Air Holdings , Inc . On November 11 , 2009 , General Fogleman was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors at Alliant Techsystems Inc . , following the retirement of ATK Chairman and CEO Dan Murphy .