John L. Piotrowski

Who is John L. Piotrowski?

General John Louis Piotrowski is a retired United States Air Force four-star general who served as Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force, from 1985 to 1987; and Commander in Chief, North American Aerospace Defense Command/Commander in Chief, U.S. Space Command, from 1987 to 1990.

Piotrowski was born in 1934, in Detroit and graduated from Henry Ford Trade School in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1951. He attended Arizona State University and Florida State University, and graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree. He did postgraduate work at the University of Southern California and Auburn University, and attended the program for management development at Harvard University. He completed Squadron Officer School in 1956, Air Command and Staff College in 1965, Armed Forces Staff College in 1968 and the Royal Air Force College of Air Warfare, Royal Air Force Station Manby, England, in 1971.

He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in September 1952. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, he was assigned to Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, as a student in basic electronics and ground radar.