Major General (Ret.) Tim Leahy served his nation in uniform for 34 years. The vast majority of this time was in SOF formations. Upon retiring in December of 2019, he established and is the CEO of Leahy Consulting, LLC., a management/ leadership consulting firm with expertise in government, national security, and military training, education, and doctrine.
Tim entered the Air Force in 1985 upon graduation from The Citadel and attended flight school at Ft Rucker, Alabama. His first operational assignment was flying the HH-3 Jolly Green Giant, as an Air Rescue and Recovery Pilot at Elmendorf AFB, AK, where he is credited with saving
eight lives. After this assignment, he was available for and volunteered for special operations duty, flying the MH-53 PAVE LOW helicopter. Within two weeks of completing transition training and becoming qualified in the PAVE LOW, he flew his first combat mission in Operation Desert Storm.
Tim has logged over 3200 flight hours during his career and has participated in numerous Named Operations in the Balkans and the Middle East. He has flown in the NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, EUCOM, PACOM and CENTCOM AOR’s and has logged time in the T-41, TH-55, UH-1H, C/HH-3E, MH-53A/J/M, MH-60, MC-130H/P/W/J, AC-130H/W, PC-12, Q-200, M-28, DO-328, CV-22, and F-16 aircraft.
Tim served on the SOCEUR staff during the KOSOVO conflict as a J5 plans officer and later as the Chief of the J3’s, Contingency Operations Directorate. Tim also served as the USSOCOM CAG Director for Admiral Eric Olson and upon promotion to Brigadier General as the Director of the J7/9.
Subsequently, he served as the AFSOC/A3 and the USSOCOM/J3. Tim was the
Vice-Commander of the 1 SOW and AFSOC’s Warfighting HQ and commanded the 551 Special Operations Squadron, 27 SOW and 23 rd Air Force while serving in SOF formations.
The CSAF pulled Tim back to the big Air Force to commanded the Lemay Center, where he was tasked with leading the educational transformation of the Air Force by revamping the curriculum at Air University, restructuring lessons learned and doctrine processes, expanding war gaming, overhauling the IT backbone and developing a cyber school.
Tim’s final assignment was as Commander of 2nd Air Force where he led the development, oversight and direction of all operational aspects of Basic Military Training, initial skills training and advanced technical
training for the Air Force enlisted force, non-rated operations, and support officers, which is 92% of all Air Force yearly acquisitions
Tim earned a Bachelor’s degree from The Citadel, and Master’s Degrees from Troy State University in Troy AL, The Naval War College in Newport RI, The School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SAAS) in Montgomery AL, and The Army War College in Carlisle Barracks PA. He is author of a published Biblioscholar Dissertation, “The Future of USAF Combat
Search and Rescue” published by Air University Press. Tim also attended the Harvard Kennedy School and the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
