Philip M. Breedlove
four-star general in the United States Air Force
Philip Mark Breedlove (born September 21, 1955) is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force who served as the commander of U.S. European Command, as well as the 17th Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO Allied Command Operations, from May 2013 until May 4, 2016. He previously served as the commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe, which he concurrently served as commander of U.S. Air Forces Africa, commander of Air Component Command, Ramstein, and director of Joint Air Power Competence Center. He previously served as the 36th vice chief of staff of the United States Air Force from January 14, 2011, to July 27, 2012. On May 10, 2013, in a ceremony in Stuttgart, Germany, Breedlove took over the command of USEUCOM. Three days later, on May 13, 2013, he assumed command as SACEUR.
On March 11, 2016, NATO's Atlantic Council designated US Army General Curtis Scaparrotti as Breedlove's successor.
Biography
Early life
Breedlove was born in 1955 in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Forest Park, Georgia. He received his commission after graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1977 where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.
Early career (1978-1990)
Breedlove chose a career in the USAF as soon as he graduated from college. From March 1978 and through the next year, he was a student, undergraduate pilot training, at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. From March until August of the next year, he was in pilot instructor training at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. From August 1979 to January 1983, he became a T-37 Tweet instructor pilot, evaluation flight examiner and runway supervisory unit controller at Williams.
The public source identifies “Philip M. Breedlove” as four-star general in the United States Air Force. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Philip, Breedlove and four-star.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6946168. VIAF identifies the subject as 308769118. The Library of Congress control number is no2014074983. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2013, 2016 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Philip M. Breedlove” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.