Air Force, 1981
• 1980 Academic All-America® First Team
• 1981 Academic All-America® First Team
Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1995.
Brigadier General Michelle D. Johnson is a 1981 graduate of the Air Force Academy. Johnson was a four-year letter winner on the women’s basketball team. She held two school records for career scoring average with 17.6 points per game and 689 career field goals made. She served as team co-captain from 1979 through 1981, and was named Academic All-America in 1980 and 1981. Johnson ranked in the top five for two AFA all-time lists, the leading scorer list, with 1,706 points, and free throws made, 328.
Johnson was the Academy’s first female Rhodes Scholar, completing a Master of Arts degree in politics and economics from Brasenose College at Oxford University in England in 1983. Johnson holds a Master of Science degree in national security strategy from National War College, Washington, D.C. She has held fellowship positions at Syracuse University (National Security Management Fellow), Harvard University (Senior Executive Fellows Program), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Foreign Politics, International Relations and the National Interest).
The General earned her pilot wings in 1984. She served in a number of assignments for the US Air Force, including air mobility, airlift and tanker flying operations and training, and academic instruction and personnel. Her commands include directing the 9th Air Refueling Squadron, the 97th Operations Group and the 22nd Air Refueling Wing. The general commanded a deployed air refueling squadron in Operation Southern Watch and an air refueling wing in support of operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Brig. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson also served as the Deputy Director for Global Effects and the War on Terrorism, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.