In mid-1995 , now promoted to Colonel , he returned to flight service , and that June took up command of the 4404th Operations Group ( Provisional ) in Saudi Arabia . He held command until July 1996 , and was in command of the group at the time of the Khobar Towers bombing . In August 1996 , he was transferred to command the 39th Wing in Turkey , and held the post for two and a half years , overseeing the start of Operation Northern Watch , enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq . In mid-1998 he was transferred to command 3rd Wing in Alaska , and held command until January 2000 . Unlike previous commanders , he held the position for a year as a Colonel . In October 1999 , he was finally promoted to Brigadier-General . His original promotion to Brigadier-General was cancelled due to being found guilty of " mistakenly " falsifying combat sorties while in command of the 39th Wing . Through 2000 and 2001 he was Deputy Director for Operations ( J-39 , responsible for information operations ) in the Joint Staff in Washington - as a result of which he was in the Pentagon when it was hit on September 11 , 2001 - and then spent a year and a half as Director of Regional Affairs for the Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for International Affairs ; during the last six months of this period , January to June 2003 , he was promoted to Major-General and commanded Joint Task Force-West during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Khobar Towers bombing
Khobar Towers bombing
Scott Gration