Lt. Gen. David Shoemaker gives his first remarks as commander of 7th Air Force at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Aug. 7, 2026. (Yoojin Lee/Stars and Stripes)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A former Kunsan fighter wing commander took on one of the U.S. military’s biggest jobs in Korea on Friday, assuming command of 7th Air Force and becoming deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea.
Lt. Gen. David Shoemaker succeeded Lt. Gen. David Iverson during a change-of-command ceremony in a weapons-load training hangar at Osan.
“The challenge on the Korean Peninsula remains a consequential one,” Shoemaker told the gathering. “Our alliance stands on the border of freedom and oppression.”
He said deterrence depends on maintaining credible combat readiness.
“Our hope is that through our steadfast resolve and strength based on our shared values, that we will deter conflict with unequal military readiness,” he said.
Shoemaker also assumed command of Combined Air Component Command — under Combined Forces Command and United Nations Command — and became the U.S. representative to the joint committee overseeing the status of forces agreement between Washington and Seoul.
From left, Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea; Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces; Lt. Gen. David Iverson, Schneider's soon-to-be deputy commander; and Lt. Gen. David Shoemaker, incoming commander of 7th Air Force, take part in the 7th Air Force change-of-command ceremony at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Aug. 7, 2026. (Yoojin Lee/Stars and Stripes)
Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces, described the assignment as one of the broadest senior leadership roles in the service.
The position “is the most hats of just about any senior commander in the United States Air Force,” he told the audience.
Schneider said North Korea’s persistent military threat requires the command to maintain constant operational and mental readiness.
Shoemaker most recently served as special assistant to the commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.
A 1994 graduate of the Air Force Academy, he has logged more than 2,000 flying hours and more than 100 combat sorties in F-16 Fighting Falcons during operations in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to his service biography.
Shoemaker has served multiple tours in South Korea, including as commander of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base from May 2017 to June 2018.
His earlier assignments included director of operations for Kunsan’s 35th Fighter Squadron from July 2010 to August 2011 and chief of standardization and evaluation for Kunsan’s 8th Operations Group from October 2005 to December 2006.
During his remarks, Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, underscored the importance of airpower on the peninsula by quoting retired Gen. Frank Gorenc, former commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa.
“Airpower is like oxygen — when you have enough, you don’t have to think about it. When you don’t have enough, that’s all you can think about,” he told the gathering.
“As the USFK commander, I can tell you that with the 7th Air Force flying beside us, it’s been easy, easy breathing,” Brunson said.
Iverson’s next assignment is deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
In his farewell remarks, he pointed to the opening months of the Korean War as a warning against complacency.
Despite emerging from World War II as the “greatest military power on the face of the Earth,” U.S. forces were “almost decimated” after fighting began on the peninsula in 1950, Iverson said.
That experience remains “a seminal moment in understanding that we can never lose the vision and the vigilance of being ready,” he added.
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