News
Lasica takes over Aviano’s 31st Fighter Wing
Stars and Stripes
June 21, 2018
Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, 3rd Air Force commander, speaks during a change-of-command ceremony at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Thursday, June 21, 2018. Brig. Gen. Daniel Lasica took command of the only permanently assigned U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft wing in NATO's southern region. (Cary Smith/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — Brig. Gen. Daniel T. Lasica took command of the 31st Fighter Wing in a ceremony on Thursday.
Lasica assumed command from Brig. Gen. Lance Landrum, whose next assignment will be deputy director of force structure, resources and assessment at the Pentagon. Landrum took command of the wing in June 2016.
Lasica, who has never been stationed in Europe, had been the commander of the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. A 1994 graduate of the Air Force Academy, he has held overseas assignments at Osan Air Base in South Korea and the command of the 838th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group in Afghanistan.
He is also rated as a command pilot with 3,875 credited hours in the F-16, T-37, C-208 and Mi-17.
Lasica becomes the 16th commander of the wing since it activated at Aviano on April 1, 1994, and the 45th American commander at Aviano since operations began on Feb. 16, 1955.
Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, 3rd Air Force commander, speaks during a change-of-command ceremony at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Thursday, June 21, 2018. Brig. Gen. Daniel Lasica took command of the only permanently assigned U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft wing in NATO's southern region. (Cary Smith/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, left, the 3rd Air Force commander, hands the 31st Fighter Wing guidon to Brig. Gen. Daniel Lasica, 31 Fighter Wing commander, during a change-of-command ceremony at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (Ryan Brooks/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
Brig. Gen. Daniel Lasica, 31st Fighter Wing commander, speaks during a change-of-command ceremony at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Thursday, June 21, 2018. Lasica takes over the only permanently assigned U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft wing in NATO's southern region.
(Ryan Brooks/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, left, th 3rd Air Force commander; Brig. Gen. Lance Landrum,center, outgoing 31st Fighter Wing commander; and Brig. Gen. Daniel Lasica, 31st Fighter Wing commander, stand during a change-of-command ceremony at Aviano Air Base, Italy, Thursday, June 21, 2018.
( Ryan Brooks/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)