Watch this short, autobiographical video.
Jeff Latas was born in Wichita, Kansas, the third of four children. His father, Ralph W. Latas, was a teacher who couldn't make ends meet teaching, so he became a stillman in an oil refinery and joined the union. Jeff's mother worked in various clerical jobs while raising her family in a modest, two-bedroom, one-bath home. Jeff was captain of the football team at East High and played football at Wichita State University.
Jeff moved to Tucson in 1978. He worked as a construction carpenter and attended Pima Community College while he established residency, and then enrolled at the University of Arizona as an aerospace engineering major. Jeff continued to work his way through school as a ranch hand and as a service station attendant.
Jeff was
accepted into the Air Force ROTC program at the U of A, and
upon graduation, he was commissioned into the United States
Air Force. He completed pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, as one of the top students in his class, and
received his first choice assignment to fly F-111s at Cannon
Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico.
Jeff then earned an assignment as an instructor in T-38 advanced jet trainers at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, where his students voted him to receive the Outstanding Instructor award. During his tour of duty at Laughlin, Jeff served as an evaluator of local first responders as part of the Base Exercise Evaluation Team.
Jeff was then selected to be one of the first 100 pilots to
fly the F-15E "Strike Eagle." He returned to Arizona for a
summer for training at Luke Air Force Base. Jeff's first
assignment in the F-15E was to the 336th "Rocketeers" Fighter
Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro,
North Carolina. On August 9, 1990, Jeff deployed with the Rocketeers to Oman in support of Operation Desert Shield. Just
before the start of Operation Desert Storm, the 336th moved
to Al Karj Air Base in Saudi Arabia. On the third night of Desert Storm, Jeff led a 10-ship formation into heavy fire. Six of the aircraft turned back, but the remaining four completed the mission under heavy fire. For his role in leading that mission, Jeff was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism. Jeff flew 38 official
combat missions and remained in theatre for nearly 8 months. Some of Jeff's missions are chronicled in the book, Strike Eagle: Flying the F-15e in the Gulf War, by William L. Smallwood. Watch this video clip of local news coverage of Jeff's return from Desert Storm.
Jeff was named the Rocketeers' Top Gun in the spring of 1993. He returned to Saudi Arabia twice with the Rocketeers in support of Operation Southern Watch, living in the now-famous Khobar Towers at Dhahran Air Base. During his tour of duty in North Carolina, he also served as a founding member of the Communities in Schools (CIS) of Wayne County, which operated the Teen Health Corps at Goldsboro High School, Teen Court in Wayne County, the Great Leaps supplemental reading program, and other tutoring and mentoring programs.
Jeff's next assignment was to the Pentagon, where he managed requirements for weapon modernization programs. He argued unsuccessfully against the continued use of depleted uranium weapons, and advocated for systems that could disable enemy weapons while minimizing injuries to soldiers and civilians. Many of those systems are now produced in Tucson. Jeff served as a member of the Quadrennial Defense Review in 1996. During that project, he researched the weapons that other countries had. The weapons inspectors were still in Iraq at that time, and not finding any weapons of mass destruction. In 1997, General John Shalikashvili, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, awarded Jeff a Joint Achievement Medal for his anti-armor study. During Jeff's tour of duty at the Pentagon, he also served as president of the PTA at Shrevewood Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, and completed a Master's degree in Public Administration, with honors.
Jeff returned to flying the F-15E with an assignment to the
391st "Flying Tigers" fighter squadron at Mountain Home Air
Force Base in Idaho. He returned to southwest Asia twice more
with the Flying Tigers, once in support of Operation Southern
Watch in Kuwait, and once in support of Operation Northern
Watch in Turkey. During this time, Jeff was also selected to
become an Accident Investigation Board president.
Finally, Jeff was able to transfer back to his beloved southern Arizona to work as a Flight Evaluator for the 12th Air Force at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
Jeff's exemplary military record includes nearly 5000 hours
in fighter aircraft, the Distinguish Flying Cross for
Heroism, four Air Medals, four Meritorious Service
Medals, and nine Aerial Achievement Medals.
Upon retiring from the Air Force in December 2002, Jeff was immediately hired by JetBlue Airways as a pilot. He upgraded to Captain in 2005.
Jeff is now a resident of Oro Valley. He is married and the father of two. Jeff's wife of over 27 years,
Salette, is also a U of A grad, and currently manages a small
Web design business in Oro Valley. Daughter Virginia completed her
studies at the University of Arizona in 2005 and works at
Arizona Bird Clinic. Son Jesse graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in 2003, after a year-long battle with leukemia,
attended Pima College and the U of A. He enlisted as a
soldier with Tucson's own 208th Transportation Company,
United States Army Reserve. He was medically evacuated from
Iraq in October 2005 after a relapse of childhood leukemia, and received a cord blood transplant at University Medical Center in March, 2006. He never fully recovered. Jesse died on July 29, 2007.
Jeff Latas is the chair of the Sonora Progressives, vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, and chair of the Arizona Democratic Veterans' Caucus.