Colonel John Leitner
Colonel (COL) John Leitner commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps through the University of Houston in 2003. He served as an intelligence officer for four and a half years, before being assessed and selected to attend the arduous Special Forces Qualification Course. After successful completion of the Special Forces Qualification Course, he earned his Green Beret and has served as a Special Forces officer, leading at every level in garrison and combat.
He most recently served as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans, Training, Strategy, and Information at 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Executive Officer to the Commanding General of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. His last command assignment was as the Battalion Commander for 3rd battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). During his time in Command, he concurrently served as the Commander of Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, responsible for training, advising and supporting of Afghan Special Operations and Conventional military forces from the platoon to corps level, as well as retrograding U.S. forces throughout the country. COL Leitner has nearly five and a half years of time deployed to combat, with two deployments to Iraq and six to Afghanistan.
COL Leitner holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Houston and a Master of Science from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a graduate of the Joint Combined and Warfighting School and a fully joint qualified officer. He currently lives in New Braunfels, Texas with his wife, Emily, their daughters (Abby (19), Sydney (17), Molly (15), Maisy (9)), and their family dog, Juney. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, reading, hunting and working out.