Cesar Antonio Rodriguez is a former United States Air Force officer and pilot who served from 1981 to 2006.
With three air-to-air combat victories, he joined Thomas Dietz, Robert Hehemann, and Robert Wright (all USAF officers) as the closest to becoming an air ace than any U.S.
pilot since the Vietnam War.
Rodriguez scored his first two kills in 1991, during the first Gulf War, against a Mikoyan MiG-29 and a Mikoyan MiG-23 of the Iraqi Air Force.
His third kill came against a MiG-29 of the Yugoslav air force during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.