Michael Hood

Lieutenant-General Michael John Hood CMM CD^[2] is a retired senior Royal Canadian Air Force officer who was Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 2015 until 2018.

Michael J. Hood
Lieutenant General Michael Hood Official RCAF Photo, 2015
Allegiance	Canada
Branch	Royal Canadian Air Force[a]
Years of service	1985 - 2018
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	429 Tactical Airlift Squadron 436 Tactical Airlift Squadron 8 Wing Trenton Royal Canadian Air Force
Awards	Commander of the Order of Military Merit[1]

Early life and education

In addition to holding a master's degree in International Relations from Auburn University, Hood also holds certifications from Canada's National Security Program and the United States' Air Force Command and Staff College.^[3]

Career

Hood joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1985.^[4] He earned his Air Combat Systems Officer Wings in 1988.^[3] Most of his flight career was spent on the C-130 Hercules. Hood also served a tour as an Electronic Warfare Officer on the CC-144 Challenger.^[3]

After serving as Commanding Officer of both 429 Tactical Airlift Squadron and 436 Tactical Airlift Squadron, he became Plans Officer at Canadian Expeditionary Force Command Headquarters in January 2006. Following this, he became Commander of 8 Wing Trenton in June 2007.^[3]

Hood went on to become Director General Air Force Development in 2010, Deputy Director General of International Security Policy in June 2011 and Deputy Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force in September 2012.^[5] After that he became Director of Staff of the Strategic Joint Staff in June 2013^[6] and finally Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force in July 2015.^[7] He retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in May 2018.^[2]

Post-retirement

Following his career in the military, in 2018 Hood went on to become an executive in a Vancouver-based energy and mining firm. ^[8]

In May 2020, Hood wrote an op-ed in the National Post entitled "Securing Canadian sovereignty in a post-COVID world."^[9]

Awards and decorations

As witness the photograph by the Toronto Star, Hood had received as of his appointment to RCAF Commander in July 2015 the following Orders and Decorations:^[10]

Ribbon	Description	Notes
	Order of Military Merit (CMM)	Appointed Commander (CMM) on 17 October 2012[11]
	Gulf and Kuwait Medal	1991, with Clasp
	General Service Medal	2004 Afghanistan
	Special Service Medal	with NATO-OTAN Clasp With Humanitas Clasp
	Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal
	NATO Medal for the former Yugoslavia	with FORMER YUGOSLAVIA clasp
	Canadian Forces' Decoration (CD)	with two Clasp for 32 years of services
	Order of Aeronautical Merit (Brazil)	Decoration awarded on 27 May 2017[12] Degree of Grand Officer
	Legion of Merit (USA)	Decoration awarded on 1 August 2020[13] Commander level

• He was a qualified RCAF Air Combat Systems Officer and as such wore the Royal Canadian Air Forces Air Combat systems Officer badge. ^[14]

Notes

1. Known as Air Command until 2011