General Dan Caine
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John Daniel Caine was born in August 1968 in Elmira, New York. He graduated from Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Air Force ROTC. He completed the Euro-NATO Jet Pilot Training Program and joined the New York Air National Guard in Syracuse. He availed himself of educational opportunities in the military, and later earned a master’s degree in air warfare from the American Military University.
Caine flew F-16s with various squadrons and became an instructor pilot and chief of weapons. He was among the pilots who protected Washington, D.C., after the attacks on September 11, 2001. Caine developed counter weapons and tactics and became head of operations at an Air National Guard Base test center in Tucson, Arizona. He later served in the White House Homeland Security Council. He then commanded the Joint Special Operations Task Force – Air Directorate in Iraq.
Caine also pursued entrepreneurial and investment opportunities during stints as a part-time Air National Guard member. He served as a special assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture during the response to Hurricane Katrina. He also served the Homeland Security Council as a policy director for counterterrorism. Caine co-founded a regional airline.
Caine was nominated to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump in March 2025. He was confirmed by the Senate, and assumed his position in April.
General Caine is a command pilot with more than 2,800 flying hours, including 100 combat hours in the F-16.
In the News…
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine spoke about a U.S. Navy submarine torpedoing an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean as part of Operation Epic Fury.
General Caine explained, “For the first time since 1945, a United States Navy fast attack submarine has sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mk-48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.”
The Joint Chiefs chairman said, “This is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach. To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale.”
The general highlighted the U.S. military hitting more than 2,000 targets in Iran, having destroyed at least 20 Islamic Republic naval vessels. He stated that the U.S. operation has “effectively neutralized, at this point in time, Iran’s major naval presence in theater.”
