Air Force Maintenance Icon Dies

Retired Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez, died on Dec. 30 in Albuquerque, N.M., at age 79. He is credited with revolutionizing the Air Force’s maintenance and logistics career field and then playing an instrumental role post retirement in preventing Kirtland AFB, N.M., from closing under BRAC in the mid 1990s. “He loved the maintenance and logistics community, the Air Force, and his country,” said Col. Walter Lindsley, commander of Kirtland’s 498th Nuclear Systems Wing. Marquez, Lindsley added, was “responsible for the Air Force Combat Ammunition Center, our world-class munitions school, and had a hand in the very badge maintainers wear above their left pocket.” Born in Peralta, N.M., in 1932, Marquez entered the Air Force as a second lieutenant in November 1954. Early on, he flew F-86s and F-102s. In 1962, he became a maintenance officer and served in a variety of maintenance roles throughout the rest of his career, rising to deputy chief of staff for logistics and engineering in 1983. He retired in 1987. (Kirtland report by Danny Monahan) (See also Albuquerque Journal obituary)