Cesar Antonio "Rico" Rodriguez was a United States Air Force officer and pilot from 1981 to 2006. His three air-to-air combat victories brought him closer to becoming an air ace than any American 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 Yugoslavian Air Force during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.