COL(Retired) Leafaina O. Tavai

Colonel (Retired) Leafaina Tavai is from Gataivai, American Samoa, the daughter of the late High Chief Atiumaletavai Kaleopa Vaikī Tavai and the late High Talking Chief Feagaimaali’i Lauolive To’omalatai Tavai. She graduated from Samoana High School and left the islands for the first time to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York where she graduated in 1989 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps.

She was the first from American Samoa to be nominated by our Member of Congress (Honorable Fofo Sunia) to the military academies and the first to graduate from West Point.

She served in the U.S. Army from 1989 to 2014, including three combat deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). She commanded at every level from company to brigade during her career. She commanded the 589th Brigade Support Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas for 32 months including 15 months in combat (OIF). Focused on the well-being of the entire command, she built from scratch a logistics support system that was competent and flexible to answer the needs of the 41st Fires Brigade and all combat units in their area of responsibility, in combat, without delay.

Colonel Tavai was the first Samoan on active duty to be selected for promotion to colonel below-the-zone and selected for brigade command. She commanded the 404th Army Field Support Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a strategic logistic brigade supporting the western states, Hawaii and Alaska. Her first year produced phenomenal results across a far-flung area of responsibility. She was AMC/ASC’s single touch point for all strategic sustainment capabilities, from equipping units, to resetting them, preparing equipment for next missions, and networking all sustainment capabilities of the directorates of logistics to give a full enterprise approach to Army equipment and sustainment requirements.

Throughout her career, she developed a reputation as an aggressive, enthusiastic multifunctional logistician who forces the logistics system to undergo extraordinary measures in support of readiness.

COL (R) Tavai holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an Executive master’s in business administration degree (EMBA) from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Her military education includes The Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) School at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the Ordnance Officer Basic Course, the Combined Logistics Officers Advanced Course, the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Naval War College. Her awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters, the Global War on Terrorism Medal (Expeditionary and Service), and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

She retired from the Army in 2014 and is currently serving as the Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata Radewagen, American Samoa’s representative in Congress, in Washington D.C. She is the first Samoan to be selected and inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame.