The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is proud to host a Directors’ Lunch with Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth.
Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus assumed this command after deployment in Iraq as the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, and the NATO Training Mission – Iraq where he was responsible for the training of Iraqi security forces. Prior to that deployment, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), leading the "Screaming Eagles" in combat during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His command of the 101st followed a year deployed on Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia, where he was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the NATO Stabilization Force and the Deputy Commander of the US Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force – Bosnia.
Lieutenant General Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy. He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. In addition, he has held a number of staff assignments: Aide to the Chief of Staff of the Army; service as a battalion, brigade, and division operations officer; Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe; Chief of Operations of the United Nations Force in Haiti; and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lieutenant General Petraeus was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983. He subsequently earned MPA and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and later served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the US Military Academy. He has also earned many awards throughout his career in the Army.
