Lecture by Lieutenant General David Petraeus

About

Lieutenant General David Petraeus assumed command of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth on October 20th, 2005 following deployment in Iraq as the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, which he led from June 2004 to September 2005, and the NATO Training Mission – Iraq, which he commanded from October 2004 to September 2005. 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. Prior to his tour in Bosnia, he spent two years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving first as the Assistant Division Commander for Operations of the 82nd Airborne Division and then as the Chief of Staff of XVIII Airborne Corps.

Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, including command of a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division and a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. 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 also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.
Awards and decorations earned by Lieutenant General Petraeus include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device, the State Department Superior Honor Award, and the Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm. He is a master parachutist and air assault and ranger qualified. He has also earned the Combat Action Badge and French, British, and German Jump Wings.

Petraeus and his wife have two children, a son, and a daughter.