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Recent combat experience marks Army leaders

After nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army’s top leadership is being shaped by deep combat experience at the strategic and operational levels.

The unexpected departure of Navy Adm. William Fallon as commander of U.S. Central Command means a quick return of Army influence over a strategically sensitive region of the world. And the two uniformed officers who head the Army at home will have a combined recent deployment history of more than four years.

Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the 101st Airborne Division and head of Multi-National Force-Iraq, will be nominated as the next commander of CentCom to oversee U.S. and coalition military operations in Southwest Asia, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, including managing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who commanded the 4th Infantry Division at the beginning of operations in Iraq in 2003 and just finished 15 months commanding Multi-National Corps-Iraq, is nominated to succeed Petraeus as the top U.S. commander by the end of summer.

Adding to the experience level that reflects the deployment history of more than 60 percent of the active Army is the nomination of former 1st Cavalry Division and MNC-I commander Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli to become the next vice chief of staff, a position Odierno had been nominated for until he was selected to return to Baghdad.

one influential Army general called the Petraeus-Odierno team, “absolutely the right thing.”

“Petraeus could not have been as effective as he was had he not had this absolute master of his trade Odierno running the day-to-day war,” Barry McCaffrey said of Petraeus’ last 14 months as commander of MNF-I and Odierno’s role as his deputy at the head of MNC-I. “I think putting Odierno back in Iraq with the portfolio of contacts he has and the continuity will get us through the first two years or year of the next administration.”

McCaffrey, who commanded the 24th Infantry Division and later was commander of U.S. Southern Command, is an adjunct professor of international affairs at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

He has visited the war zones numerous times, generating reports on the status of the troops, their equipment and the direction of operations in the region for Senate testimony, West Point and his own consulting firm.

He predicts that within a year of the Nov. 4 presidential election, the new president will take troop levels in Iraq to 60,000, down from an expected level of about 140,000 this fall.

“What Odierno can do now is get us through a period of immense peril,” McCaffrey said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who announced the nominations April 23, acknowledged the value of war-zone experience in the selections.

“There is no question that there are a handful of generals, like a lot of our captains and enlisted soldiers and the [noncommissioned officers], who have had repeated tours in Iraq. Partly it is their experience. Partly it is the fact that they know Iraq,” Gates said.

It was the unexpected resignation of Fallon, he said, that led to the new command moves.

Coming up behind those four-star generals, McCaffrey noted, are several commanders at the division and brigade levels who are capable of higher responsibility sooner than would be traditional.

“I believe that, almost without exception, you could pin two stars on these brigade commanders and ask them to command a division. They’re the most remarkable people we’ve had in command in a long time,” he said.

McCaffrey also singled out Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, a former 82nd Airborne Division commander who is at the head of XXVIII Airborne Corps and MNC-I, as “one of the best war fighters we’ve had in uniform in 20 years.”

Another commander with war-zone experience, albeit slightly less time on the ground than his fellow four-stars, is Gen. David McKiernan, who awaits final approval of his nomination for command of International Security Assistance Force at NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved his nomination, which most likely will be approved on the Senate floor.

McKiernan commanded the 1st Cavalry Division until just after the Sept. 11 attacks and headed Third U.S. Army/Army Forces Central Command and Coalition Forces Land Component Command at the start of operations in Iraq.

The job in Afghanistan, McCaffrey said, is one for which McKiernan is well suited, as it is one in which the U.S. must take the lead in keeping allied forces in the fight, rather than a forward combat role.

“He’ll bring with him extremely good contacts throughout NATO. I hate to say this, but Afghanistan is a 25-year mission. We’ve got to keep the international community engaged,” McCaffrey said, pointing out that the combat aspect of the Afghanistan mission is “the easiest piece, so we’ve got a two-star commander that runs the operations.”

The current ISAF commander is Gen. Daniel McNeil.

The nominations of Petraeus, Odierno and Chiarelli will be considered by the Senate Armed Services Committee “as soon as possible,” Gates said.

“We expect to move the paperwork on these nominations to the White House and to the Senate very quickly,” he added.