Got this via e-mail:

HR McMaster is just doing his job. After completing a second tour of duty in Iraq, last summer he returned home--limped really, because of his war wounds--and rediscovered his lovely wife and three daughters. Because he is a serious social scientist, he was rewarded with a secondment to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, where he might in a less politically charged atmosphere unpack the lessons of modern war for the future of the Armed Forces. But this was no typical secondment, and he would have to think and write quickly, because he would be deployed on special assignments.

Thus, he arrived at IISS in September 2006 and was immediately detailed to the Pentagon for the Chairman's assessment on Iraq. He returned before Christmas and spent the first two months of 2007 giving speeches and talks at various think tanks and universities--always impressing and surprising his audience with the intelligence of the US Army.

In late March it was back to Iraq for another important strategic assignment. He did his job again and returned home to write and give more speeches. His last talk at IISS last week packed the house at 10 am on a Monday morning in summer--something that senior officials would not have done. Former foreign ministers and Members of Parliament were lined up to ask HR questions, and they all left in admiration for the man. They saw, as those of us who know him do, a brilliant soldier as able in the field of analytic thinking and research as on the battlefield.

That celebrity finds HR is not a mystery to those who know his talents, but HR has to cringe every time an article appears highlighting this point. He is not a Colonel in search of celebrity, but a professional doing his job. HR has a great future ahead of him.