McMaster on war (merged thread)

[Cavguy]

Most had heard before, but I got the official memo today. This is a publically available announcement.

I know two of them personally - COL MacFarland and COL Shields. COL McMaster is also on the list.

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced that the President nominated the Army Competitive Category colonels listed below for promotion to the rank of brigadier general.

Name (Branch)
Current Assignment

Colonel Heidi V. Brown (AD)
Effects Coordinator
I Corps and Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis, Washington 98433

Colonel John A. Davis (30)
En route to: Deputy Commander
Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations Defense Information Systems Agency

Colonel Edward P. Donnelly, Jr. (50)
Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, Army United States Army

Colonel Karen E. Dyson (FI)
Deputy Director for Army Budget
Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management &
Comptroller)

Colonel Robert S. Ferrell (SC)
En route to: Director
Future Combat System Strategic Communications Army Capabilities Integration Center-Forward

Colonel Stephen G. Fogarty (MI)
Director of Intelligence, J-2
United States Central Command


Colonel Michael X. Garrett (IN)
Enroute to: Senior Military Fellow
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)

Colonel Thomas A. Harvey (TC)
Assistant Chief of Staff, C-4/J-4
United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/ United States Forces Korea/ Deputy Commander (Support), Eighth United States Army/ Deputy Commander, United States Forces Korea (Advanced Element)

Colonel Thomas A. Horlander (45)
En route to: Director, Resource Management Installation Management Command


Colonel Paul J. Lacamera (IN)
United States Joint Special Operations Command Fort Bragg, North Carolina 28307

Colonel Sean B. MacFarland (AR)
Commander
Joint Task Force North
United States Northern Command


Colonel Kevin W. Mangum (AV)
Senior Commander, Fort Drum
10th Mountain Division (Light) and Fort Drum

Colonel Robert M. McCaleb (49)
Deputy Director
Program Analysis and Evaluation
Officer of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8

Colonel Colleen L. McGuire (MP)
Director, Senior Leader Development
Office of the Chief of Staff, Army


Colonel Herbert R. McMaster, Jr. (AR)
En route to: Director
Concepts Development and Experimentation Army Capabilities Integration Center Unites States Army Training and Doctrine Command Fort Monroe, Virginia

Colonel Austin S. Miller (IN)
Deputy Director for Special Operations
J-37, The Joint Staff


Colonel John M. Murray (IN)
Deputy Commander


Colonel Richard P. Mustion (AG)
Commander


Colonel Camille M. Nichols (AC)
Commander
United States Army Expeditionary Contracting Command

Colonel John R. O Connor (TC)
Deputy Commander/Director of Operations Military Surface Deployment and Distribution

Colonel Lawarren V. Patterson (SC)
Chief
Joint/Current Operations Division
Office of the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 Taylor Building

Colonel Gustave F. Perna (OD)
Commander
Defense Supply Center Philadelphia

Colonel Warren E. Phipps, Jr. (AV)
Deputy Commander/Assistant Commandant
United States Army Aviation Center

Colonel Gregg C. Potter (MI)
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060

Colonel Nancy L. Price (AC)
Deputy Program Manager
Future Combat System Brigade Combat Team Program Integration (Network/Complementary Programs) Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

Colonel Edward M. Reeder, Jr. (SF)
Executive Officer to the Commander
United States Special Operations Command
MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

Colonel Ross E. Ridge (FA)
Chief of Staff, Strategic Effects
Multi-National Forces- Iraq
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq

Colonel Jess A. Scarbrough (AC)
Assistant Deputy for Acquistion and Systems Management Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology)

Colonel Michael H. Shields (IN)
Assistant Deputy Director
Politico-Military (Europe and Africa Affairs), J-5 The Joint Staff

Colonel Jefforey A. Smith (IN)
Assistant Division Commander (Support)
10th Mountain Division (Light)/
Multi-National Division - Center

Colonel Leslie C. Smith (CM)
Commandant
United States Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School/ Deputy Commander, Material and Technology United States Army Maneuver Support Center

Colonel Jeffrey J. Snow (IN)
Commander
20th Support Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive)


Colonel Kurt S. Story (40)
Deputy Commander (Operations)
United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command/ United States Army Forces Strategic Command

Colonel Kenneth E. Tovo (SF)
Deputy Commander
Special Operations Command Europe
United States European Command


Colonel Stephen J. Townsend (IN)
Executive Officer to the Commander
United States Central Command


Colonel John Uberti (FA)
Commander
Installation Management Command
Korea Region


Colonel Thomas S. Vandal (FA)
Deputy Commander (Maneuver)
3d Infantry Division (Mechanized)
Fort Stewart, Georgia

Colonel Bryan G. Watson (EN)
Chief of Staff
1st Armored Division

Colonel John F. Wharton (QM)
Deputy Commander
United States Army Field Support Command with duty as Commander, Army Materiel Command Forward-Southwest Asia/G-4, United States Army Central

Colonel Mark W. Yenter (EN)
Executive Officer to the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7 United States Army

*********************************************

[Cavguy]

The board composition and stats:

The Selection Board consisted of the following general officers (all grades and assignments shown are as of the convening date of the board):


General David H. Petraeus, Commander, Multi-National Force-Iraq, OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq

General Charles C. Campbell, Commanding General, United States Army Forces Command, Fort McPherson, Georgia

Lieutenant General Peter W. Chiarelli, Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington, DC

Lieutenant General Ann E. Dunwoody, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, United States Army, Washington, DC

Lieutenant General Benjamin C. Freakley, Commanding General, United States Army Accessions Command/Deputy Commanding General for Initial Military Training United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia

Lieutenant General John F. Kimmons, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2, United States Army, Washington, DC

Lieutenant General Stanley A. McChrystal, Commander, Joint Special Operations Command/ Commander, Joint Special Operations Command Forward, United States Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Lieutenant General Stephen M. Speakes, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, United States Army, Washington, DC

Lieutenant General David P. Valcourt, Commanding General, Eighth United States Army/Chief of Staff, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea

Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp, Jr., Chief of Engineers/Commanding General, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC

Major General Sean J. Byrne, Commanding General, United States Army Human Resources Command, Alexandria, Virginia

Major General Randal R. Castro, Deputy Director, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Major General Bernard S. Champoux, Deputy Commander, Security International Security Assistance Force, OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, Afghanistan

Major General Anthony A. Cucolo III, Chief of Public Affairs, Office of the Secretary of the Army, Washington, DC

Major General Robert P. Lennox, Commanding General, United States Army Air Defense Artillery Center and Fort Bliss, Fort Bliss, Texas

Major General John F. Mulholland, Jr., Commander, Special Operations Command Central, United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida

Major General Roger A. Nadeau, Commanding General, United States Army Test and Evaluation Command, Alexandria, Virginia

Major General Virgil L. Packett II, Commanding General, United States Army Aviation Warfighting Center and Fort Rucker, Fort Rucker, Alabama

Major General Edgar E. Stanton III, Director for Army Budget, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Financial Management & Comptroller), Washington, DC

Major General Peter M. Vangjel, Commanding General ,United States Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill, Fort Sill, Oklahoma

Major General Dennis L. Via, Commanding General, United States Army Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command and Fort Monmouth, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey

The following statistical data applies to the nominees as of the day of
selection:

AGE AT SELECTION
YOUNGEST: 44 YEARS, 2 MONTHS
AVERAGE: 48 YEARS, 1 MONTH
OLDEST: 54 YEARS, 3 MONTHS

TIME IN GRADE
LEAST: 1 YEAR, 11 MONTHS
AVERAGE: 4 YEARS, 0 MONTHS
MOST: 6 YEARS, 2 MONTHS

YEARS OF COMMISSIONED SERVICE
LEAST: 21 YEARS, 9 MONTHS
AVERAGE: 25 YEARS, 5 MONTHS
MOST: 29 YEARS, 4 MONTH

YEAR GROUP
MOST RECENT: 1986
PREDOMINANT: 1982
EARLIEST: 1978

[jkm_101_fso]

Glad to see COLs McMaster and McFarland on the list; certainly well deserved.

Does anyone know the answer to my title question?

[Team Infidel]

Great to see COL (P) Davis on there. IO Warrior..

[SWJED]

Heroes of Ramadi, Tal Afar to Get First Star by Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes.

Army Cols. Sean B. MacFarland and H.R. McMaster Jr. have been selected for brigadier general pending Senate confirmation, officials said.

MacFarland was commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division in May 2006 when the unit was sent to Ramadi, then one of the worst places in Iraq for US troops.

During his tenure in Ramadi, MacFarland’s troops worked with local tribes and established combat outposts to take the initiative away from the insurgents...

McMaster, then commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, ordered his troops to treat detainees humanely, reached out to local Sunni Arabs to separate them from the insurgents, and he established patrol bases throughout the city, The Washington Post reported in 2006.

In late 2005, he launched Operation Restore Rights to take back the city from insurgents.

By the time the unit left in early 2006, the mayor of Tal Afar wrote a letter to the commander of US troops in Iraq praising the regiment...

[Ron Humphrey]

Heroes of Ramadi, Tal Afar to Get First Star by Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes.

It would seem they deserve it

[Wildcat]

Sweet. I remember first reading about McMaster in Tom Clancy's account of the Battle of 73 Easting, when he was a troop commander. Fast forward several years later when I'm reading George Packer's "The Lesson of Tal Afar" during my COIN research, and I see the same name pop up along with nothing but accolades for his leadership and initiative. I can't say I've read "Dereliction of Duty" yet, though. Still, it's encouraging to see officers of his calibre staying in the Army for the long haul.

[Tom Odom]

McMaster in Tom Clancy's account of the Battle of 73 Easting,

See also Certain Victory

By late afternoon on February 26, Captain H. R. McMaster had been at war for 72 hours. His tank, Eagle 66, led a nine-tank formation as it moved across the featureless Iraqi plain like a squadron of miniature warships gliding through a glass-calm sea. Inside the steel body of Eagle 66, three other soldiers peered intently into a swirling sandstorm searching for the lead tanks of the Iraqi Tawakalna Division.

Isolated in the driver's compartment in front, Specialist Christopher "Skog" Hedenskog lay supine on his "lazy boy" couch. Skog's greatest fear was that his tank, the one that carried the troop commander, might stumble over a mine and miss the war. As he peered intently ahead, he nudged his T-bar left and right to steer smoothly around every piece of suspicious metal or slight imperfection in the ground ahead.

Staff Sergeant Craig Koch, the gunner, sat in the right of the turret, wedged between the gently moving gyro-stabilized gun and a densely packed jumble of white boxes and black telescopes illuminated periodically by blinking red, white, yellow, and green computer lights. The sandstorm, which limited visibility to 900 meters, made Koch very tense. He knew that in a tank battle, victory goes to the gunner who sees the other guy first.

Koch pressed his head tightly against the vinyl rest of his thermal-imaging sight, his right hand gently turning the " Cadillac" handgrips left and right to maintain a constant, rhythmic slewing motion of the turret. His left hand nervously flipped the toggle that changed his sight picture from 3 to 10 power and back and forth between a "black hot" and "white hot" thermal image. He strained to discern from the desert horizon any telltale point of light that would be his first indication of Iraqi armor.

...The shooting war began for Eagle 66 at 1618 hours and lasted exactly seven seconds. As he crested a slight rise, Koch spotted not one, but eight thermal hot spots. He could only make out a series of thin lines through his sight because an earthen berm masked the image of each Iraqi tank. Eagle 66 was loaded with a high-explosive antitank round, or HEAT, not the optimum choice for taking on the Soviet-made T-72 tanks. Should Koch's first shot hit the berm, the HEAT round would explode harmlessly. Koch screamed, "Tanks, direct front." McMaster spotted the tanks. "Fire, fire sabot," he yelled as he kicked up the metal seat and dropped inside to look through his own thermal imager. McMaster's clipped command was a code that automatically launched his three crew mates into a well-rehearsed sequence of individual actions. To Jeff Taylor,"Fire, fire sabot" meant that once the loaded HEAT round was gone, he must reload sabot, known to tankers in the desert as the "silver bullet."

[Kreker]

Still, it's encouraging to see officers of his calibre staying in the Army for the long haul.

...as he is enroute to be the Director, Concept Development & Experimentation, ARCIC, and his perchant for 'net-centric warfare'.

See his CSL paper:
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usacsl/...ons/S03-03.pdf

Kreker