David Petraeus

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David H. Petraeus
born November 7, 1952

Allegiance	United States Army
Years of service	1974 - present
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	101st Airborne Division; Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq; U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth
Battles/wars	Operation Iraqi Freedom Operation Joint Forge (Bosnia) Operation Restore Democracy (Haiti) Operation Desert Spring (Kuwait)
Awards	Defense Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal Defense Superior Service Medal Legion of Merit Bronze Star Medal

David Petraeus (born November 7, 1952) is a Lieutenant General in the United States Army. From 2004-2005, he was given the crucial task of building and training Iraq's security forces.

Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and during that unit's occupation of Mosul into mid-2004. Petraeus has been widely lauded for his effectiveness in administering Mosul, where public order decayed rapidly in 2004 soon after the 101st left.

In June of 2004, Petraeus was charged with the task of training the new Iraqi Army and security forces as commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq. He relinquished the post in September of 2005. Petraeus then assumed command of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC).

The Combined Arms Center, headquartered at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, the command that oversees the Command and General Staff College and 17 other schools, centers, and training programs located throughout the United States. The Combined Arms Center is also responsible for: development of the Army’s doctrinal manuals, training of the Army’s commissioned and noncommissioned officers, oversight of major collective training exercises, integration of battle command systems and concepts, and supervision of the Army’s center for the collection and dissemination of lessons learned.

Before his tour in Iraq, 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.

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.

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 U.S. Military Academy. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the influence of Vietnam on military thinking regarding the use of force. He also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.

He has been wounded at least twice in the line of duty, once in a live-fire exercise in 1991 and again in a hard landing after a parachute jump where he broke his pelvis. Petraeus and his wife Holly (daughter of retired Army General William A. Knowlton) have two children, a son and a daughter.

[edit] Decorations and Badges

Camp New Jersey, Kuwait (March 21, 2003) - Major General David H. Petraeus (right), commanding general, 101st Airborne Division, (Air Assault) looks on as Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, V Corps commanding general speaks to soldiers.