H. R. McMaster

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H. R. McMaster

H. R. McMaster in 2004 as commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Place of birth Philadelphia, PA
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1984-Present
Rank Colonel
Commands held 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
Battles/wars Operation Desert Storm
*Battle of 73 Easting
Iraq War
Awards Silver Star

Col. Herbert Raymond McMaster is best known for commanding Eagle Troop of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (then as a captain) at the Battle of 73 Easting in Operation Desert Storm. During the battle, Eagle Troop overran and destroyed Iraqi Republican Guard units which significantly outnumbered it, in conjunction with other 2nd ACR units. Eagle Troop suffered no casualties in the attack, and McMaster was awarded the Silver Star for his leadership in that battle. A popular account of this battle was written up in the Tom Clancy 1994 non-fiction book Armored Cav, and technical and professional accounts in various professional journals and histories.

McMaster holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His doctoral thesis on the mistakes of the Vietnam War is detailed in the book Dereliction of Duty.[1] It alleges that U.S. military leaders of that era did not fulfill their constitutional duty to adequately challenge Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson's deeply flawed military strategy. The book was widely read in Pentagon circles, and was reportedly influential for a number of generals who later criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq War.[2]

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[edit] Military career

Colonel McMaster graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1980, where he served as a Company Commander, with the rank of Cadet Captain.

McMaster graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1984. His first assignment after commissioning was to the Second Armored Division at Fort Hood, where he served in a variety of platoon and company level leadership assignments with 1st Bn, 66th Armor Regiment. In 1989, McMaster was assigned to the 2nd ACR in Bamburg, Germany, where he served until 1992, including the deployment to Operation Desert Storm.

McMaster served as a military history professor at West Point from 1994-1996, teaching, among other things, the battles in which he actually fought.

From 1999 to 2002, McMaster commanded 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment. He then took a series of staff positions at U.S. Central Command, including planning and operations roles in Iraq.

In his next job, LTC, and later COL, McMaster worked on the staff of U.S. Central Command. More specifically, he worked for the then Deputy Commander, LTG John Abizaid as his Executive Officer. As LTG Abizaid made his fourth star and became Central Command's head, McMaster gained his current rank and served as GEN Abizaid's Director, Commander's Advisory Group (CAG). In other words, Colonel McMaster served as the head of USCENTCOM's brain trust. He excelled in this job, transforming the command's CAG into a world-class brain trust. After McMaster's depature from the Headquarters, he retained GEN Abizaid's total trust and open-door access, meeting with the CENTCOM head more than a dozen times in the resulting four years.

In 2004, he was assigned to command the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Shortly after Col. McMaster took command, the Regiment deployed for its second tour in Iraq in early 2005. In May 2005, the 3rd ACR was assigned the mission of securing the Iraqi city of Tal Afar. The culmination of that mission came in September 2005, when the 3rd ACR conducted Operation Restoring Rights to defeat the insurgent strongholds in Tal Afar. The success of this operation has been touted by President George W. Bush, and was the subject of an article in the April 10, 2006 issue of The New Yorker.

The PBS show Frontline broadcast a documentary in February 2006 that featured interviews with Col. McMaster during which he described his personal experiences in Tal Afar, Iraq.

Col. McMaster handed over the reins of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment on 29th June 2006 and headed for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, England, to devise "better tactics to battle terrorism." According to the Institute's website, Col. McMaster is a Senior Research Associate with a mandate to "Conduct research to identify opportunities for improved multi-national cooperation and political-military integration in the areas of counterinsurgency, counter-terrorism, and state building."[1]

Since 2007, Col. McMaster has been part of an "elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus" on counterinsurgency operations in Iraq.[2]

Despite Presidential acclaim for his counterinsurgency campaign in Tal Afar and his position as an adviser to General Petraeus, Col. McMaster has been passed over for promotion to Brigadier General two years in a row.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ International Institute for Strategic Studies - Colonel H.R. McMaster. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
  2. ^ Tisdall, Simon. Military chiefs give US six months to win Iraq War. The Guardian. 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
  3. ^ Kaplan, Fred. Challenging the Generals. The New York Times. 2007-08-26. Retrieved 2007-09-02.

[edit] See also

United States Army Portal

[edit] References