Warrior/Scholar and Silver Fox
Fallon was raised in Merchantville, N.J. A 1967 graduate of Villanova University, he received his commission through the Navy ROTC Program and was designated a naval flight officer upon completion of flight training in December 1967. He is a graduate of the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., the National War College in Washington, D.C., and has a Master of Arts degree in international studies from Old Dominion University.
Fallon began his naval aviation service flying in the RA-5C Vigilante with a combat deployment to Vietnam, transitioning to the A-6 Intruder in 1974. He served in flying assignments with attack squadrons and carrier air wings for 24 years, deploying to the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans embarked in USS Saratoga, USS Ranger, USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Theodore Roosevelt. He has logged more than 1,300 carrier arrested landings and 4,800 flight hours in tactical jet aircraft.
Fallon commanded Attack Squadron Sixty Five embarked in USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Medium Attack Wing One at NAS Oceana, Va., and Carrier Air Wing Eight in USS Theodore Roosevelt during a combat deployment to the Arabian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Assigned as commander, Carrier Group Eight in 1995, he deployed to the Mediterranean as Commander, Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group and commanded Battle Force Sixth Fleet (CTF 60) during NATO’s combat Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia. Fallon served as commander, Second Fleet and commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic from November 1997 to September 2000.
Shore duties included assignment as aide and flag lieutenant to the commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville, and to the staffs of commander, Reconnaissance Attack Wing One; commander, Operational Test Force and commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He has served as deputy director for operations, Joint Task Force, Southwest Asia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and as deputy director, aviation plans and requirements on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C. His first flag officer assignment was with NATO as assistant chief of staff, plans and policy for Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. He was then assigned as deputy and chief of staff, U.S. Atlantic Fleet followed by assignment as deputy commander in chief and chief of staff, U.S. Atlantic Command. Admiral Fallon served as the 31st Vice Chief of Naval Operations from October 2000 to August 2003. He was the commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Atlantic Fleet from October 2003 to February 2005.
His awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal and various unit and campaign decorations. ♦
Warrior/Scholar
Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus
Commander, Multi-National Force-Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom
Lieutenant General David Howell Petraeus has been appointed by President Bush to replace General George Casey as commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq. In addition to promotion from lieutenant general to general, Petraeus oversees all forces in Iraq and will carry out the new Iraqi strategy plan.
While at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., he has overseen the drafting of a joint Army-Marine doctrine in how to fight an insurgency like that in Iraq, the first such field manual since the Vietnam era. Petraeus was commissioned in the infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He 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 M.P.A. 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. He also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University. He is often referred to as the military’s warrior-scholar.
Petraeus assumed command of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth on October 20th, 2005, following deployment in Iraq as the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command–Iraq, which he led from June 2004 to September 2005, and the NATO Training Mission–Iraq, which he commanded from October 2004 to September 2005. Prior to that deployment, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), leading the “Screaming Eagles” in combat during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His command of the 101st followed a year deployed on Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia, where he was the assistant chief of staff for operations of the NATO Stabilization Force and the deputy commander of the U.S. Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force–Bosnia. Prior to his tour in Bosnia, he spent two years at Fort Bragg, N.C., serving first as the assistant division commander for operations of the 82nd Airborne Division and then as the chief of staff of XVIII Airborne Corps.
He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized and air assault infantry units in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, including command of a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division and a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition, he has held a number of staff assignments: aide to the chief of staff of the Army; service as a battalion, brigade and division operations officer; military assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe; chief of operations of the United Nations Force in Haiti; and executive assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Awards and decorations earned by Petraeus include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for valor, the State Department Superior Honor Award, the NATO Meritorious Service Medal and the Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm. He is a Master Parachutist and is Air Assault and Ranger qualified. He has also earned the Combat Action Badge and French, British and German Jump Wings. In the fall of 2005, he was recognized by the U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders. ♦