5/24/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- President Barack Obama has nominated Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the present commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, to head U.S. Joint Forces Command, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced May 24.
General Odierno, nominated for reappointment to the rank of four-star general and assignment as commander of USJFCOM, will replace Marine Gen. James N. Mattis.
With headquarters located in Norfolk, Va., USJFCOM leaders oversee a force of more than 1.16 million men and women. The command includes active and reserve personnel from each branch of the armed forces and civilian and contract employees.
Before assuming command of U.S. Forces Iraq in September 2008, General Odierno was commanding general of U.S. Army III Corps, at which time he served a 15-month deployment as commanding general of Multinational Corps Iraq. At that time he was the operational architect of the U.S. troop surge in Iraq that led to a dramatic decrease in violence there.
General Odierno, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is known as one of the few Army generals ever to command a division, corps and an entire theater-of-operations in the same conflict.
Comments
12/10/2010 10:53:18 AM ET You are such a wonderful and brave US soldier. I admire your achievement and what you have done and still doing your duties and responsibilities as a good soldier of the US Army. Keep the good job and God bless you always and take care of yourself for your loving family.
rosalina dela cruz, vancouver canda
5/26/2010 12:31:04 PM ET Well-deserved and long overdue.
