Stanley A. McChrystal

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General Stanley A. McChrystal, 2009

Stanley Allen McChrystal (born August 14, 1954 in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas ) is a former general in the US Army . From June 15, 2009 to June 23, 2010, he was commander of ISAF in Afghanistan and of the US Forces Afghanistan . He had to resign from this post after openly criticizing the US government. Previously he was u. a. from May 2003 to June 2008 commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and thus led a large part of the operations of special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

family

McChrystal is the offspring of an officer's family . His father, Major General Herbert J. McChrystal, Jr. , served in Germany during the post- WWII US occupation and later in the Pentagon . Stanley McChrystal was the fourth child in the family, which had a total of five boys and one girl. All of them serve in the US armed forces or have married soldiers.

Military career

education

After training as an officer and studying at West Point Military Academy , McChrystal received his officer license as a second lieutenant on June 2, 1976 . From November 1976 to February 1978 he was a platoon leader of a weapons platoon in C Company , 1st Battalion , 504th Paratrooper Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg , North Carolina . From February to July 1978 he commanded a rifle platoon in the same company and was promoted to First Lieutenant on June 2, 1978 . He then took over the post of Executive Officer of the company from July to November of the same year . From November 1978 to April 1979 there was further training in the form of the Special Forces Officers Course at the Special Forces School in Fort Bragg. Following this, McChrystal took over an A-Team in the A-Company, 1st Battalion, of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), also at Fort Bragg until June 1980 . After this command he was transferred to Fort Benning in the US state of Georgia , where he completed the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at the US Army Infantry School from June 1980 to February 1981 . During this time he was promoted to captain on August 1, 1980 .

From February 1981 to March 1982 he was employed abroad in South Korea as an intelligence and operations officer ( S-2 / S-3 at the United Nations Command Support Group-Joint Security Area, Korea ). In the United States, McChrystal was again transferred to Georgia, this time to Fort Stewart , and served there until November 1982 as a training officer in A Company at the headquarters there. Then he took over the A Company, 3rd Battalion, 19th US Infantry Regiment, 24th US Infantry Division until September 1984 . In September 1984 he took over the post of Operations Officer (S-3) of the 3rd Battalion for a year and was then transferred to Fort Benning as a liaison officer of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment , until January 1986 . In January 1986 McChrystal took over the A-Company of the battalion and commanded it until May 1987, afterwards until April 1988 again to take over the post of the battalion's liaison officer. During this time, on July 1, 1987, he was promoted to major .

Service as a staff officer

From April 1988 to June 1989 McChrystal served as the battalion's operations officer (S-3). In June 1989 he left Fort Benning and graduated from June 1989 to June 1990 from the US Naval War College in Newport , Rhode Island . From June 1990 to April 1993, he served as an Army Special Operations Action Officer in the Operations Department of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command headquarters at Fort Bragg. During this time he took part in Operations Desert Shield / Storm and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on September 1, 1992 . Subsequently, he took over from April 1993 to November 1994 again a troop command, this time the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd US Airborne Division in Fort Bragg. After this assignment, McChrystal was transferred to Fort Lewis , Washington in November 1994 , where he commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment until June 1996 . In 1996 he was reassigned to the east coast of the United States and was a Senior Service Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University from June 1996 to June 1997 . During this employment he was promoted to colonel on September 1, 1996 . In June 1997 McChrystal returned to Fort Benning, where he took command of the 75th Ranger Regiment and led this until August 1999. He was then from August 1999 to June 2000 as a Military Fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City deployed.

Service as a general

Brigadier General Stanley A. McChrystal

From June 2000 to June 2001, McChrystal, appointed Brigadier General with effect from January 1, 2001 , served as assistant division commander for operations with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg and in this capacity also commanded the Combined Joint Task Force Kuwait at Camp Doha in Kuwait . He then served in Fort Bragg from June 2001 to July 2002 as Chief of Staff of the superior XVIII. U.S. Airborne Corps and was Chief of Staff of Combined Joint Task Force 180 under the command of Dan K. McNeill during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan . Back in the United States, McChrystal was Vice Director of Operations (J-3) on the Joint Staff under Norton A. Schwartz from July 2002 to September 2003 .

JSOC commander

In September 2003 he took over command of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg as commanding general and led this for five years until August 2008. During this time he was appointed major general on May 1, 2004 . From February 2006 McChrystal also commanded the special operations of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in Iraq and received on February 16, 2006 his third star as Lieutenant General . As a commander actually stationed at Fort Bragg, McChrystal spent most of his time in Afghanistan, at the CENTCOM headquarters in Qatar and Iraq. Under his command, JSOC troops captured the former dictator Saddam Hussein in December 2003 and, with the help of the US Air Force , killed the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq , Abu Musab al -Zarqawi, in June 2006 . McChrystal was largely unknown to the public until Zarqawi's death in June 2006. However, after McChrystal's troops had located Zarqawi and requested an air strike that ultimately killed him, McChrystal accompanied the men of Task Force 6-26 to the bombed Zarqawi hideout to identify him personally. Impressed by this, US President George W. Bush broke an unwritten rule and praised the JSOC team (TF 6-26) and their commander McChrystal by name in public. The Task Force 6-26 had previously publicly made its appearance. After the Abu Ghuraib torture scandal became public in April 2004 , members of the task force were suspected of rude interrogation methods including torture of prisoners in Camp Nama . Thirty-four members of the task force received disciplinary sentences and five US Army rangers were convicted of prisoner abuse at Camp Nama.

McChrystal was also publicly criticized for his role in the aftermath of the 2004 death of ex-professional footballer and Army ranger Pat Tillman , who was killed by his own fire . McChrystal nevertheless approved the posthumous awarding of a Silver Star to Tillman with the formulation that Tillman had perished “under devastating enemy fire” ( in the line of devastating enemy fire ). The day after the appreciation, McChrystal sent an urgent memo to high government officials warning not to use the quote in public speech as it was not clear whether Tillman might have died under his own fire. McChrystal was one of eight officers recommended disciplinary sentences following an investigation by the Department of Defense . However, no such sentences were imposed on him.

According to a Washington Post report by Bob Woodward , in the spring of 2007 JSOC began a series of covert operations in Iraq together with US intelligence services , along with surge , counterinsurgency , FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency under the new commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq , General David Petraeus , should act. According to Woodward's report, McChrystal established a form of collaborative warfare using a wide range of means, from wiretapping to personally-acquired intelligence, to track down and kill insurgents.

Director of the Joint Staff

McChrystal with US President Barack Obama , May 2009

McChrystal was considered in 2007 as a possible successor to Bryan D. Brown as commander of the US Special Operations Command and in 2008 as a potential successor to General David Petraeus as commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq or as the successor to Admiral William J. Fallon on the post of commander of the US Central Command . Instead, he was nominated on February 25, 2008 for the post of Director of the Joint Staff . Although a routine matter, McChrystal's nomination was put on the back burner by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee seeking more information on the mistreatment of prisoners under McChrystal's command in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Pat Tillman case. Ultimately, however, the nomination was confirmed and McChrystal handed over command of the JSOC to Vice Adm. William H. McRaven on June 13, 2008 and finally took over the new post at the Pentagon in August 2008, where he was in command of 1,200 staff members. He held this post until June 2009.

ISAF commander

Generals McChrystal and Petraeus, Bagram Air Base , Afghanistan (2009)

In May 2009 it was announced that McChrystal should take over from David D. McKiernan the post of commander of the ISAF and at the same time the US Forces Afghanistan . The exact reasons for the rapid replacement of McKiernan after only one year as commander was unclear. It was suspected that, just as in Iraq in 2007, there is a change of course in the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and that McKiernan, who led all ground operations during the Iraq war in 2003, was not the best man to do it.

After taking command of the two posts in Afghanistan and being promoted to general, McChrystal was to make extensive changes to the ISAF command structure after 60 days. McChrystal took Lieutenant General David M. Rodriguez , then Senior Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates , with him to Afghanistan. Rodriguez had previously been in command of the 82nd US Airborne Division from 2006 to 2008 and was deployed with it in Afghanistan as US Regional Commander East (RC-E) of the ISAF. In Afghanistan, under McChrystal and his British ISAF deputy, Rodriguez formed an operational level of command within ISAF headquarters, which is responsible for day-to-day operations. These changes were intended to allow McChrystal to better focus on the larger strategic planning. The US armed forces had already tested the extended command structure with the Multi-National Force Iraq .

McChrystal also had a lot of freedom in choosing his staff. In addition to Rodriguez, he also took on the chief advisor for intelligence in the Joint Staff , Major General Michael T. Flynn , who previously served as intelligence department head (G2) under McChrystal at the JSOC, and the experienced officer for special operations Brigadier General Scott Miller as coordinator of the Pakistan -Afghanistan operations with to Kabul .

The change in US foreign policy under US President Barack Obama , who took office in 2009, from Iraq as the main theater of war to the Pakistan-Afghanistan operational area is illustrated by a. The following statement by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael G. Mullen : “He could have his pick from the Joint Staff. His job, the mission he's going to command, is that important. Afghanistan is the main effort right now " . (Eng. "He can have his (personnel) selection from the Joint Staff. His job, the mission he is supposed to command is so important. Afghanistan is now the focus.")

Another innovation was the appointment of the Director of Communications. Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith , who previously served in Iraq under General David Petraeus as director of communications and spokesman for the Multi-National Force Iraq , is to suspend his retirement, which was scheduled for the summer of 2009, at the personal request of Adm. Mullen work in the same position for McChrystal.

On June 15, 2009, McChrystal finally became commander of all troops in Afghanistan in Kabul.

Discharge

On June 22, 2010, the US magazine “ Rolling Stone ” published the six-page report “The Runaway General”. It described the investigative journalist Michael Hastings , as McChrystal and his staff over US President Barack Obama aligned as US Vice President Joe Biden mocked and disparaging remarks about the US ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry , the Special Representative for Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke , the US Security Advisor James L. Jones and many others did. According to § 888 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice , "disparaging statements" are punishable. Just hours after the report was released, President Obama flown the general into Washington, dismissed him and fired his entire team.

McChrystals previous US superior, David Petraeus, took over command of the US troops in Afghanistan and the ISAF . McChrystal himself retired on July 23, 2010.

In fact, McChrystal was allowed to keep his 4-star rank in retirement even though he had not yet held it for the required three years. An investigation by the Pentagon Inspector General questioned witnesses and concluded that the Rolling Stone had misrepresented quotes and events. Even before this result became known, the White House had Gen. McChrystal was entrusted with leading a military assistance initiative.

In 2017, the main character in the movie War Machine was modeled after him.

academic education

McChrystal holds a BS from the US Military Academy , West Point , an MS in National Security and Strategy Studies from Naval War College, and an MS in International Relations from Salve Regina University . He also speaks Spanish.

Awards

McChrystal gets under his farewell ceremony on 23 July 2010 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates , the Defense Distinguished Service Medal awarded

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

literature

  • Stanley A. McChrystal: My Share of the Task: A Memoir . Portfolio / Penguin Group, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-59184-475-4 .
  • Michael Hastings : The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan. Blue Rider Press / Penguin Group, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-399-15988-6
  • Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World . Portfolio / Penguin, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-59184-748-9 , OCLC 881094064 .

Web links

Commons : Stanley A. McChrystal  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In hunt for terrorists in Iraq, general is no armchair warrior (WashingtonTimes.com, October 2, 2006; English)
  2. ↑ Wide support for SEAL tapped to lead JSOC ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (MilitaryTimes.com of March 6, 2008; English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.militarytimes.com
  3. ↑ In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of US Abuse . In: New York Times , March 19, 2006
  4. ↑ The Ploy (TheAtlantic.com from May 2007; English)
  5. ↑ General Suspected Cause of Tillman Death . In: Washington Post , August 4, 2007
  6. ^ The Nation - General in Tillman case may lose star - The retired officer faces demotion for misleading investigators in the 2004 friendly-fire death of the Army ranger. LATimes , July 27, 2007
  7. ↑ Why Did Violence Plummet? It wasn't just the surge . In: Washington Post , September 8, 2008
  8. ↑ General / Flag Officer Announcements (DefenseLink.mil, February 25, 2008; English)
  9. ↑ Lawmakers Hold Up a Top General's Nomination (The Wall Street Journal wsj.com, May 1, 2008; English)
  10. ↑ Troop cuts possible in fall, Petraeus says (ArmyTimes.com, May 25, 2008; English)
  11. ↑ Top Commander in Afghanistan Expected to Resign (WashingtonPost.com, May 11, 2009)
  12. ↑ Q + A: US removes Afghanistan commander (uk.Reuters.com of May 12, 2009; English)
  13. ↑ a b U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway . NYTimes.com dated June 10, 2009; English
  14. ↑ Michael Hastings: “The Runaway General - Stanley McChrystal, Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House” - The Rolling Stone profile of Stanley McChrystal that changed history (translated "The Apostate General"), Rolling Stone June 22, 2010, accessed June 3, 2013
  15. ^ "The Runaway General" - General out of control , shortened German translation: Bernd Gockel; rollingstone.de June 24, 2010, accessed June 3, 2013
  16. ^ A mysterious accidental death of an investigative reporter , Die Welt, June 20, 2013
  17. ↑ Art. 888 Uniform Code of Military Justice
  18. ↑ Julian Reichelt : Enigmatic Auto-Death at 33 , Bild.de from June 20, 2013 (describes how close Gen. McChrystal allowed journalists)
  19. ↑ Trouble with top soldiers. Obama fires General McChrystal , Spiegel Online .
  20. ↑ Matthias Rüb: The President throws out his general in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , June 27, 2010, p. 2f. (= detailed description of the textual genesis of the resignation triggering article "The Runaway General" in Rolling Stone as well as the more detailed circumstances, backgrounds and motives for the replacement of McChrystals and for the installation of Petraeus)
  21. ↑ Thom Shanker: Pentagon Inquiry Into Article Clears McChrystal and Aides - NYT, April 18, 2011
personal data
SURNAME McChrystal, Stanley A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McChrystal, Stanley Allen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Leavenworth , Kansas