Hagiography on Odierno. I still question his "Careerism." And I don't think he has done as good a job in that area as they give him credit for. The Marines follow him in next spring. Then we will see.
Profile of commander whose troops nabbed Saddam
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
December 15, 2003
- Even before his troops found Saddam Hussein, Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno made Army history in Iraq.
Regarded within the service and the Pentagon as a military star on the rise, Odierno made his Iraq battlefield debut in April when he directed the taking of the Taji airfield from the controls of a futuristic command post housed in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Odierno conceived the concept of the mobile, high-tech post shortly after he took charge of the 4th Infantry Division in 2001. His 27,000-soldier outfit stands on the cutting edge of the Army's combat future, operating as the service's premiere digitized command.
When his troops stormed the airfield April 16, they apparently entered the record books for fighting the first all-electronic infantry battle ever, during which not a sheet of paper was used, according to an account of the battle written in the journal Military Review by a retired lieutenant colonel who serves as an adviser to Odierno, 49.
While that historic footnote may be little noted generations hence, Odierno's role in Saturday's nabbing of the former Iraqi president no doubt will be, particularly as the top brass surveys the field for future leaders.
"Gen. Odierno is one of the finest commanders in the U.S. Army," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers said during a visit to Odierno's area of responsibility smack in the heart of the perilous "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad.
An imposing character at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, Odierno retains the bearing of the football tight end he was at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, until injuries made him switch to pitching on the Army baseball team. With his shaved head, sharp-angled jaw and straight talk, the Rockaway, N.J., native cuts a hard-edged figure.
The son of an engineer who served in World War II, Odierno says it was a desire to play football for Army that started him on his military path. After West Point, he earned master's degrees in nuclear engineering, and national security and strategy, but at first was not convinced the Army was for him for the long-term.
"Heck, I wasn't sure I 'd stay past my five-year commitment," Odierno told the Killeen (Texas) Daily Herald after he was named 4th Infantry commander in 2001.
Odierno has a 25-year career in uniform that has taken him to the first Persian Gulf War as a brigade executive officer in Saudi Arabia; Geneva, Switzerland, for a small role in crafting a nuclear-arms treaty with the Soviet Union; Bosnia for peacekeeping duty; and three tours in Germany.
Odierno also did the Pentagon time obligatory for ambitious, rising officers. His was spent as a military adviser on arms control, and as head of an Army outfit charged with designing the structure of the 21st-century force.
Now based in Fort Hood, Texas, Odierno and his wife, Linda, have three children. His oldest, Tony, is a West Point grad and a lieutenant preparing to deploy soon to Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division.
Odierno's career hasn't been all glory. He was second-in-command of the Apache helicopter force at the center of one of the Army's biggest embarrassments in recent years, when the Clinton administration decided the choppers were too accident-prone and vulnerable to be sent into Kosovo to battle Yugoslav Serb forces in 1999.
His division was one of the last outfits to make it to Iraq, arriving after Baghdad fell April 9. The 4th Infantry originally was supposed to invade Iraq from Turkey in the north, but had to cobble together an alternate plan after Turkey refused to allow them to.
Still, Odierno has earned plaudits for his skillfulness in the volatile region he is trying to pacify. He handled the delicate task of disarming the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, a group operating out of Iraq that the U.S. State Department has labeled a terrorist group but one that others in the Bush administration look kindly on for its anti-Iran orientation.
He and his troops, who are responsible for the security of northern oilfields, as well as the Saddam strongholds of Tikrit and Samarra, have confiscated more than $9 million in cash and $1 million worth of jewels and gems in raids. Odierno has also overseen more than 1,000 rebuilding projects and seized thousands of weapons and ammunition.
Odierno scored high marks for his respectful approach to Iraqi civilians. He directed his troops not to eat, smoke or drink around Iraqis during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when such activities are verboten during the day. He also dedicated $154,000 to repairing mosques in the region, which drew grudging appreciation from the local population.
It was an incident related to the treatment of Iraqis that landed Odierno in the midst of sharp controversy. One of his underlings, Lt. Col. Allen West, fired a pistol near the ear of an Iraqi detainee to convince him to talk about attacks against U.S. troops, and permitted soldiers under his command to beat the man.
Odierno ordered a criminal investigation of West, which triggered outrage from other Army officers, active and retired. They saw West's actions as motivated by the entirely proper intent of protecting the lives of his troops. In the end, Odierno did not court-martial West, but effectively ended his Army career by reprimanding and fining him $5,000.
Still, when the history of the 4th Infantry's role in the war in Iraq is written, its capture of Saddam is certain to be foremost. At the press conference Sunday to announce that Saddam had been snared, Odierno coined the defining metaphor that found its way into headlines across the world Monday.
"He was just caught like a rat," Odierno said.
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