forums

The next president

Advertisement
A little birdie told me that this guy is in the mix. Amazing resume. Would be great for the university but I'd have concerns about the football program. Supposedly an extremely intelligent guy as well.




http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Stavridis










James George Stavridis, PhD (born February 15, 1955)[SUP][3][/SUP] is the 12th Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs.[SUP][4][/SUP] He is also Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Naval Institute.[SUP][5][/SUP][SUP][6][/SUP] Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the 15th Commander, U.S. European Command (USEUCOM, May 2009 – May 2013) and NATO's 16th Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR, June 2009 – May 2013).[SUP][7][/SUP][SUP][8][/SUP] He is the first Navy officer to have held these positions. His book "The Accidental Admiral" describing his tenure in these jobs was published on October 1, 2014. Previously, he served as Commander, U.S. Southern Commandfrom October 2006 to June 2009. Since leaving active duty, Stavridis has frequently appeared on major broadcast and cable television networks to comment on national security and foreign policy matters. Clips of many of these appearances are available online.
Stavridis is a 1976 distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He earned a PhD and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in International Relations in 1984, where he won the Gullion Prize as outstanding student. He is also a 1992 distinguished graduate of the United States National War College

[h=2]Personal historyEdit[/h]Stavridis was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, the son of Shirley (née ********) and P. George Stavridis.[SUP][9][/SUP][SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP] He is married to Laura Hall, author of Navy Spouses Guide. His paternal grandparents were Pontic Greeks born and raised in northeastern Anatolia, that is modern Turkey, who emigrated to the United States.[SUP][12][/SUP]
His 2008 book, Destroyer Captain: Lessons of a First Command, goes into more detail about his Greek refugee origins. He wrote,
In the early 1920's, my grandfather, a short, stocky Greek schoolteacher named Dimitrios Stavridis, was expelled from Turkey as part of 'ethnic cleansing' (read pogrom) directed against Greeks living in the remains of the Ottoman Empire. He barely escaped with his life in a small boat crossing the Aegean Sea to Athens and thence to Ellis Island. His brother was not so lucky and was killed by the Turks as part of the violence directed at the Greek minority.
​
A NATO exercise off the coast of modern Turkey was the "most amazing historical irony [he] could imagine," and prompted Stavridis to write of his grandfather: "His grandson, who speaks barely a few words of Greek, returns in command of a billion-dollar destroyer to the very city - Smyrna, now called İzmir - from which he sailed in a refugee craft all those years ago."[SUP][13][/SUP]

[h=2]
CareerEdit[/h]ADM James G. Stavridis, former Commander, EUCOM, and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.


Stavridis is a 1976 distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a native of South Florida. He is a career surface warfare officer and served at sea in aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers. After serving with distinction as Operations Officer on the newly commissioned USS Valley Forge, Stavridis commanded destroyer USS Barry from 1993 to 1995, completing deployments to Haiti, Bosnia, and the Persian Gulf. Barry won the Battenberg Cup as the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet under his command. In 1998, he commanded Destroyer Squadron 21 and deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1998, winning the Navy League’s John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership. From 2002 to 2004, Stavridis commanded Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, conducting combat operations in the Persian Gulf in support of both the successful Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Afterwards, Vice Admiral Stavridis served as senior military assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense. On October 19, 2006, he became the first navy commander of United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida. In July, 2009, he became Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).[SUP][14][/SUP] He retired as SACEUR in 2013.
Ashore, he served as a strategic and long range planner on the staffs of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the start of the "Global War on Terror", he was selected as the director of the Navy Operations Group, Deep Blue, USA. He has also served as the executive assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and the senior military assistant to the United States Secretary of Defense.
Stavridis has long advocated the use of "Smart Power," which he defines as the balance of hard and soft power taken together. In numerous articles[SUP][15][/SUP] and speeches, he has advocated creating security in the 21st century by building bridges, not walls. Stavridis has stressed the need to connect international, inter-agency, and public-private actors to build security, lining all of them with effective strategic communications. His message was articulated in his book "Partnership for the Americas" which was published by the NDU Press and was based on his time as Commander of the U.S. Southern Command from 2006-2009 and was summarized in his 2012 Ted Global talk in Scotland which has been viewed more than 300,000 times on line.
Based on an anonymous complaint, in early 2011 the DOD IG began investigating allegations that ADM Stavridis “engaged in misconduct relating to official and unofficial travel and other matters.” He was subsequently the subject of a May 3, 2012, report by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense[SUP][16][/SUP] and was later absolved of wrongdoing by the Secretary of the Navy on September 11, 2012. In a Memorandum for the Record,[SUP][17][/SUP] Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus wrote that Stavridis: "has consistently demonstrated himself to be a model naval officer and a devoted public servant whose motivation is to do that which is necessary and appropriate to advance the interests of the United States." Mabus concluded that "I have determined that ADM Stavridis never attempted to use his public office for private gain nor did he commit personal misconduct."[SUP][18][/SUP]
Stavridis earned a PhD in International Relations (1984) and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (1983) from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he won the Gullion Prize as outstanding student. He was appointed Dean of The Fletcher School on July 1, 2013. He is also a 1992 distinguished graduate of the United States National War College. In 2003, He was honored with the Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award. He frequently publishes his thoughts, opinions and analyses in myriad publications, including the Western Hemisphere policy publication Americas Quarterly and the United States Naval Institute's blog.
As Dean of The Fletcher School, Stavridis has initiated a strategic planning process, invited several high level speakers to the campus, and is focusing thematically on the Arctic, the role of women in international relations, synthetic biology and its impact on foreign affairs, cyber, and the role of online media and social networks in public diplomacy.[SUP][19][/SUP]

[h=2]
Awards and decorationsEdit[/h]U.S. Army General David H. Petraeus, right, with the U.S. Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis, commander of European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe in Brussels in 2011


U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army General John Craddock and U.S. Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis, incoming commander, salute during the national anthem at the U.S. European Command change of command ceremony at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart in June 2009


United States Decorations Surface Warfare Officer badge



Defense Distinguished Service Medal with 1 bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Defense Superior Service Medal






Legion of Merit with four award stars




Meritorious Service Medal with 2 award stars





Navy Commendation Medal with 3 award stars
Navy Achievement Medal



Joint Meritorious Unit Award with one bronze oak leaf cluster
Navy Unit Commendation




Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation with 2 bronze service stars
Navy "E" Ribbon w/ Wreathed Battle E device
Navy Expeditionary Medal



National Defense Service Medal with 1 bronze service star




Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with 2 bronze service stars



Southwest Asia Service Medal with 1 bronze service star
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal




Armed Forces Service Medal with 2 bronze service stars





Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with 1 silver and 2 bronze service stars



Navy & Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon with bronze service star
Navy Expert Rifleman Medal
Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal
International decorations
NATO Meritorious Service Medal
NATO Medal for Yugoslavia
Commander's degree, National Order of the Legion of Honour of France[SUP][20][/SUP]
Grand Cross Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Grand Cross Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
Commendation Ministry of Defense: "Cross of Merit and Honour First Class" (Greece)
Estonian Order of the Cross of the Eagle First Class[SUP][21][/SUP]
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Knight Grand Cross of the Republic
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Grand Merit Cross with Star[SUP][22][/SUP]
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
The Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary
Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit (Poland)[SUP][23][/SUP]
Order of Duke Trpimir (Croatia)
Cross of Commander of the Order for Merits to Lithuania[SUP][24][/SUP]
Investiture Medal of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.[SUP][25][/SUP]
Order of Naval Merit (Argentina)
Order of Naval Merit in the degree of Grand Officer (Brazil)
Cruz de la Victoria (Chile)[SUP][26][/SUP]
Order of Naval Merit Admiral Padilla (Colombia)
Order of the Peruvian Cross of Naval Merit in the rank of Grand Cross along with a White Ribbon (Peru)[SUP][27][/SUP]
The Emblem of Honor of the General Staff of Romania
Medal of Honorary Recognition of Latvia[SUP][28][/SUP]
Military Merit Grand Cross Medal of the Portuguese Republic
Order of Vakhtang Gorgasali - I Rank (Country of Georgia)[SUP][29][/SUP]
Albanian Medal of Gratitude[SUP][30][/SUP]
Slovenian Medal for multinational cooperation 1st grade
Navy National Defense Cross (Guatemala)
Grand Cross (Dominican Republic)
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)
Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait)
Other Awards and Honors

[h=2]
Published worksEdit[/h]Selected books

  • The Accidental Admiral: A Sailor Takes Command at NATO U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2014 ISBN 978-1-61251-704-9
  • Partnership for the Americas: Western Hemisphere Strategy and U.S. Southern Command, NDU Press, November 2010
  • Command At Sea, Sixth Edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, Co-authored with Rear Admiral Robert Girrier, USN, 2010 ISBN 9781591147985
  • Destroyer Captain: Lessons of a First Command, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2007 ISBN 9781591148494
  • Watch Officer’s Guide, Twelfth Edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, Co-authored with Captain Robert Girrier, 2006 ISBN 9781591149361
  • Division Officer’s Guide, Eleventh Edition, Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, Co-authored with Commander Robert Girrier, 2005 ISBN 9781591147992


 
Advertisement
This man...

h_schnellenberger.jpg
 
ComfortablyUM said:
Yeah. Impressive,but does he like Football?
Click to expand...

No chance. He is a qualified, probably straight, military man. Those are three things left-wing elitist hate. Okay, he seems to have survived several years the Obama Stalin-like purge of the military officer ranks and that might indicate he is a mole in the Services. But that would be the only possible quality the university finds attractive.

And forget Rice. Do you remember who she served as State under? No way in **** these smucks pick her. UT will have its first black President and HC coach long before anyone who can spell conservative becomes President here.
 
Advertisement
I served 12 years in the military and trust me you dont want them ****ers running UM... they dont want your street kids aka the inner city kids... He wants Stanford and Harvard type kids. **** that!
 
Ther next president will be a foaming at the mouth liberal, probably female, definately ***, and most likely Hispanic or of color.
 
Advertisement
I was wondering when his name would bubble to the surface (warfare). He was the commencement speaker at my son's UM graduation a few years back when he was SACEUR (sorry folks, l'm retired military and the acronyms come easily). Interesting seeing a grad speaker is service dress whites. The irony is, my son had earned an NROTC scholarship coming out of HS, but he wanted Miami, so he remitted it. Stavridis speech was relatively (and thankfully) brief and focused on how he hadn't planned on being a career naval officer, but things changed and he wanted the graduates to realize that that in life conditions change and "you never know" how these changes can affect your plans or goals.

The ironies continued on our family post-graduation trip to the Armed Forces Rec Center in the Bavarian Alps. On Armed Forces Network TV they don't run commercials, but PSAs and "Command-sponsored" messages. Stavridis was very unusual in that, unlike his USEUCOM Commander predecessors I had seen stationed over there, his PSAs were more frequent, they featured him and his wife, and he was in civilian clothing doing things like traditional German Volksmarching and cooking. A very different approach...

At the graduation, Donna said the expected nice things about a comencement speaker, but I did detect a bit of a bond between them. The USSOUTHCOM Commander residence is near the campus, so I imagine that may have had something to do with it.

As far as the military vs. liberal issue, it depends on his political affiliation and who appointed him to his highest rank. Democrats and Republicans (and officers gunning for flag rank) know that you don't make it to the top ranks unless you are appointed by the President. Henceforth, each of the parties think of their appointees as "Their general" or "their admiral" and expect some loyalty in return.

The IG allegation hurt him a bit, even though he was cleared. After Marine General Jones, the army guys thought with Army General Craddock as SACEUR, things would be back to normal, i.e. army generals as boss in perpetuity. I'm imagining when Stavridis got the job, they went ape and tried the anonymous allegation crap; it backfired and now they are now under an Air Force General after all their efforts.

Obviously, since the DoD thing might be a non-starter due to the IG perception, Stavridis is trying to burnish his non-military credentials beyond Tufts for a potential Under-Secretary cabinet post in State, Commerce or Homeland Security. After the whole Cuba 180 a couple of days ago, it looks like he may be helped getting the UM President job because of his SOUTHCOM experience.
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
Ton of medals, but not one with a "V" device.

To get that high, he's never made a mistake in the military.

Never taken any chances, either. Consummate politicians. In uniform.
 
UMFarArcher said:
Ton of medals, but not one with a "V" device.

To get that high, he's never made a mistake in the military.

Never taken any chances, either. Consummate politicians. In uniform.
Click to expand...


I see your point and understand your rational based on my own experience, but the guy was a SWO (Surface Warfare Officer). Without the US having a big blue water naval campaign, even a Falklands-like campaign, he wouldn't have much of a chance to get a "V" on a decoration. The most "combat" naval surface vessels have seen since Stavridis has been in is as Tomahawk cruise missile launch platforms.

I get the sentiment, but his career path didn't give him much of chance for combat. Could he have went to BUD/S after USNA and received Bronze and Silver stars and even a Navy Cross? Sure, but he might have been killed in a training evolution just the same...
 
Okay, when SFbayCane posted the Wikipedia page to CIS, did he also post it to the link nycane inserted at the start of the thread?

You know what happens when hiring officials at Miami get sent a copy of a person's Wikipedia page...


Hmm, come to think of it, the last time it didn't turn out bad at all!
 
Advertisement
Back
Top