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President nominates retired general as CSA

Army News Service

Release Date: 6/16/2003

By Angela Yeoh June 16, 2003

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 16, 2003) -- President Bush has nominated retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker to be the U.S. Army's new chief of staff, following last week's retirement of former Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki.

Schoomaker spent three years as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., before retiring in 2000. He would be the first retired four-star officer ever to be called back to serve as the U.S. Army chief of staff.

In fact, Schoomaker is the first retired general to be called back to active duty with the Joint Chiefs since President John F. Kennedy recalled Gen. Maxwell Taylor in 1962 to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Taylor had served a four-year term as Army chief of staff from 1955-1959, and retired in 1959 before being summoned by the president to return in 1962 as chairman.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced today that the president had nominated Schoomaker as Army chief of staff. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John M. Keane has served as acting chief of staff since Shinseki's retirement June 11 and will continue in that position until the Senate confirms Schoomaker.

Schoomaker received a bachelor's degree in Education Administration from the University of Wyoming and an MA in Management from Central Michigan University. He was appointed as a second lieutenant in June 1969 and went to the Armor Officer Basic Course.

He served as a reconnaissance platoon leader from January 1970 through April 1971 at Fort Campbell, Ky. He then served as a rifle company commander in Germany through June 1972, and also commanded a troop of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment from April 1973 through June 1974.

Schoomaker next spent 14 months in Korea, where he served as an assistant inspector general for the 2nd Infantry Division and then as a battalion operations officer.

In February 1978, he assumed command of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C. Then in August of 1981, he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

From October 1983 until February 1984, he was in Beirut, Labanon, as part of the DoD Commission investigating a terrorist incident there after a vehicle loaded with explosives ran a road block, killing U.S. Marines in their barracks.

Schoomaker attended the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., from August 1988 to June 1989. Then he commanded the Combat Applications Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg. He next served as the assistant division commander, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, from July 1992 to July 1993.

Schoomaker then served as deputy director of Operations, Readiness and Mobilization for the Army at the Pentagon through July 1994.

He commanded the Joint Special Operations Command, United States Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, through August of 1996. Then he became commanding general of the United States Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg until October 1997.

In November 1997, he became the commander in chief of the joint United States Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, where he served until retiring.