Harold J Greene, the two-star Army general who
became the highest-ranking US military officer to
be killed in either of America’s post-9/11 wars, was
an engineer who rose through the ranks as an
expert in developing and fielding the army’s war
materiel. He was on his first deployment to a war
zone.
Greene was killed Tuesday when a gunman
believed to be an Afghan soldier opened fire at a
military academy near Kabul. More than a dozen
other coalition soldiers were wounded, including
about eight Americans, according to early accounts
of the attack. It was among the bloodiest insider
attacks of the war in Afghanistan.
The army’s top soldier, General Ray Odierno,
issued a statement Tuesday evening saying the
army’s thoughts and prayers were with Greene’s
family as well as the families of those injured in
the attack.
In a 34-year career that began at Fort Polk,
Louisiana, Greene, a native of upstate New York,
earned a reputation as an inspiring leader with a
sense of humility. He had been in Afghanistan
since January, serving as deputy commander of a
support command called the Combined Security
Transition Command, in Kabul.
At the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, Greene was serving at Fort Leonard Wood,
Missouri, and when the US invaded Iraq in March
2003, he was a student at the Army War College in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the rank of lieutenant
colonel.
Greene flourished in the less glamorous side of the
army that develops, tests, builds and supplies
soldiers with equipment and technology. That is a
particularly difficult job during wartime, since
unconventional or unanticipated battlefield
challenges like roadside bombs in Iraq and
Afghanistan, call for urgent improvements in
equipment.
In 2009-2011, for example, he served as deputy
commanding general of the army’s Research,
Development and Engineering Command and
senior commander of the Natick Soldier System
Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen,
Maryland. During that tour of duty he gained the
rank of brigadier general, and at his promotion
ceremony in December 2009 he was lauded for his
leadership skills and ability to inspire those
around him.
Lt General Stephen Speakes applauded Greene for
a “sense of self, a sense of humility” and an
exemplary work ethic, according to an account of
the promotion ceremony published by the Times
Union of Albany, New York, which called Greene
an Albany native.
“In every job I had we got things done that I think
m*de our army better, and it was done by other
people,” Greene was quoted as saying. “All I did
was try to pull people in the right direction and
they went out and did great things.”
Greene and his wife, Susan, lived in the
Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia,
where neighbors recalled he would often go for
morning runs, The Washington Post reported. The
Greenes’ son Matthew is also in the army and their
daughter, Amelia, recently graduated from
Binghamton University in New York.
Greene earned a bachelor of science degree in
materials engineering and a master’s degree in
industrial engineering, both from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He later
studied at the University of Southern California
and also attended the US Army Command and
General Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 2010, he spoke at the opening of the Social
Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center, a
research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
with the mission of improving the army’s
understanding of social, information and
communication networks, according to the army’s
account of the event.
“We’re in a fight now with an enemy that’s a little
bit different and uses different techniques ... and
networks are a key part of that,” Greene said.
He said finding patterns in the tactics of insurgents
was difficult because of the way networks evolve
and otherwise change. So the goal was to bring to
light the patterns and determine how to anticipate
and influence the actions of insurgents.
“The enemy is every bit as good as we are at using
that network to our detriment so this is essential
work, this is about defending our country,” Greene
said. “You must know that there is a direct
application on the battlefield and we’re using it
today, but we don’t really understand it yet so this
is a critical element.”
His awards include the Legion of Merit, the
Distinguished Service Medal, a Meritorious Service
Award and an Army Commendation Medal.