This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SGM Mike Vining
to remember
Downing, Wayne Allan, GEN USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Last Address Peoria
Date of Passing Jul 18, 2007
Location of Interment U.S. Military Academy West Point Post Cemetery (VLM) - West Point, New York
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section XVIII, Row D, Site 032
General Downing's West Point ring was severely damaged in an anti-personnel mine explosion while he served in Vietnam. A soldier serving under his command replaced the stone with Chrysocolla, a copper mineral. General Downing wore that very same ring until at least 1995.
Military career
Sep 62 - Feb 63 Student, Infantry Officer Basic and Ranger Course
Jun 80 - Apr 82 Secretary to Joint Staff, European Command, Vaihingen, Germany
May 82 - Apr 84 Commander, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, U.S. Army Europe, Germany
May 84 - Nov 85 Commander, 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger), Fort Benning, GA
Nov 85 - Jun 87 Deputy Commanding General, 1st Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC
Jun 87 - May 88 Director, Washington Office, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, FL
May 88 - Dec 89 Deputy Chief of Staff (Training), U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, VA
Dec 89 - Aug 91 Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC
Aug 91 - Apr 93 Commanding General, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC
May 93 - Feb 96 Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), MacDill Air Force Base, FL
Post 9/11
In 2001, Downing came out of retirement to coordinate the national campaign "to detect, disrupt and destroy global terrorist organizations and those who support them."[2]. He held the title of National Director and Deputy National Security Adviser for combating terrorism. He reported to then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security director Tom Ridge. From 2003 until his death he held the Distinguished Chair at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
In 2006 he received the United States Military Academy's 2006 Distinguished Graduate Award.
General Downing died on July 18, 2007, of meningitis.
General Downing was buried in the West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York on September 27, 2007. His grave is just north of the main cemetery building.
On September 24, 2008, the The Metropolitan Authority of Peoria voted unanimously to change the name of The Greater Peoria Regional Airport to the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport.
Other Comments:
"General Wayne A. Downing, U.S. Army (Retired) is a highly decorated combat veteran who retired after a 34-year career in the U.S. Army. While on active duty he served in a variety of command assignments in infantry, armored, special operations, and joint units, culminating in his appointment as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command. He commanded the special operations of all services during the 1989 invasion of Panama and commanded a joint special operations task force operating deep behind the Iraqi lines during Operation DESERT STORM. Following retirement, General Downing was appointed by the President to assess the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. base at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and to make recommendations on how to protect Americans and U.S. facilities worldwide from terrorist attack. From 1999-2000, General Downing served as member of the congressionally mandated National Commission on Terrorism (the Bremer Commission) charged with examining the terrorist threat to the US, evaluating America's laws, policies, and practices for preventing and punishing terrorism directed at US citizens, and recommending corrective actions. Most recently, General Downing served in the White House as National Director and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism (Department of Homeland Security). As the President's principal advisor on matters related to combating terrorism, he was responsible for coordinating, developing and executing a strategy that draws on and integrates all elements of national power."
On June 27, 2002, the White House announced that General Wayne A. Downing, U.S. Army (Ret.) had resigned his position as Deputy Assistant to the President, National Director and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism:
"Coming out of retirement, General Downing joined the National Security Council staff in October, 2001 with a mandate to organize and staff the NSC's Office of Combating Terrorism and the Office of Homeland Security's Intelligence and Detection Directorate following the attacks of September 11.
"In this position, General Downing coordinated the military, diplomatic, law enforcement, intelligence, financial, and strategic information activities designed to deter, disrupt, and destroy terrorists and those who harbor, protect, or support them. He also worked with the Office of Homeland Security to ensure that our national counterterrorism efforts, domestic and international, are seamless."
Military service
A biographical note states that Downing "retired from active service in the military in 1996 after a distinguished 34-year career in the U.S. Army. He served two combat tours in Vietnam as a junior infantry officer. His career included commands in infantry, armored, airborne, special operation and joint units. He commanded all U.S. special operations forces during the 1989 invasion of Panama and commanded a joint special operations task force during the first Gulf War. General Downing culminated his career as Commander in Chief of the U.S Special Operations Command, where he was responsible for all special operations forces in the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force."
This remembrance profile is maintained by Mike R. Vining, SGM USA (Retired).
Email: sgmmvining@gmail.com
OIF/Liberation of Iraq (2003)
From Month/Year
March / 2003
To Month/Year
May / 2003
Description The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 19 March to 1 May 2003 and signaled the start of the conflict that later came to be known as the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States (prior to 19 March, the mission in Iraq was called Operation Enduring Freedom, a carryover from the conflict in Afghanistan). The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces.
Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003. These were the United States (148,000), United Kingdom (45,000), Australia (2,000), and Poland (194). 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February. The coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the coalition mission was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people." General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme NATO Allied Commander and Joint Chiefs of Staff Director of Strategy and Policy, describes in his 2003 book, Winning Modern Wars, his conversation with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after 9/11 regarding a plan to attack seven Middle Eastern countries in five years: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan." Others place a much greater emphasis on the impact of the 11 September 2001 attacks, and the role this played in changing U.S. strategic calculations, and the rise of the freedom agenda. According to Blair, the trigger was Iraq's failure to take a "final opportunity" to disarm itself of alleged nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that U.S. and British officials called an immediate and intolerable threat to world peace.
In a January 2003 CBS poll, 64% of Americans had approved of military action against Iraq; however, 63% wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution rather than go to war, and 62% believed the threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would increase due to war. The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U.S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand. Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that invading the country was not justified in the context of UNMOVIC's 12 February 2003 report. On 15 February 2003, a month before the invasion, there were worldwide protests against the Iraq War, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.
The invasion was preceded by an air strike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 19 March 2003. The following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While the special forces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq, occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk, where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi army to secure the northern part of the country.
The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and met with little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack and capture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of major combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period and beginning the military occupation period.
