David H. Huntoon
Quick Facts
Biography
Lieutenant General David Holmes Huntoon, Jr., is an American former military officer who served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Early life
Huntoon is a 1973 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1973.
Military career
General Huntoon served as an Infantry Officer in a series of command and staff assignments in the United States and Germany.Following attendance at the Command and General Staff College and the School for Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he was assigned to XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.There he deployed as a Senior War Plans Officer for Operation Just Cause and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He commanded a mechanized infantry battalion at Camp Casey, Korea, and served in Combined and Joint Plans for the Combined Forces Command and United Nations Command in Seoul.He was the Army's National Security Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.He then took command of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard).Following his service as the Executive Officer to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, he was selected as an Army brigadier general.His general officer assignments were as Assistant Division Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; leadership of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy for the US Army; Commandant of the U.S. Army War College; and Director of the Army Staff in the Pentagon.
In 2012 the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General found that Huntoon had misused his office while at West Point by asking subordinates to perform personal tasks for him. According to the Washington Post, the Inspector General and the Army kept the information confidential until required to release it after a Freedom of Information Act request shortly before he retired in 2013.
Dates of rank
Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Second Lieutenant | Regular Army | June 6, 1973 | |
First Lieutenant | Regular Army | June 6, 1975 | |
Captain | Regular Army | June 6, 1977 | |
Major | Regular Army | October 1, 1984 | |
Lieutenant Colonel | Regular Army | January 1, 1991 | |
Colonel | Regular Army | September 1, 1995 | |
Brigadier General | Regular Army | November 1, 1999 | |
Major General | Regular Army | January 1, 2003 | |
Lieutenant General | Army of the United States | January 25, 2008 | |
Lieutenant General | Retired List | 2013 |
Awards and decorations
Army Distinguished Service Medal with two bronze oak leaf clusters |
Legion of Merit with silver oak leaf cluster |
Meritorious Service Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters |
National Defense Service Medal with two bronze service stars |
Southwest Asia Service Medal with two bronze service stars |