Tony Cucolo

Anthony Cucolo
File:Tony Cucolo.jpg
Nickname(s)	Tony
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1979-2014
Rank	Major General
Commands held	10th Mountain Division 3rd Infantry Division US Army War College
Battles/wars	Bosnia Afghanistan Iraq

Anthony "Tony" Cucolo is a retired United States Army Major General. He was notable for his service as the Army's Chief of Public Affairs, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division and Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, and commandant of the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Military career

Major General Tony Cucolo was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of infantry in 1979 serving 16 of the past 29 years in infantry and armor divisions. He commanded two companies and was an operations officer at both the battalion and brigade level. He commanded an Infantry battalion in Germany and deployed his unit as a combined arms task force for the first eleven months of the Balkans NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) in the contested area of Brčko, Bosnia. Cucolo also commanded 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, and was the Assistant Division Commander for the 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York. While in this capacity, he deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom and served as Deputy Commanding General, CJTF-180, during the 10th Mountain Division's service there in 2003-2004.

Cucolo's other Joint assignments include duty with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon from July 2001 to July 2003, with service in the Strategy and Policy Directorate (J5), Chief of the Future Operations Group in the Operations Directorate (J3) immediately after 9/11, and then Chief of European and NATO Policy, J5. His most recent joint assignment was as Director, Joint Center for Operational Analysis, US Joint Forces Command, from September 2004 through May 2006. In that time, Cucolo deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times, embedding in joint operational headquarters there, as well as duty with JTF-Katrina to develop the lessons learned from civil support operations in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Cucolo's next assignment was a two-year tour in the Pentagon as the Chief of Public Affairs for the United States Army. On 14 July 2008, Cucolo took over command of the 3rd Infantry Division, leading them to their fourth deployment to Iraq. On 15 April 2011, after 33 months as the Division Commander, Cucolo passed command of the 3rd Infantry Division to Robert B. “Abe” Abrams.

In June 2012 Cucolo assumed command of the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks Pennsylvania.

In March 2014 William E. Rapp was announced as Cucolo's successor, with Cucolo planning to retire and relocate to Texas.

Post-military career

In May 2015 Cucolo was announced as the University of Texas System's new associate vice chancellor for leadership and veterans’ programs.

Personal life

During Cucolo's deployment to Iraq he was among many high-ranking officers who has become the target of several impersonators. This included many fake social networking and dating service accounts. The victims were initially contacted on Skype and then lured to the fraudulent accounts.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army.

External links

• http://www.c-spanvideo.org/tonycucolo
• http://www.dvidshub.net/video/84379/maj-gen-tony-cucolo-part-1#.TiePSWG5Mqw