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Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, who commanded Iraq War strategy, dies at 67



Kelly offered a press release from the Odierno household confirming his dying.

“It’s with deep remorse that I can affirm the dying of Normal Raymond T. Odierno on October eighth, 2021,” the Odierno household assertion reads. “The overall died after a courageous battle with most cancers; his dying was not associated to COVID. There are not any different particulars to share presently.”

It continued: “His household is grateful for the priority and asks for privateness. Funeral service and interment data will not be but out there.”

The household’s assertion didn’t specify the situation of Odierno’s dying. He was 67, in keeping with an Affiliation of the US Military statement confirming his dying.

President Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden mentioned in a press release Saturday, “We will consider no one who higher encapsulated that fundamental creed of responsibility, honor, nation than Normal Ray Odierno. He made our whole nation higher, stronger, and safer.”

Odierno retired in 2015 after greater than 37 years of navy service, together with deployments to Europe and three excursions to Iraq.

He commanded the 4th Infantry Division from October 2001 to June 2004, main the division initially of the Iraq Battle.

“There are few occasions once you run into folks as reliable, as values-based, and as brave as Ray Odierno. And he was bodily a mountain of a person, and emotionally he was a rock many people moored ourselves to,” retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who served with Odierno in Iraq, mentioned Saturday on CNN.

Underneath his management, the first Brigade Fight crew of the 4th Infantry Division discovered and captured Saddam Hussein.
“He was within the backside of a gap with no approach to struggle again,” Odierno said on the time of the previous Iraqi dictator. “He was caught like a rat.”

As Odierno’s first tour in Iraq got here to an finish, his son Military Capt. Tony Odierno was severely injured there. Whereas on patrol in Baghdad on August 2004, Tony Odierno’s Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, leading to his lack of an arm.

Ray Odierno told CNN’s Barbara Starr in a 2006 interview that his son’s harm deepened his understanding of what 1000’s of America’s navy households undergo.

“I feel, for the primary time, it hit residence to lots of people that that is actuality, this occurs and it may have an effect on anyone,” he mentioned.

Odierno returned to Iraq because the operational commander of the surge of forces from 2006 to 2008, accountable for stopping Iraq’s brutal insurgency and serving to Iraqi troops take over their nation’s safety.

He later served because the commanding common for the Multi-Nationwide Drive in Iraq, subsequently the US Forces – Iraq, from September 2008 till September 2010.

He briefly served as commander of the US Joint Forces Command earlier than former President Barack Obama tapped him to be Military chief of workers in 2011.

Obama launched a press release Saturday expressing unhappiness about Odierno’s passing.

“As President, I relied on Ray’s deep information, regular management, and powerful judgment. It is why I trusted him to assist give you the plan to withdraw U.S. fight forces from Iraq, and to execute it in a method that saved our forces and the Iraqi folks protected,” the previous President mentioned.

He continued: “I used to be removed from the one individual to rely upon Ray’s counsel, and to understand each his strategic and operational abilities. At present, our navy is stronger and the world is safer due to Ray’s service, and for that I’ll all the time be grateful.”

Odierno was born in Rockaway, New Jersey, and graduated from West Level.

Odierno is survived by his spouse Linda Odierno and their three kids, together with retired Capt. Tony Odierno.

This story has been up to date with further background data.



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