![]() ![]() ![]() He had been scheduled to assume the leadership of Central Command naval forces even before the Persian Gulf crisis began. Arthur was dispatched to the Persian Gulf last December to head the allied naval forces, it was a homecoming of sorts. After graduating from San Diego State College as an English major, he joined the Marines to fulfill what he felt was a "commitment to serve this country." A veteran of two tours in Vietnam, and a battalion commander of American forces in Lebanon in the early 1980's, General Johnston spent three years as head of the Marine Officer Candidate School, putting his stamp on many of the young lieutenants now serving in the gulf. ![]() Security concerns eventually prompted them to take quarters in Saudi Government buildings and offices.īorn and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a jam-actory worker, General Johnston emigrated to the United States when he was 18. The staff first worked out of hotel rooms in Riyadh and any other space they could find. He and the command's bureaucracy were on their way to Saudi Arabia. ![]() Only two months after General Johnston left his job as commander of Marine reserves to take his job as Central Command Chief of Staff, Iraq invaded Kuwait. General Johnston seeks to make sure that the individual services' plans mesh. It supplies him with information, makes plans and coordinates logistics. It is a natural role for the general, whose main responsibility is to coordinate the activities of the headquarters staff in Riyadh, now numbering 1,000, that answers to General Schwarzkopf. Johnston has become one of the faces most closely identified with the Persian Gulf war.įor much of the last two weeks, General Johnston, 53 years old, the Central Command's Chief of Staff, has briefed reporters on the daily progress of the war. Johnstonįor television viewers around the world, the square-jawed countenance of Maj. Following are sketches of the senior commanders in the Persian Gulf. Thus, the four commanders coordinate with each other only during an occasional war game - unlike other commands in which operations are more integrated - and the Persian Gulf operation has thus been more of a challenge to the Central Command and its top generals than it might have been for another command. ![]()
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