This event is only open to members of the ARNSF. If you are not a member but are interested in joining, contact Bob Ulin at rulin@cgscf.org.

In this presentation of the Forum, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Robert L. Caslen, Jr., will lead a discussion of the challenges and lessons learned in the mission of the Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq (OSC-I) in the early days after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in December 2011. With no residual U.S. force left, Caslen, then serving as the chief of the OSC-I, and his 150 personnel were left holding the proverbial bag for a large-scale security assistance mission that a theater headquarters and more than 40,000 U.S. troops had been performing just weeks before. Complicating the situation were the Iraqi prime minister’s actions to purge Sunni leaders from his administration and other actions which all led to a new crisis and the rebirth of ISIS which forced the reintroduction of U.S. troops into the country a mere two and a half years later.

Photo credit: In the photo above, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno (third from left), Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., commanding general of the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq (far left) and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James F. Jeffrey (second from left) meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (fifth from left) and other Iraqi leaders in December 2011. – U.S. Army photo

Lieutenant General Robert L. Caslen, Jr., was commissioned as an infantry officer in the United States Military Academy class of 1975. He served in the U.S. Army for 43 years retiring in 2018 as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Before becoming the West Point Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Caslen served as the chief of the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq, and was commander of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth and commandant of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Caslen also commanded the 25th Infantry Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was chief of staff of both the 101st Airborne and the 10th Mountain Divisions, where he also served as chief of staff of Task Force Mountain during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He also served in combat and overseas deployments in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Honduras, and Operation Uphold Democracy and the United Nations Mission in Haiti. After his military retirement he served as the 29th president of the University of South Carolina.

Caslen holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Long Island University and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University. In addition to his many military awards and accomplishments, Caslen is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Military Academy, a member of the Kansas State Engineering College Hall of Fame and co-authored the book, The Character Edge Leading and Winning with Integrity. He was born in Connecticut, and grew up in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. He has been married to the former Michele Pastin, from Highland Falls, New York, for 45 years and has three adult sons and five grandchildren.

Questions about registration? – Contact Lora Morgan, lora@cgscf.org or call 913-651-0624.

For questions about the ARNSF contact Col. (Ret.) Robert Ulin, Simons Center Director, at rulin@cgscf.org or call 913-240-1495.

Please register below.

The Arter-Rowland National Security Forum is an exclusive professional information sharing and networking event exclusively for members of the forum and select invitees of the CGSC Foundation’s Simons Center and the Kansas City Chapter of the Association of the United States Army (KCAUSA), the co-hosts of the Forum.

Registration is closed.