Charles Thomas Cleveland (born March 10, 1956) is a retired

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

who was the commander of the

United States Army Special Operations Command The United States Army Special Operations Command (Airborne) (USASOC) is the command charged with overseeing the various Special forces, special operations forces of the United States Army. Headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, it i ...

(2012–2015). He is a graduate of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

, class of 1978. Cleveland previously served as commanding officer of the

10th Special Forces Group The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG (A), or 10th Group) is an active duty United States Army Special Forces (SF) Group. 10th Group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: Unconventional warfare (United States), ...

from 2001 to 2003, leading the initial invasion into

northern Iraq Northern Iraq may refer to: *Assyrian homeland *Iraqi Kurdistan *Kurdistan Region *Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern ...

during

Operation Iraqi Freedom The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist governm ...

. He also served as Chief of Staff, and as Deputy Commander of the Army Special Operations Command followed by duty commander of

Special Operations Command South The United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), located in Doral in Greater Miami, Florida, is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning, ope ...

from 2005 to 2008. Cleveland served as commander of

Special Operations Command Central The Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) is a sub-unified command of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). It is responsible for planning special operations throughout the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR), planning and conducting peace ...

from 2008 to 2011. He retired from the army in August 2015.

Awards and decorations

References

1956 births Living people United States Army generals Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) {{US-army-bio-stub