A native of Columbus, Georgia, Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV served as commander of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas from June 2007 until November 2009. Caldwell graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976. He earned masters degrees from the United States Naval Postgraduate School and from the School for Advanced Military Studies at the United States Army Command and General Staff College. He also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a Senior Service College Fellow.

 

His prior deployments and assignments include serving as chief of plans for the 82nd Airborne Division during Operation Just Cause in Panama and as assistant chief of staff for operations for the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He then served as politico-military officer in Haiti during Operation Restore/Uphold Democracy; commander of the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division; executive assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; assistant division commander of the 25th Infantry Division; deputy director for operations for the United States Pacific Command; senior military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense; commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division; and as deputy chief of staff for strategic effects and spokesperson for the Multi-National Force - Iraq.

 

In January Caldwell publicly countered the Pentagon’s ban on allowing troops to communicate via the Web about their experiences in Iraq. The commander of the CAC said the Defense Department should allow soldiers to post to blogs and YouTube. In a Small Wars Journal blog post, Caldwell said that, in a struggle where perception is often as important as bombs-and-bullets conflict, soldiers ought to be encouraged and equipped to wage that information war on their own.  And that means “get[ting] onto blogs and [s]end[ing] their YouTube videos to their friends and family.”

 

YouTube is officially banned on military networks, many influential blogs are blocked. 

 

Top General: Let Soldiers Blog (by Noah Shachtman, Wired)