Profile of Richard Myers on Famous Like Me

This article is about the general. For the songwriter, see Richard Myers (songwriter).

For the filmmaker, see Richard Myers (filmmaker).

General Richard Bowman Myers (born March 1, 1942) of the United States Air Force is a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America's highest ranking military officer.

General Myers became the fifteenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 1, 2001. In this capacity, he served as the principal military advisor to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, and the United States National Security Council. On September 30, 2005, he retired and was succeeded by General Peter Pace.

General Myers was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from Shawnee Mission High School, later known as Shawnee Mission North. He is a 1965 graduate of Kansas State University, and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Auburn University. The General has attended the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and the Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

General Myers entered the Air Force in 1965 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program. His career includes operational command and leadership positions in a variety of Air Force and Joint assignments. General Myers is a command pilot with more than 4,100 flying hours in the T-33, C-37, C-21, F-4, F-15 and F-16, including 600 combat hours in the F-4.

Prior to becoming Chairman, he served as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from March 2000 to September 2001. As Vice Chairman, General Myers served as the Chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Vice Chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board, and as a member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee and the Nuclear Weapons Council. In addition, he acted for the Chairman in all aspects of the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System including participation in the Defense Resources Board.

From August 1998 to February 2000, General Myers was Commander in Chief, North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Space Command; Commander, Air Force Space Command; and Department of Defense manager, space transportation system contingency support at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. As commander, General Myers was responsible for defending America through space and intercontinental ballistic missile operations. Prior to assuming that position, he was Commander, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, from July 1997 to July 1998. From July 1996 to July 1997 he served as Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon; and from November 1993 to June 1996 General Myers was Commander of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

On 27 September, 2005, just days before leaving his post as Chairman, Myers said of the war in Iraq that, "the outcome and consequences of defeat are greater than World War II."

General Myers and his wife, the former Mary Jo Rupp, have three children, two daughters and a son. General Myers is the only high-ranking military person (of the United States) to not only appear on a television series, but to lend the United States Air Force's official support. Towards the end of Season 7 of the hit sci-fi television series, Stargate SG-1, General Myers played himself when Earth was attacked by the half-ascended, half goauld System Lord Anubis.

Source:

• U.S. Department of Defense

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