page_title: Michael Flynn
section_title: U.S. Army
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Flynn / Military career / U.S. Army
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of International Security Assistance Force, with U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, chief of intelligence for ISAF, listen to a briefing by 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team commander, U.S. Army Col. James Johnson, during a visit to Forward Operating Base Shank, March 10. McChrystal also spoke during the meeting, discussing current operations and the future of the counter-insurgency fight in Afghanistan. "We're here not to fight the war, but we're here to win," said McChrystal. "And we win through the people."
context_page_description: Michael Thomas Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration until his forced resignation. Flynn's military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and he was given numerous combat arms, conventional, and special operations senior intelligence assignments. He served as the 18th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, from July 2012 until his forced retirement from the military in August 2014.
  After leaving the military, he established Flynn Intel Group, which provided intelligence services for businesses and governments, including in Turkey. In 2017, Flynn registered as a foreign agent, acknowledging that in 2016 he had conducted paid lobbying work that may have benefited Turkey's government. Flynn served as a senior advisor to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. On January 22, 2017, Flynn was sworn in as the National Security Advisor.
context_section_description: Flynn was commissioned in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in military intelligence in 1981. His military assignments included multiple tours at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, and Joint Special Operations Command, where he deployed for the invasion of Grenada and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. He also served with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
  Flynn served as the assistant chief of staff, G2, XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from June 2001 and the director of intelligence at the Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan until July 2002. He commanded the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade from June 2002 to June 2004 and was the director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command from July 2004 to June 2007, with service in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom). The subject and his superior, General McChrystal, streamlined all intelligence so as to increase the tempo of operations and degrade the networks of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He served as the director of intelligence of the United States Central Command from June 2007 to July 2008, as the director of intelligence of the Joint Staff from July 2008 to June 2009, then the director of intelligence of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from June 2009 to October 2010. Flynn was reprimanded for sharing classified U.S. intelligence information on the Haqqani network to Pakistani officials in 2009 or 2010. The network, which had been accused of attacking American troops, was a proxy ally of Pakistan.
  On November 10, 2015, Flynn gave an interview to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) Lessons Learned project. Washington Post published an audio recording of the interview and SIGAR's summary as part of the Afghanistan Papers.
caption: General Stanley McChrystal and Flynn in Afghanistan, 2010
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