page_title: Albert Bryant Jr.
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Bryant Jr. / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: American actor Bruce Willis is greeted by BG Albert Bryant, Jr, Assistant Division Commander, 4th Infantry Division (US Army) in Tikrit, Iraq, and deployed Army soldiers, during a USO-sponsored morale boosting trip by Willis and fellow American entertainers in September 2003.
context_page_description: Albert "Al" Bryant Jr. is a retired United States Army brigadier general, best known for service as the Chief of Western Hemisphere Operations during and in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and for his tenure as the Assistant Division Commander of the 4th Infantry Division at the time of the division's detection and capture of deposed Iraqi president Sadaam Hussein. Bryant also served as the Deputy Commander of Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the United States Army's Armor School.
  As Chief of Staff of NATO's Kosovo Force, Bryant was the highest ranking American general on the KFOR leadership team, supervising an international staff of more than 450 from 39 nations, in the lead up to Kosovo independence. He has frequently appeared in military and civilian media, and has been a regular speaker on military history, leadership, and diversity issues at military, civilian, and academic events.
context_section_description: Bryant was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, Armor Branch, from the U.S. Military Academy in 1974. (West Point Class of 1974 classmates include former CIA director and Iraq Multi-National Force Commander David Petraeus, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, retired Major General and Iraq-war objector John Batiste and astronaut Michael R. Clifford.)  After graduation, he attended the Armor Officer Basic Course and then assigned to 3d Squadron, 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment, Amberg, Germany as platoon leader and troop executive officer. Following the Armor Officer's Advanced Course, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 67th Armor, 2nd Armored Division, Fort Hood, Texas, as S3 (Air) and then as Commander, Company A. 
  Bryant then attended graduate school at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (where, among others, he was instructed by future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), receiving his Masters of Science Degree in Operations Research and Systems Analysis in 1983.
  In 1986, Bryant attended the United States Army's Command and General Staff College and the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies receiving a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences. Subsequently he was assigned as Chief, Plans and Exercises G3, 5th Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana, and then as Executive Officer, 1st Battalion 70th Armor, and then as S3 for the 1st Raider Brigade.
  In 1991, Bryant joined the Army Staff and the Directorate of Program Analysis and Evaluation as a Combat Systems Analyst. In 1993, he assumed command of the 4th Battalion, 67th Armor "Bandits", 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Hesse Germany (the current designation of former soldier Elvis Presley's unit). 
  Upon completion of command he was reassigned as Chief of Plans, G3, V Corps and served as Chief Planner for Operation Joint Endeavor, IFOR operations in Bosnia. Interviews with Bryant and a description of his planning efforts in support of Operation Joint Endeavor are featured in the 2005 book Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia.
  In 1996, Bryant returned from deployment attending the Army War College's Operational Warfighting Fellowship at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In April 1998 he assumed command of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. Departing the "Bulldog Brigade" in 2000 he assumed duties as Chief, Western Hemisphere Operations, J3, the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C., serving as Chief of Western Hemisphere Operations during and in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
  Bryant was then assigned to the United States Army Command and General Staff College as the Director, Center for Army Tactics and selected for promotion to Brigadier General in March 2003. In June 2003, Bryant was assigned as Assistant Division Commander (Support), 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and Task Force Ironhorse conducting combat operations as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was during this time that the 4th ID played the primary role in the location and capture of fugitive deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
  In April 2004, the Division redeployed to Fort Hood, Texas, to refit in preparation for future operations, and Bryant reported to duty at Fort Knox, Kentucky, to serve as the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Armor Center and Fort Knox, and head the Unit of Action Maneuver Battle Lab, or UAMBL. 
  The following year, Bryant was selected to represent the United States as Chief of Staff of NATO's internationally staffed Kosovo Force, KFOR, and relocated to Kosovo. He assumed his position at a NATO installation ceremony on June 27, 2005, becoming the senior American official on the KFOR HQ command leadership team.  As Chief of Staff, Bryant supervised an international staff of more than 450 personal from 39 nations.
  Bryant's final military assignment was as the Director of Integration, Headquarters, Department of the Army, G8, at the Pentagon, where he supervised the planning and direction of equipment systems worldwide for the U.S. Army, synchronizing equipment deliveries with manning and training requirements. During this tim
caption: Bryant in September 2003, speaking with Bruce Willis in Tikrit, Iraq.
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