Carl Stiner Carl Wade Stiner ( born September 7 , 1936 ) is a retired United States Army four - star general who served as Commander in Chief , United States Special Operations Command ( USCINCSOC ) from 1990 to 1993 . Military career . Stiner was born in LaFollette , Tennessee on September 7 , 1936 . He graduated from Tennessee Polytechnic Institute in 1958 with a bachelor of science degree and was commissioned in the Infantry . He served initially with the 9th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning , Georgia and commanded a basic training company at Fort Jackson . His first special operations tour of duty was in 1964 - 66 with the 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg , North Carolina . Following graduation from the Army Command and General Staff College in 1967 , he served in the Vietnam War as both an infantry battalion and brigade operations officer ( S - 3 ) with the 4th Infantry Division . In 1970 , after a tour with Headquarters , Department of the Army in Washington , D . C . , he joined the 82nd Airborne Division where he commanded the 2nd Battalion , 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment , and served as the Division operations officer ( G3 ) . Following graduation from the Army War College in 1975 and a tour in Saudi Arabia , he commanded the 1st Infantry Training Brigade at Fort Benning , Georgia . Promoted to Brigadier General in 1980 , he served first as the Chief of Staff , Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force ( RDJTF ) , then headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base , and later as the Assistant Division Commander of the 82d Airborne Division . After serving on the Joint Staff in Washington , D . C . , as Assistant Deputy Director for Politico - Military Affairs , in 1984 he was promoted to Major General and appointed as Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg . He held this post until assigned as Commanding General , 82nd Airborne Division , in January 1987 . In October 1988 he was named Commanding General , XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg . As Commanding General , XVIII Airborne Corps , he was designated Commander , Joint Task Force South , and served as the operational commander of all forces employed on Operation Just Cause in Panama in December 1989 . In May 1990 he was promoted to the rank of General and became the second Commander in Chief of the United States Special Operations Command , headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base , Florida . As Commander in Chief , he was responsible for the readiness of all special operations forces of the Army , Navy , and Air Force , both active duty and reserve , retiring in May 1993 . During his thirty - five - year career , Stiner commanded the Army ' s preeminent contingency strike forces ; including the Joint Special Operations Command , the 82d Airborne Division and the XVIII Airborne Corps . Stiner has an extensive background in special operations . Among the many missions in which he was involved was the capture of the terrorists in the Achille Lauro hijacking , the Panama invasion and the capture of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega , and all special operations activities during Operation Desert Storm . Stiner was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 2004 . Post - military career . Stiner co - authored the 2002 book " Shadow Warriors : Inside the Special Forces " with Tom Clancy . He is also a recipient of the Freedom Foundation Award and the Distinguished Alumnus award from Tennessee Technological University and serves as Chairman of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation . Stiner has also been active teaching the joint war fighting course at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk , Virginia , and works as a senior advisor for new joint war fighting experiments . Additional recognition . An approximately stretch of State Highway 63 between LaFollette and Speedwell , Tennessee , is named in honor of General Stiner . The Army ROTC offices at Stiner ' s alma mater , Tennessee Tech , have been renamed the Carl W . Stiner Leadership Center in his honor . On September 7 , 2002 , an oil portrait in the likeness of General Carl Wade Stiner was unveiled to a company of interested citizens , friends and relatives of General Stiner , at the proposed location of a new Veteran ' s Memorial Museum in Jacksboro , Tennessee . Since that time , the portrait is being housed at the Campbell County Historical Society located at 235 E . Central Ave . in LaFollette Tn . and curated by Jerry Sharp at that location . The Biographical material and photo of the portrait of General Stiner has been entered into the Catalog of American Portraits , Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services , National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution , Washington DC .