Kenneth Bowra Kenneth Bowra is a retired major general who served in the US Army from 1970 to 2003 . Bowra saw service with US special forces in the Vietnam War and Cambodian Civil War and has worked with the Central Intelligence Agency and Joint Special Operations Command . He later fought in the US Invasion of Grenada and in the Somali Civil War and First Gulf War . In 1998 he was given command of the John F . Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and in 2000 was deputy commander of NATO ' s Kosovo Force . Retiring in 2003 he is now a diplomat with the US State Department in Saudi Arabia . Vietnam . Kenneth Bowra attended The Citadel military college in South Carolina and graduated in 1970 . He was commissioned into the 82nd Airborne Division and completed special forces training . Deployed in the Vietnam War initially as a Military Assistance Command , Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group reconnaissance team leader Bowra later served as an advisor to Cambodian Army units undertaking training with US forces , leading them on combat missions in Cambodia . Upon his return to the US he served as commander of a High Altitude Low Opening Special Atomic Demolition Munition paratroop unit with the 5th Special Forces Group . Bowra was posted back to Cambodia in 1974 with the Military Equipment Delivery Team Cambodia and remained in the country until the April 1975 collapse of the Khmer Republic . Special operations . Bowra spent the next eight years on various assignments with the Central Intelligence Agency , 4th Infantry Division in Fort Carson , Colorado and the 2nd battalion of the 75th Ranger Infantry Regiment ( Airborne ) at Fort Lewis in Washington . He was transferred to Joint Special Operations Command in 1983 and remained with the unit for five years , participating in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada . Bowra returned to the 5th Special Forces Group in 1988 as the commander of the 2nd battalion and worked on Operation Salam , a de - mining operation in Afghanistan . He was promoted to commander of 5th Special Forces Group by 1992 and conducted combat and humanitarian operations in Somalia as well as border surveillance and combat operations in Kuwait . He was placed in charge of Special Operations Command South , United States Southern Command in November 1993 , and held that post until January 1996 . Whilst with that unit Bowra led anti - drugs and humanitarian operations in Central and South America and formed the multi - national peace - keeping force that helped to end the Cenepa War . Bowra was assigned command of the U . S . Army Special Forces Command ( Airborne ) in May 1996 where he helped to develop the first human rights policy for US special forces soldiers . Bowra was given command of the John F . Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in March 1998 and in March 2000 was deputy - commander of the NATO headquarters of Kosovo Force ( KFOR ) with responsibility for overseeing all KFOR operations ( including Russian forces ) and providing support for elections in the country . He was appointed assistant chief of staff of NATO ' s Allied Forces Northern Europe in January 2001 and was simultaneously the senior American military representative to the Netherlands . Bowra retired from the army as a major - general on 1 October 2003 . He now works for the State Department as a diplomat at the US embassy in Saudi Arabia . Bowra has written about the Vietnam and Cambodian wars . It should be noted that the most recent U . S . State Department listing of key officials in foreign posts does not show Bowra in any post in Saudi Arabia .