John Abizaid
John Philip Abizaid (born April 1, 1951) is a retired United States Army general and former United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021. In 2007, Abizaid retired after 34 years of service. As of 2007, Abizaid is employed as a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He assumed the Distinguished Chair of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point in December 2007. Abizaid was appointed to the board of directors of RPM International on January 24, 2008, and also sits on the board of directors of the Defense Ventures Group. In 2008, he was selected as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College. On November 13, 2018, he was nominated as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He was confirmed by the United States Senate as ambassador on April 10, 2019, and sworn in on April 30, 2019. Abizaid formally presented his credentials to King Salman on June 16, 2019. He resigned on January 20, 2021. He now serves as senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Early life and education A Lebanese American, Abizaid was born in northern California in 1951, and raised in Coleville, California. Abizaid was a 1969 graduate of Coleville High School. His grandparents had immigrated to California from Lebanon during the late 19th century. He was raised Roman Catholic. His father, a Navy machinist in World War II, raised him after Abizaid's mother died of cancer. Abizaid's military education includes the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York (Class of 1973); Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced courses, Armed Forces Staff College, and a U.S. Army War College Senior Fellowship at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In his civilian studies, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Middle Eastern studies at Harvard University, and was an Olmsted Scholar at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. Abizaid greatly impressed his teachers at Harvard University. Nadav Safran, the director of the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies kept Abizaid's 100-page paper on defense policy for Saudi Arabia, the only paper of a master's student he has kept, saying, "It was absolutely the best seminar paper I ever got in my 30-plus years at Harvard." Career Abizaid was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Class of June 1973. He started his career with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he served as a rifle and scout platoon leader. He commanded companies in the 2nd and 1st Ranger Battalions, leading a Ranger Rifle Company during the invasion of Grenada. In 1983, he jumped from an MC-130 onto a landing strip in Grenada and ordered one of his Rangers to drive a bulldozer like a tank toward Cuban troops as he advanced behind it—a move highlighted in the 1986 Clint Eastwood film, Heartbreak Ridge. Abizaid commanded the 3rd Battalion, 325th Airborne