Henry Hugh Shelton (born 2 January 1942) is an American retired general who served as the 14th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001. Shelton was born in North Carolina. After graduating from North Carolina State University, where he was a member of the Pershing Rifles and the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps, he was commissioned in 1963 as an infantry officer. Shelton initially served in the Army Reserve. After applying for active duty, he underwent Special Forces training and had two deployments for the Vietnam War, where he led Special Forces and infantry units. While serving there from 1966 to 1967, Shelton was awarded the Bronze Star with valor and the Purple Heart. He was later there as a company commander and staff officer from 1969 to 1970. Shelton received a master's degree from Auburn University at Montgomery in 1973.
His later notable assignments included as commander of the 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, from 1979 to 1981; and the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, from 1983 to 1985. Shelton was the deputy director for the National Military Command Center and for current operations of the Joint Staff between 1987 and 1989. He later served in Saudi Arabia and Iraq while deployed for the Gulf War, during his time as assistant division commander for operations of the 101st Airborne Division. Shelton commanded the 82nd Airborne Division from 1991 until 1993, when he took command of the XVIII Airborne Corps until 1996. While serving as the corps commander, he led the Joint Task Force for Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994, which facilitated the removal of the military government in Haiti and the restoration of the country's elected president.
In 1996, Shelton was appointed as commander-in-chief of the United States Special Operations Command. He was nominated to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Bill Clinton in 1997. While serving in that role, in 1998 Shelton was involved in Operation Desert Fox against Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Operation Infinite Reach against al-Qaeda. He led the planning for the NATO intervention in the Kosovo War in 1999. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, Shelton spent the final weeks of his term coordinating efforts against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and developing the strategy for the war on terror. Shelton retired from the United States Army on 30 September 2001. He later served on the board of several organizations, and advised the John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign.
Early life, family and education Henry Hugh Shelton was born in Tarboro, North Carolina on 2 January 1942, and graduated from North Edgecombe High School in 1959. Shelton attended North Carolina State University, and was a member of Pershing Rifles. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in textile engineering in June 1963 while earning his United States Army commission through Reserve Officers' Training Corps training. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in the Army Reserve.
Shelton's further education includes a Master of Science degree in political science from Auburn University at Montgomery in 1973 as well as studies at the Air Command and Staff College from August 1972 to June 1973 and the National War College from June 1982 to June 1983. Shelton married Carolyn L. Johnson in 1963; the pair have three sons together.
Early military career
As a second lieutenant Shelton spent two years at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a platoon leader with the 2nd Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. While there, he also completed Ranger School and Airborne School, and was promoted to first lieutenant. Being a reservist, Shelton briefly returned to civilian life in July 1965, but decided that he liked the Army, and applied for active duty in the Regular Army in 1966. Shelton served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War with the 5th Special Forces Group, and with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
After completing Special Forces training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Shelton served in South Vietnam from September 1966 to December 1967. He was stationed along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to prevent Viet Cong from entering the country through Laos. Promoted to captain in March 1967, starting in July he commanded Detachment A-104, 5th SFG, in Quang Ngai Province, where they worked with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces and local Montagnard tribesmen. Shelton was awarded a Bronze Star with valor for leading a successful counterattack against VC that ambushed a South Vietnamese patrol, and a Purple Heart after being wounded in the leg by a poisoned stake. Shelton then served at the US Army Training Center at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, before returning to South Vietnam in January 1969. Assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, he was initially an intelligence officer before commanding Company C, 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, and later serving as the acting battalion operations officer.
Shelton was stationed at Fort Benning from March 1970 to July 1972, initially to take the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, before becoming an instructor and operations officer in the Ranger Department. In 1973, he graduated from the Air Command and Staff College and Auburn University (both in Alabama), and then served in multiple assignments with the 25th Infantry Division at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. These included as a brigade adjutant and operations officer, deputy division adjutant, and infantry battalion executive officer (the latter in 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 2nd Brigade). He was promoted to major in February 1974. From June 1977 to April 1979, he served at the Army Military Personnel Center handling assignments for other majors. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in November 1978, Shelton then served as commander of 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis, Wash. In June 1981 he became the division assistant chief of staff for operations (G-3).
Senior military career
He attended the National War College in 1982 and 1983 before briefly serving on the Army Staff in the Pentagon from June 1983. Shelton was assigned to the Reserve Components Study Group in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. Promoted to colonel in October 1983, Shelton became the commander of the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg. In this role, he directed several combined arms task forces for overseas deployments, before becoming the chief of staff, 10th Mountain Division (Light), at Fort Drum, New York, in November 1985. Promoted to brigadier general in August 1988, Shelton served as deputy director of the National Military Command Center and then as the deputy director for operations of the Joint Staff, J-3, from July 1987 to July 1989.
He then began serving as assistant division commander for operations, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. That assignment included a seven-month deployment to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War, during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He led division forces in a helicopter assault inside Iraq. After returning to the US in May 1991, Shelton was assigned to command the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in his home state of North Carolina, and was promoted to major general in October.
In June 1993, he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of XVIII Airborne Corps. While serving as the corps commander, Shelton led the Joint Task Force responsible for Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. On 19 September 1994, Shelton arrived in Port-au-Prince with the first of the 15,000 American troops dispatched to the country, intending to meet with Haitian military leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cédras. Cédras had agreed to restore power to the elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a last-minute negotiation led by Jimmy Carter, and Shelton's mission turned from an invasion to ensuring a political transition. On 25 September, he and Cédras visited Cap-Haïtien, a city where US Marines got into a firefight that killed ten Haitians.
Shelton presided over a change of command ceremony of the Armed Forces of Haiti on 15 October 1994, where Cédras relinquished command to Jean-Claude Duperval, prior to leaving the country for exile and allowing Aristide's return. The civilian government of Haiti was restored, and Shelton returned to North Carolina as of early November 1994. The US troops that were deployed also worked on logistical and construction projects before handing over authority to the United Nations Mission in Haiti. On 29 February 1996, Shelton assumed the position of Commander-in-Chief of United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. He was promoted to the rank of general on 1 March. In that role, he oversaw the largest ever commitment of special operations forces during peacekeeping missions in the Balkans.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
On 17 July 1997, Shelton was nominated by President Bill Clinton to become the 14th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Shelton acknowledged that the US needed an exit strategy from Bosnia, where troops were deployed as peacekeepers. After the retirement of General John Shalikashvili, Shelton took office as chairman on 1 October 1997. He was the first chairman to have a background in special operations, which fit with Defense Secretary William Cohen's interest in unconventional warfare. Shelton took office amidst peacekeeping missions in the Balkans and counter-drug operations in Latin America.
Shelton oversaw Operation Infinite Reach in August 1998, airstrikes on an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. He claimed that the group had "been actively seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons for use against US citizens and our interests around the world." Also that year, he regularly met with Clinton to discuss the containment of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In November 1998, a bombing campaign was planned against Iraq but was called off at the last minute, with Shelton being told to cancel it by National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. In December 1998, they launched Operation Desert Fox, which consisted of 600 airstrikes on Iraqi targets over the course of four days, intended to weaken the Iraqi military.
Shelton led the planning of the NATO intervention in the Kosovo War in 1999. During the Incident at Pristina Airport in June, Shelton opposed the move by NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark, to have a confrontation with Russian troops that arrived in Kosovo. Not long after, a decision was made by Cohen and Shelton for Clark to retire from his post early. Shelton notified Clark by phone call, and told him that the Pentagon already decided on his replacement. In his memoir, Clark accused Shelton and Army chief of staff Dennis Reimer of undermining his efforts in Kosovo. Later Shelton coined the phrase "Dover test", testing the support for a war based on the reaction of the people after seeing American casualties returning at the Dover Air Force Base.
In October 1999, based on his recommendation, the United States Atlantic Command was replaced by the Joint Forces Command, to oversee the development of doctrine on the deployment of US-based forces overseas. In May 2000 he released "Joint Vision 2020: America's Military—Preparing for Tomorrow," which identified asymmetric threats as the largest near-term danger to the country, and advocated for the military to be transformed to dominate the full spectrum of future conflicts. When the new administration took office in January 2001, Shelton worked with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his vision of a rapidly reforming the military to meet 21st century challenges.