Michael Barbero

Lieutenant General Michael D. Barbero was Director, Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. He was responsible for leading the Defense Department’s actions to rapidly provide counter-IED capabilities in support of combatant commanders, military services and other federal agencies to enable the defeat of the IED as a weapon of strategic influence.

He was commissioned in the infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976. As an infantry officer, Lieutenant General Barbero served in a variety of tactical assignments in mechanized, light and air assault infantry units. He has served in the 1st Cavalry Division, 2d Infantry Division, two tours in the 101st Airborne Division, the 7th Infantry Division, the 10th Mountain Division and the 4th Infantry Division.

In addition to infantry assignments at the tactical level, he has commanded at every grade, from lieutenant colonel to lieutenant general. He commanded the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry Battalion in the 101st Airborne Division and the 2d Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. As a brigadier general, he commanded one of the Army’s combat training centers, the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, Louisiana. As a major general, he commanded the United States Army Infantry Center and Fort Benning, Georgia. Immediately prior to joining JIEDDO, he commanded the Multi-National Security Transition Command–Iraq and NATO Training Mission–Iraq.

Other staff assignments include service as the executive assistant to the commander of Joint Forces Command/Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, the Deputy Director for Regional Operations on the Joint Staff and the Chief of Staff, III Corps and Fort Hood, Texas.

Lieutenant General Barbero has served nearly four years in Iraq over three separate tours. During the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom, from 2003 to 2004, he served as the assistant division commander of the 4th Infantry Division. He next served in Iraq as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategic Operations at MultiNational Force–Iraq during “the surge” in 2007 and 2008. Finally, during his most recent deployment, from 2009 to January 2011, he was responsible for the training, equipping and development of all Iraqi security forces and building the ministerial capabilities of both the Ministries of Interior and Defense, while serving simultaneously as the Commander of Multi-National Security and Transition Command–Iraq and the Commander of the NATO Training Mission–Iraq.

He also deployed to Panama and participated in Operation Just Cause in December 1989.

Lieutenant General Barbero holds a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the National Defense University, Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the Army’s Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies Program. His awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal (oak leaf cluster). He has also earned the Expert Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Ranger Tab, Australian Jump Wings and both the Army Staff and Joint Staff Identification Badges.