Unconventional officer flourishes in Afghan war

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Lt. Col. Thomas B. Gukeisen, center, talks to his men at the Altimur Forward Operating Base in Logar province, Afghanistan. Gukeisen, commands 600 soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry.


Unconventional officer flourishes in Afghan war
By Denis D. Gray - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Dec 20, 2009 10:40:30 EST

ALTIMUR, Afghanistan — You may wonder how Thomas Gukeisen made it to lieutenant colonel, and by age 39 at that. He breaks Army rules and operates by his own rendition of counterinsurgency warfare whose arsenal includes Afghan poetry, chaos theory and the thoughts of a 17th-century English philosopher.

A towering, rough-and-ready 205-pounder, the officer from Carthage, New York peppers his sentences with unprintables and reads Karl von Clausewitz’s classic on war in the original German.

But the high-ups seem to like what they see. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who commands U.S. forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq, has visited his sector, as have Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry.

Substantial resources have flowed into Gukeisen’s hands, including $850,000 in small bills for such jobs as building schools and putting carpets in the mosques of Afghans who turn against the Taliban.

Col. David B. Haight, Gukeisen’s superior, calls him one of the brightest officers he has met.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_gukeisen_afghanistan_122009/