By Ann Roosevelt
President-elect Barack Obama announced Tuesday that former Army Secretary Louis Caldera will serve as Director of the White House Military Office.
“Louis has served his country with distinction in uniform and in government, and his pedigree is second-to-none. I know he’ll bring to the White House the same dedication and integrity that have earned him the highest praise in every post, from Secretary of the Army to university president,” Obama said.
The White House Military Office supports the president through units such as all military operations aboard Air Force One, the White House Communications Agency, Presidential Airlift Group, White House Medical Unit, Camp David, Marine Helicopter Squadron One, Presidential Food Service and the White House Transportation Agency. The office provides essential service to the president and help assure the continuity of the presidency.
Caldera, a West Point graduate with law and business degrees from Harvard University, has had a distinguished 30-year career as a soldier, lawyer, legislator, government official, university president and professor of law.
From 1998 to 2001, he served as the nation’s 17th Secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration. With Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, he set the vision for a more versatile and highly deployable force that included what has become the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
Caldera also reversed recruiting shortfalls and initiated the “Army of One” advertising program stressing active, reserve and guard troops were all part of the same Army.
In 1992, Caldera was elected to the California State Assembly, and later served in the Clinton administration. From 1997 to 1998, Caldera was managing director and chief operating officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Caldera has served as a vice chancellor for the California State University system and president of the University of New Mexico, after which he joined the faculty of the UNM School of Law as a tenured professor. Caldera is a member of the Board of Trustees of Claremont McKenna College and of The National World War II Museum, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.