Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Visits Beirut
Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Admiral Eric Olson arrived in Lebanon from Iraq on the head of an 8-member delegation, the National News Agency reported on Monday.
He was received at the airport by the U.S. Embassy military attache.
Olson is the first Navy SEAL ever to be appointed to the grade of a three-star and four-star admiral as well as the first naval officer to be USSOCOM”s combatant commander. Olson is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. He participated in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.
In 1994 he became commander of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, an American counter-terrorism unit. Olson was promoted again in 1999 when he assumed command of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado California. He assumed his current assignment on 9 July 2007.