Antonio Taguba - Military Career

Military Career

Taguba was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1972. He served in South Korea in the 1st Battalion, 72d Armor, 2nd Infantry Division, Eighth Army.

At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Taguba commanded the Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Staff and Faculty Battalion, Field Artillery School/Center. He then served for three years in Germany, commanding a tank company in a mechanized infantry division at Mainz (Company B, 4th Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment).

Back in Korea, Taguba commanded the 1st Battalion, 72nd Armored Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Casey; and was the executive officer of the Republic of Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command in Yongsan.

At the Pentagon he served as a Material System Analyst, Office of the Chief of Staff, Army. At Fort Hood, Texas, he commanded the "St. Lo," 2d Brigade, 2nd Armored Division; when the brigade was transferred to the 4th Infantry Division, Colonel Taguba assumed command of the "Warhorse," 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division from June 1995 until he ended command in June 1997.

At Fort McPherson, Georgia, Taguba was chief of staff of the United States Army Reserve Command (USARC). At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was assistant divisional commander-forward of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and Deputy Commanding General (South), First U.S. Army.

At Alexandria, Virginia, Colonel Taguba was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the United States Army Community and Family Support Center.

Major General Taguba served for ten months as deputy commanding general for support of the Third United States Army, U.S. Army Forces Central Command, Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC), based in Kuwait. Earlier, he was at the Pentagon as acting director of the Army Staff, Headquarters, Department of the Army, under General Eric K. Shinseki.

In 2004, Taguba was assigned to report on abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In May of that year, he published an extremely critical report that was leaked to the public. Later that month, Major General Taguba was reassigned to the Pentagon to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness, training and mobilization in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Describing his thoughts upon being informed by John Abizaid a few weeks after the leak that he and his report would be investigated, Taguba said "I’d been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."

In January 2006, General Richard A. Cody, the Army's Vice-Chief of Staff, instructed Taguba to retire by the following January. No official explanation was given; Taguba himself believes his forced retirement was ordered by civilian Pentagon officials in retaliation for his report on abuse of prisoners. Taguba's retirement, effective January 1, 2007, ended a 34-year career of military service.