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Have Lunch with a National Hero

Enjoy lunch (for you and two guests) with distinguished retired U.S. Army General Montgomery Meigs, who has commanded U.S. and NATO forces overseas, served as an NBC military analyst, and is now President and CEO of Business Executives for National Security. Here is your chance to ask the General about his illustrious career as well as questions concerning our nation's defense challenges in the 21st Century, while having lunch with him at the prestigious, members-only, Army and Navy Club in the heart of Washington, DC.

Previously, General Meigs was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He taught courses on defense challenges in the 21st century and on American strategic practice, and conducted research on decision making in national security and on the process of disruptive technological innovation in defense affairs.

From 2006-2008, General Meigs was the director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he assisted combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan in countering Improvised Explosive Devices.

During a 35-year career in the U.S. Army, General Meigs served as Commander, U.S. Army Europe (1998-2002). For the first year of that assignment, he also served as Commander of SFOR, NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia. He also led the 1st Infantry Division in its deployment enforcing the Arms Center and Commandant of the Army's Staff College (1997-1998). He also commanded the Iron Brigade of the 1st Armored Division in Operation Desert Storm and served as a Senior Strategic Planner for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon (1987-1990) with responsibility for the National War Plan.

Following his retirement in 2003, General Meigs taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, as the Tom Slick Visiting Professor of World Peace. He was later the Louis A. Battle Chair of Business and Government Policy at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

He is the author of "Slide Rules and Submarines: American Scientists and Subsurface Warfare in World War II" (National Defense University Press, 2002). He has also written articles and editorials on military operations and strategy, including "Unorthodox Thoughts about Asymmetric Warfare," Parameters, Vol. 33, no.2 (Spring 2003). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

General Meigs has lectured at a number of academic institutions, including the Royal Uniformed Services Institute, the Russian Army's Combined Arms Academy, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

General Meigs' decorations include the Department of Defense's Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Bronze Star with "V" Device, and the Purple Heart.

He received a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Military Academy and a master's degree and a doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.