Our fifth recipient, Lieutenant General George Smith Jr., completed the AMP at Harvard Business School in October 2013.  George is currently serving as the Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, CA.  His previous two assignments were in the Pentagon where he served consecutively as the Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and as the Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations, Headquarters, Marine Corps.  As a General Officer, he has also served as Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, U.S. Central Command in Tampa, FL; Director of Manpower Plans and Policy Division, Headquarters Marine Corps; Deputy Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, VA; Deputy Commanding General, Regional Command Southwest in Helmand Province, Afghanistan; and the Commanding General, Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command/Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, CA.  An infantry officer, George has served in a number of infantry and reconnaissance units throughout the Marine Corps.  In 2002-2003, George served as the lead planner for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force for the initial invasion of Iraq.  He made two subsequent deployments to Iraq while commanding 1st Force Reconnaissance Company from July 2004 to October 2006.  George next served as the Commanding Officer, The Basic School in Quantico, VA, from 2007-2010, followed by assignment as the Military Secretary to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.  George was commissioned through the NROTC program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985.  He graduated with honors from The Basic School, the U.S. Army Infantry Officer Advanced Course, Marine Corps Command and Staff College, School of Advanced Warfighting (General Clifton B. Cates Award recipient), and the Marine Corps War College, where he earned a MA in Strategic Studies and was awarded First Place in the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Essay Contest for his essay entitled, “Avoiding a Napoleonic Ulcer: Bridging the Gap of Cultural Intelligence.”  George has three children.