Retired Lieutenant General Eric Wendt served over thirty-four years of active-duty commissioned service, including four and a half years in the light infantry, followed by 30 years as a Special Forces Green Beret. During his time on active duty he served as the Principal Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary Leon Panetta; as the sole Deputy Commanding General (for both Operations and Support) for the 13,500 multinational troops from 17 countries in Regional Command-North in Afghanistan; as a Sub-Unified Theater Special Operations Commander (TSOC Commander), as the Commanding General of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School; as the Chief of Staff for the United States INDOPACOM; he also led an eight-country coalition as the three-star United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority; his final assignment on active duty was as the fifth Commander of NATO Special Operations Forces Command (NATO SOFCOM) before retiring from uniformed military service in 2021.  LTG (Ret.) Wendt commanded multiple separate organizations for 13 years at tactical, operational and strategic levels while participating in numerous peacetime training and combat operations throughout the globe. LTG (Ret.) Wendt received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and received his master’s degree in 1995 from the Naval Postgraduate School (he was in the third class of what today is the Defense Analysis program). Ten years later, he successfully completed a yearlong academic fellowship in the Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of Defense Analysis. In 2018 he was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Naval Postgraduate School.

LTG (Ret.) Wendt has published multiple articles, and today teaches Command and Leadership as a Professor of Practice at the Naval Postgraduate School in the Department of Defense Analysis. LTG (Ret.) Wendt brings significant guest speakers into his Command and Leadership courses who are strategic leaders from military, business, interagency, international and other fields, and he serves as the moderator when these guest speakers provide their “Fireside Chats” to the entire assembled Naval Postgraduate School student body. LTG (Ret.) Wendt speaks Arabic and Korean.  In 2023 he was inducted into the US Army ROTC National Hall of Fame, and was also one of four inducted into the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) Hall of Fame.  In addition to working today as a Professor of Practice at the Naval Postgraduate School, LTG (Ret.) Wendt also currently serves as one of two DOD Senior Mentors in Korea.  

PUBLICATIONS

Eric P. Wendt, “Strategic Counterinsurgency Modeling,” Senior Service College Fellowship Strategic Research Project, US Army War College (July 2005), pp. i-31

Eric P. Wendt, “Strategic Counterinsurgency Modeling,” Special Warfare, Vol 18, Issue 2, (September 2005): pp. 2-13

Eric P. Wendt, “The Green Beret Volckmann Program: Maximizing the Prevent Strategy,” Special Warfare, Vol 24, issue 3, (July 2011): pp. 10-16

Eric P. Wendt, “Comprehensive Defense: A Whole-of-Society Approach Via Irregular Forces,” Special Warfare, Vol 34, issue 2, (originally published June 2021, republished in DoD EarlyBird JAN 2022; republished again in The Drop Special Forces Association magazine in the summer 2023 issue).