Ricardo Sanchez

Ricardo S. Sanchez (1953-) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army, whose last assignment was the "dual hat" command of V Corps and what, at the time, was the senior headquarters of U.S. forces in Iraq. Originally, that headquarters was Combined Joint Task Force 7, built from the assets of V Corps, but was converted to Multi-National Corps-Iraq. While he had been under active consideration for promotion to full general to head United States Southern Command, the nomination was not made due to his association with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, which became public under his command.

Iraq command
He took command of V Corps on 14 June 2003, and left on 6 September 2006. At the time of his appointment, he was the junior lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. While he certainly had had counterinsurgency experience, he was going into the arguably most sensitive three-star job in the Army.

General officer assignments
On 10 July 2001, General Sanchez became commanding general of V Corps' 1st Armored Division, then in Germany.

After the Gulf War, he became a [[brigadier generSanchez was promoted to Brigadier General in charge of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. Afterwards, he served in various duties as deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Southern Command and then as U.S. Southern Command's director of operations.

Gulf War
He commanded 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor, in the Gulf War, which attacked into Iraq on 24 February 1991.

Early career
His first assignment, in 1973, was as a headquarters tank section leader in an infantry battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division.

By 1977, he was transferred to Armor.

Early life and education
Born in poverty Rio Grande City, Texas, he joined the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in high school, seeing the military as a step upwards. Spanish was his first language. A guidance counselor discouraged him from applying to the United States Military Academy.

While he was an alternate to both West Point and Annapolis, he did recive four-year ROTC scholarships from both the Army and Air Force. Still in high school, he visited the University of Texas at Austin campus, he had thought of becoming an Air Force pilot, but found himself ignored by the Air Force faculty yet warmly greeted by the Army.

After talking with a friend in the smaller ROTC program at Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville), he transferred there, graduating in 1973 with a double major in math and history.

He is a graduate of the Army War College, Naval Postgraduate School (operations research and systems engineering), Command and General Staff Colleg, and Armor Officers course.