Lieutenant General (Ret.) Clarence McKnight
Former Director - Command, Control, and Communications, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US
Biography
Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight, USA (Ret.), headed both tactical and strategic communications commands before becoming deputy commandant and commandant of the Signal Training Centre and commanding general of Fort Gordon in 1976. After eighteen months, he became the first three-star commander of the Army Communications Command, Fort Huachuca, with more than 33,000 soldiers and civilians spread throughout fourteen countries. At Fort Gordon, he witnessed the merger of tactical and strategic communications.Also at the Signal Centre, Gen. McKnight was appalled to find many soldiers lacking mathematical and reading skills. The self-paced curriculum mandated remedial study. His next assignment was commander, 5th Signal Command in Europe and deputy chief of staff for communications-electronics, U.S. Army Europe. Again, he witnessed the merging of tactical and strategic equipment. SINCGARS was in the pipeline and MSE was in source selection. He became the J-6, director of command, control and communications in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Army was moving toward the regimental system, and Gen. McKnight strongly supported the concept, making the Signal Corps a single regiment. He was inducted in 1990 as a distinguished member of the Signal Regiment.
Clarence McKnight graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1952. He retired in 1987 as a U.S. Army Lieutenant General.
"Global Networks - Enablers for Soft and Smart Power"
A Lecture by Lt. General Clarence McKnight, Retired U.S. Army General; Former Director - Command, Control, and Communications, US Joint Chiefs of StaffThe International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in the USA 2012
"A Global Dialogue about Cultural Diplomacy, National Security and Global Risks"
