Profile: General Tommy Franks

57-year-old General Tommy Franks, Vietnam veteran and much-decorated former artillery officer, is the US military commander leading the invasion of Iraq. The commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command favors a conventional military campaign. Although Franks was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, he grew up in Midland, Texas -- the town where the Bush clan began building their oil fortune. After attending the same high school as first lady Laura Bush, he dropped out of the University of Texas in 1965 but went on to enjoy a textbook military career -- which has now led him to Doha, Qatar, the nerve center of the US-led military campaign. Responsible for U.S. military operations in 25 countries from Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, the commander in chief of Central Command is now directing the strike on Iraq.

The Texas Connection

Franks joined the Army in 1967 as a junior artillery officer and served briefly in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times. He left the armed forces to get a degree in business administration in 1971 from the University of Texas, Arlington, and returned to serve in Germany, then at the Pentagon in 1976, and in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War. Along the way, he was awarded three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.

As well as the Texas connection, straight-talking Franks shares a similar set of values to the Bush family, saying "My faith in God is important, my belief in my country is important, my relationship to my family is important, the things that Mom and Dad tell you growing up are important."

Old-style ground warfare or high-tech weaponry?

Unlike some top generals in the Pentagon, Franks has not resisted President Bush’s push towards war in Iraq. But he has repeatedly clashed with Donald Rumsfeld when it comes to tactics.

Frequently accused by Rumsfeld of being unimaginative and overcautious, he has a folksy, down-to-earth attitude which is always realistic. Among many top military men, Franks has won a grudging respect for standing up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on war plans for Iraq.

Rumsfeld, impatient with what he sees as old-style, cumbersome infantry and artillery, envisages attacking Iraq with the same high-tech mixture of assault from outer space and elite forces used in the Afghan war.

Franks favors a massive, simultaneous, conventional ground invasion – a strategy which has met with presidential approval. Right now, the battle plan seems to consist of both ground troops to suit Franks, and major use of air power and special forces troops to suit Rumsfeld

"Tommy Franks is no Norman Schwarzkopf"

Franks plays down comparisons to his predecessor in the 1991 war on Iraq, media darling Stormin' Norman, and once told reporters at a Pentagon briefing "Tommy Franks is no Norman Schwarzkopf." The general is notoriously press-shy -- and usually happy to let Rumsfeld do the talking. He was catapulted into the public eye when he was ordered on September 12, 2001 to go after Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Although both the president and the defense secretary were initially impatient with the war's progress, it was his handling of the campaign that helped Franks gain their full confidence.

Franks and Rumsfeld have put their differences behind them. A current investigation by the Pentagon into claims of Franks' possible abuses of office has prompted the defense secretary to emphasize at press conferences that "(Franks) has my full trust and respect, and I know he has the trust and respect of the President of the United States." He may be a man who shuns the spotlight, but at this point, the commander known to be a "soldier's soldier" looks like he has all the makings of an American war hero.