Stanley McChrystal to speak in Indian Wells tonight
Stanley McChrystal, the former U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, and six other retired generals will speak in Indian Wells tonight.
The generals will discuss leadership with students from 15 local schools before McChrystal’s 6 p.m. keynote speech at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa. McChrystal’s speech will close out the 2013 Desert Town Hall speaker series.
McChrystal, former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, will give a talk titled “CrossLead: Lessons on Leadership from a Warrior, Statesman and scholar.”
He was commander of the Joint Special Operations Command in the Middle East from 2003 to 2008. He became the top commander in Afghanistan in 2009 and resigned the next year following the publication in Rolling Stone magazine of unflattering remarks about administration officials attributed to him and other members of his staff.
The other speakers are Lt. Gen. Herb Temple, Maj. Gen. Ken Bouldin, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Miles, Maj. Gen. John Bianchi, Brigadier Gen. Guido Portante Jr. and Maj. Gen. Phil Kaplan.
Temple worked at the Pentagon. Bouldin commanded Army Reserve forces during Desert Storm. Miles was a fighter pilot in Vietnam and a military adviser to the Shah of Iran.
Bianchi helped deploy troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Portante worked with other government agencies to stop drugs from crossing the California-Mexico border.
Kaplan served in Korea and Vietnam and worked in the headquarters of the U.S. European Command.
Previous speakers at Desert Town Hall have included health expert Sanjay Gupta, Newsweek editor Tina Brown and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Tickets are $325 for a reserved seat with dinner, $150 for a reserved seat, and $75 for an unreserved seat. For more information and tickets, call (760) 610-2852 or go to http://www.deserttownhall.org.
