General Carl Steiner is not only a man of
honor, he is a decorated American hero.
I never sought out anything.
I just took what they gave me and
did it to the best of my ability.
His love of country dates
back to childhood at age 6.
General Steiner vividly
remembers watching neighborhood boys
answer the call during World War Two.
Out from the farms across the fields to
this road and they were going off to war
and his hometown. It was God and
country and farming was a way of life.
We worked six days a week from
about shut up until sundown.
I thought I would have made a good
first Sergeant. His father only
had an eighth grade education so
college was a priority for his
son's boy. Get an education
or don't come home at then
Tennessee Polytechnic. He majored in
animal Husbandry and agriculture.
Was it thought I might
want to be a veterinarian?
One of these days he coupled
his studies with ROTC.
On graduation day,
Steiner was commissioned second
Lieutenant in order to Fort Benning,
Georgia that night.
General Steiner's next 35 years of
service to the army are incredibly
impressive and impossible to
respectfully chronicle in a few
minutes from tours in Korea,
Vietnam and Lebanon to special
assignments in the Middle East.
I met Yasser Arafat,
the Pentagon and his military
advisor to former Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
We would go around and visit the 22
moderate Arab nations within the region.
Trying to find yet their support to end
all the bloodshed that was taken place.
General Steiner not only
rose through the ranks,
he became a special OPS architect and
spearheaded key covert missions in 1985,
Palestinian terrorist hijacked
cruise ship Achille Lauro and
killed American Leon, Klinghoffer,
Steiner and his special
forces responded immediately.
Necessarily where I dropped
off a contingent of Navy seals
and two little bird gunships,
we forced them down with the help of
the Sixth Fleet Sigonella, Sicily.
That's where we captured the terrorist
and rescued the hostages,
including Klinghoffer's wife.
That was a two star at that time, an 89.
His expertise and team were needed in Panama,
the target leader, Manuel Noriega,
was struck at night. We came from 16
bases here in the United States and
captured Noriega. This was the
final jump, mission accomplished
and then after that I got
promoted to my 4th star
and General Steiner took command of
all military special operations forces.
Our losses have been significant
because they are at the point of the
spear and every dangerous situation
in 93 through new legislation,
Congress forced the general and other top
military leaders into early retirement.
Based on ages and number of years served,
they didn't realize the impact that that
law would have on the military leadership.
So General Steiner was called
back as a senior mentor
and it's a great opportunity to have an
influence on the younger leaders coming up
his book with Tom Clancy.
Shadow Warrior is a tribute to
the military's Special forces
war. Never write a book because
we didn't keep any notes.
Everything we did was classified.
And like his career, his wife,
Sue was incredibly supportive.
She even typed out his thoughts,
which became manuscript
that's the best decision that I ever made.
And that includes 26 moves and two
daughters. He calls exceptional.
Well, I get up at 5:30 every
morning, still regimented.
The general is home after 40 years.
Thanks your change, but some things haven't
changed. Most days you'll
find General Steiner
back on the farm.
I enjoy it. You can do a lot of thinking
out there. General Coral Steiner
born in Lafollette, beautiful
place home grown in Tennessee.