During his 37 years in the U.S. Army, Jack Keane earned four stars. Beginning his career as a paratrooper in Vietnam, he rose to command both the 101st Airborne Division and the XVIII Airborne Corps. In his final post he served as the Army’s vice chief of staff. Gen. Keane retired from active duty in 2003. In 2006, he and military historian Frederick Kagan helped to develop a new approach to the Iraq War which would become known as “the surge.” In 2007, Gen. Keane served as an informal advisor to his Army colleague Gen. David Petraeus, as Petraeus put the surge into effect.