COL Chad Foster

COL Chad R. Foster is the deputy commandant for operations at the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York.

The Chattanooga, Tennessee, native graduated from USMA in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in European history and commissioned as an armor officer. Prior to his USMA assignment, he served as the chief of staff, III Armored Corps at Fort Cavazos, Texas. He has commanded at all levels from captain through colonel with multiple combat, operational and training deployments to the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe.

Foster has served on the Army staff and completed an assignment with the Joint Staff. As a major, he was the armor colonel's assignment officer in Colonels Management (COMO). Later, he served as the chief of staff of the newly established Commanders Assessment Program. While on the Joint Staff, Foster was selected to serve for a year as the deputy director of operations for Operations Team 4 in the J3.

His current assignment as the deputy commandant is his second tour of duty at West Point. Previously, he was a member of the Department of Military Instruction, where he served as the course director of MS300. In this capacity, Foster oversaw the course’s redesign and transition to an emphasis on decision-making and small unit tactics using tactical decision exercises as the primary instruction tool. During this time, he also served as the officer in charge of the Tactics Club and as an officer representative for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams.

Over the past 25 years, Foster has written several articles on organizational leadership, contemporary operational challenges, leader development, training, and various other topics for Parameters and Military Review as well as various branch journals. Notably, he authored three chapters for two anthologies on Mission Command entitled “Training and Leadership for Mission Command,” “Tactical Decision Exercises,” and “The Liability of Emotional Leadership.”

Foster began his time as a cadet in company D-1 before scrambling at the end of his second year to company A-3.