General Wayne Downing served in a variety of command assignments in infantry, armored, special operations, and joint units, culminating in his appointment as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command. He served two combat tours in Vietnam as a junior infantry officer. As a general officer, he commanded the special operations of all services during the 1989 invasion of Panama and commanded a joint special operations task force operating deep behind the Iraqi lines during Operation DESERT STORM. General Downing’s remarkable top to bottom transformation of Special Ops is profiled in the best-selling book The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level by Noel Tichy.

Following retirement, General Downing was appointed by the President to assess the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. base at KhobarTowers in Saudi Arabia, and to make recommendations on how to protect Americans and U.S. facilities worldwide from terrorist attack.