Lieutenant General Potter, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Visits Milford High School JROTC Program

Milford Schools was honored to welcome Lieutenant General Laura A. Potter, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, to Milford High School this morning to meet with Milford and Live Oaks JROTC students. General Potter started the conversation by praising the students for being members of the JROTC program, indicating that because of their involvement she knew four important things about them already:

•       They are part of a team bigger than themselves, 
•       Are living their school’s values, 
•       Value their education, and 
•       Are physically fit.

General Potter shared the story of her career (see biography, below), emphasizing the value the U.S. Army places on both formal and informal education and ongoing learning. She also stressed that nearly all civilian occupations could be found in the Army and answered student questions about possible career options and paths.

General Potter was generous with her time and thoughtfully answered each question, including when one student asked, “Why visit Milford?”

The answer: “I love Ohio. We enlist a lot of men and women from here.” The General added, “It’s important to thank school leaders. It means a lot to have a supportive…principal and superintendent.” She also shared that she had learned from her officers how talented the students in the Milford Jr. ROTC program are and wanted to meet them, adding that she hopes someday, “to see a bunch of these faces in news stories leading platoons across the Army.”

Lieutenant General Laura A. Potter Biography
Headquarters, Department of the Army
Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, G-2

Lieutenant General Laura Potter became the US Army’s 47th Deputy Chief of Staff of Intelligence, G-2 in September 2020. She is the senior advisor to the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army for all aspects of Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Security, and responsible for the training, equipping, policy and oversight of an Army Intelligence and Security Enterprise of more than 58,000 soldiers and civilians. Before this assignment, she was the Commanding General and Commandant of the US Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca.

A career intelligence officer, Lieutenant General Potter served in a number of command, staff, and operational assignments. Her command and staff assignments include Commander, Allied Command Counterintelligence/650th Military Intelligence Group (Counterintelligence), Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Belgium; and Commander, 743d Military Intelligence Battalion, US Army Intelligence and Security Command, Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado. She also served as the Director of Intelligence, J-2, of the US European Command, and as the Military Assistant and Executive Offers to the Secretary of the Army. Other key intelligence assignments include service in Korea and Germany.

Her operational assignments include United National Military Observer, United National Observer Mission, Republic of Georgia; Deputy Commander 205th Military Intelligence Brigade during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and Commander, Theater Intelligence Group, Combined Joint Interagency Task Force -435, International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lieutenant General Potter was raised in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. She earned her commission in the Military Intelligence Corps as is a Distinguished Military Graduate of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Russian and Spanish. She holds a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies and a Master’s Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. 

Lieutenant General is married to Randy, a retired Soldier, and they have two sons.