{{Short description|United States Army major general|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Infobox military person | name = Robin L. Fontes | image = Robin L. Fontes (3).jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | nickname = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|1|18}} | birth_place = Washington, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | burial_place = | allegiance = United States | branch = United States Army | service_years = 1981–2020<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-l-fontes/|title=Robin Fontes - Linkedin|access-date=20 April 2021}}</ref> | rank = Major General | service_number = | unit = | commands = Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan<br/>Regional Command North | battles = War in Afghanistan | awards = {{nowrap|Defense Superior Service Medal (3)}}<br/>Legion of Merit<br/>Bronze Star Medal<ref>{{Cite web|title=Commander CSTC-A; Maj. Gen. Robin L. Fontes (USA)|website=Resolute Support Mission|url=https://rs.nato.int/about-us/leadership/combined-security-transition-command-afghanistan/cstca-commander.aspx|access-date=February 2, 2018|archive-date=January 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125135435/https://rs.nato.int/about-us/leadership/combined-security-transition-command-afghanistan/cstca-commander.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> | spouse = | relations = | other_work = }} '''Robin Louise Fontes'''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.westpointaog.org/page.aspx?pid=3390&reid=zLj7gpE6yiO9JmTXBHkWOA%3d%3d&bbsys=0&bbrt=0 |title=Robin Louise Fontes |website=West Point Association of Graduates |access-date=March 30, 2019}}</ref> (born January 18, 1964)<ref name=register>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqspAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Robin+Louise+Fontes%22 |title=Register of Graduates and Former Cadets, United States Military Academy |date=1989 |page=938 |publisher=Association of Graduates U.S.M.A. |location=West Point, New York |access-date=May 10, 2022}}</ref> is a retired United States Army major general who last served as deputy commanding general (operations) of the United States Army Cyber Command. In July 2017 she took command of Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan, becoming the highest-ranking female military officer in Afghanistan since the American invasion of that country in 2001. A mustang officer, Fontes was commissioned in 1986 and focused on Central Asia, eventually serving in Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India, including a few years in Afghanistan. She assumed her final position after the resignation of Michael Flynn from the Trump Administration ended her announced role as senior director for India, Pakistan and Central Asian Affairs on the United States National Security Council. In May 2022, Fontes joined Kronos Fusion Energy as a founding partner and board member in charge of International Expansion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robin Fontes |url=https://www.kronosfusionenergy.com/boardmembers/robin-fontes |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=KRONOS FUSION ENERGY |language=en}}</ref>
==Military career== ===Early career=== Born in the state of Washington<ref name=register/> and raised in Kuna, Idaho,<ref name=KIVI/> Fontes grew up in Treasure Valley and reports that she sought a military career ever since she was 12 years-old.<ref name=KIVI>{{cite web|title=The Army's highest ranking female officer in Afghanistan won't forget her Idaho roots|first=Don|last=Nelson|date=August 7, 2017|url=http://www.kivitv.com/news/the-armys-highest-ranking-female-officer-in-afghanistan-wont-forget-her-idaho-roots|website=KIVI-TV}}</ref> Enlisting in the United States Army Reserve in 1981, she graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Military Police Corps.<ref name="DVIDS"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/99th-congress/1038|title=PN1038 – Army; 99th Congress (1985–1986)|date=May 2, 1986|website=United States Congress}}</ref> She served as a platoon leader in Germany, later returning to West Point to serve as a company commander.<ref name="Princeton"/> While a first lieutenant, she wrote two articles for ''Military Police'', the official publication of her branch. The first article (in July 1988) was entitled "The 1987 BG Jeremiah P. Holland Award and the MP Company that Earned It." Her second (in June 1991) was called "MP Role in the Opening of the Berlin Wall."<ref>{{Cite web|page=68|title=Military Police Professional Bulletin Articles (1952–Present)|url=http://www.wood.army.mil/mpbulletin/pdfs/MP_Article_List.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221212854/http://www.wood.army.mil/mpbulletin/pdfs/MP_Article_List.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 21, 2016|publisher=Military Police Corps}}</ref> She was selected for the Foreign Area Officer program in 1993, resulting in her attendance at the Defense Language Institute, where she learned Russian.<ref name="Princeton">{{Cite web|title=Provincial Reconstruction Teams: Extending Afghan Government Influence Beyond Kabul|url=https://lisd.princeton.edu/events/provincial-reconstruction-teams-extending-afghan-government-influence-beyond-kabul|website=Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs}}</ref> She also learned Dari and Persian.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.army.mil/women/profiles/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306192211/http://www.army.mil/women/profiles/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 6, 2016|title=Women in the Army: Profiles: MAJOR GENERAL Robin L. Fontes|website=army.mil|access-date=April 17, 2018}}</ref> She would later also graduate from both the University of Washington (where she earned her master's degree in international studies) and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.<ref name="DVIDS">{{Cite web|date=July 7, 2011|first=Mike|last=Andriacco|title=RSC-N says farewell to former commander, welcomes new|url=https://www.dvidshub.net/news/73496/rsc-n-says-farewell-former-commander-welcomes-new|website=Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System}}</ref> In the late 1990s, Fontes served as a military liaison in Minsk. She spent a few years in Tajikistan serving first as a United States military representative and later as the United States Defense Attaché just as the Tajikistani Civil War was ending.<ref name="Princeton"/>{{sfn|Koontz|2008|p=459}}
===As a field grade officer=== After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Fontes served at United States Central Command J5 overseeing issues of political-military cooperation in Afghanistan.{{sfn|Koontz|2008|pp=176–177}} In June 2004, she was moved to Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan headquarters in Kabul and served under David Barno as the head of the CJ5 staff for political-military coordination. Her staff was responsible for keeping General Barno "on message", overseeing the policies impacting military operations, and performing liaison work with both the Afghan Ministry of Defense and United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.{{sfn|Koontz|2008|pp=454–455}} At the end of her first year in Afghanistan and following Karl Eikenberry's assumption of command from Barno, Fontes volunteered to lead the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Tarinkot.<ref name="college"/> Daniel Green, the political adviser for the PRT, reported that though some Soldiers at the PRT had initial concerns due to her gender, those worries were shortly put to rest.{{sfn|Green|2012|pp=79–80}} She had been active in engaging with the Afghan people. Green said that Fontes, then a lieutenant colonel, pitched in a few hundred dollars of her own money to host a lunch on the PRT for local Afghan leaders.{{sfn|Green|2012|p=101}} An article in ''Vanity Fair'' relates a story that she once refused to depart a meeting with Afghan elders in Chora District under threat of small arms fire, for fear of appearing weak in the face of the Taliban.<ref>{{Cite web|first=William|last=Langwiesche|author-link=William Langewiesche|date=February 2010|title=THE DISTANT EXECUTIONER|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/02/sniper-201002|website=Vanity Fair}}</ref> Green asserts that in early 2006, she survived the first suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in Urozgan Province due in part to the device's failure to detonate all of the mortar shells of which it was comprised.{{sfn|Green|2012|pp=144,161}} She departed Afghanistan in May 2006 to attend the US War College, graduating in 2007.{{sfn|Koontz|2008|p=453}}<ref name="college">{{cite press release|website=National War College|date=September 17, 2014|title=BG Robin L. Fontes, Class of 2007|url=http://www.nationalwarcollege.org/alumni-news/alumni-updates/item/361-bg-robin-l-fontes-class-of-2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816063155/http://www.nationalwarcollege.org/alumni-news/alumni-updates/item/361-bg-robin-l-fontes-class-of-2007|archive-date=August 16, 2017}}</ref> She had been promoted that year to colonel.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3bLOwbeOZYC&pg=PA740|title=Congressional Record|volume=152|date=January 2007|page=740|publisher=Government Publishing Office|isbn=9780160868245}}</ref> She was subsequently assigned as the chief of the American Security Assistance Office in Pakistan.<ref name="DVIDS"/> [[File:Mongolian ANA Trainers (6160691366).jpg|right|thumb|Fontes, while in command of Regional Command-North, awards a Mongolian General Purpose Force officer with the non-article 5 NATO medal for his service near Mazar-i-Sharif.]] In July 2011, Fontes began a one-year tour at Mazar-i-Sharif in charge of Regional Command North, the NATO command of occupation forces in Northern Afghanistan.<ref name="gender">{{Cite web|first=Philip Walter|last=Wellman|website=Stars and Stripes|date=November 25, 2017|title=Highest-ranking female officer in Afghanistan would rather talk about war than gender|url=https://www.stripes.com/news/highest-ranking-female-officer-in-afghanistan-would-rather-talk-about-war-than-gender-1.499430}}</ref> From 2012 to 2013, she was one of fifteen fellows at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.<ref>{{Cite web|title=WCFIA FELLOWS ALUMNI REUNION AND CONFERENCE, April 18–20, 2013; Searching for Balance in an Unstable World|url=http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/fellows/files/program_4.15.13.pdf|website=Harvard University}}</ref>
===Career as a general officer=== The United States Senate approved Fontes's promotion to brigadier general in 2014.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2014-06-25/html/CREC-2014-06-25-pt1-PgS4089-3.htm|journal=Congressional Record|volume=160|number=100|date=June 25, 2014|pages=S4089–S4092|publisher=Government Publishing Office|title=Executive Session Executive Calendar}}</ref> Following her 2014 graduation from the Defense Intelligence Agency's Joint Military Attaché School (where she was class leader), she was assigned as the United States Defense Attaché to India. She was the first American general officer sent to India since the 1960s. She was also the first woman to hold that position.<ref>{{Cite press release|title=Joint Military Attaché School graduates newest class, sends first general officer attaché to India in 50 years|website=Defense Intelligence Agency|date=December 10, 2014|url=http://www.dia.mil/News/Articles/Article-View/Article/567038/joint-military-attach-school-graduates-newest-class-sends-first-general-officer/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Blog: Fontes Assigned to U.S. Defense Attaché Office, India|date=November 25, 2014|url=http://www.afcea.org/content/?q=fontes-assigned-us-defense-attach%C3%A9-office-india|website=Signal magazine}}</ref>
In February 2017, then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn named Fontes, a colleague from his tenure as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to be the next senior director for India, Pakistan and Central Asian Affairs at United States National Security Council (NSC).<ref>{{Cite web|website=The Economic Times|title=Brigadier General Robin Fontes to head South Asia desk of US National Security Council|author=Press Trust of India|author-link=Press Trust of India|date=Feb 15, 2017|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/brigadier-general-robin-fontes-to-head-south-asia-desk-of-us-national-security-council/articleshow/57161025.cms}}</ref><ref>{{Cite press release|title=General Officer Assignments; Release No: NR-057-17|date=February 14, 2017|url=https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1083032/general-officer-assignments/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116081110/https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1083032/general-officer-assignments/|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 16, 2018|publisher=United States Department of Defense}}</ref> Anonymous sources within the Government of India told ''The Telegraph'' that they were hopeful Fontes's appointment in the White House would help convey New Delhi's concerns. Senior officials familiar with Fontes commented upon her understanding of India's security concerns vis-à-vis China and Pakistan; that she would be a friendly face among a Trump Administration cabinet mostly unknown to India.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Friendly face in Trump team|first=Charu Sudan|last=Kasturi|date=February 15, 2017|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170216/jsp/nation/story_136067.jsp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007232807/https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170216/jsp/nation/story_136067.jsp|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 7, 2017|website=The Telegraph}}</ref> With Flynn's subsequent ouster, Fontes's assignment to the NSC was cancelled and the position was filled by Lisa Curtis (a former CIA analyst and fellow at The Heritage Foundation) at the behest of Flynn's replacement, H. R. McMaster.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Josh|last=Rogin|title=McMaster staffing NSC with traditional GOP foreign policy hands|date=April 4, 2017|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/04/04/mcmaster-staffing-nsc-with-traditional-gop-foreign-policy-hands/|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|website=Dawn|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1325413|title=Changes in White House to increase pressure on Pakistan|first=Anwar|last=Iqbal|date=April 7, 2017}}</ref>
In July 2017, Fontes took command of Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan, replacing Richard Kaiser. Concurrently, she also served as a deputy chief of staff in charge of security assistance for the Resolute Support Mission.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Samim|last=Faramarz|title=Afghan Officials Commend Outgoing RS Commander|website=TOLO News|url=http://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/afghan-officials-commend-outgoing-rs-commander}}</ref> Fontes was the highest-ranking female military officer in Afghanistan during the American occupation of that country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/new-commander-is-highest-ranking-female-officer-in-afghanistan-since-war-began-1.478193#.WWu_X_krI1K|first=Phillip Walter|last=Wellman|website=Stars & Stripes|date=July 15, 2017|title=New commander is highest ranking female officer in Afghanistan since war began|quote=Army Maj. Gen. Robin Fontes on Saturday assumed the highest position of any female servicemember in Afghanistan since the war began}}</ref> Asked in November 2017 about her assignment, Fontes replied to ''Stars and Stripes'' that she hoped the public would judge her performance as an Army officer regardless of her gender. Despite the flood of negative comments ''Stars and Stripes'' reported they received in response to her appointment to CSTC-A, Fontes stated that she was not surprised. She said "if I worried about that, I wouldn't have time to do anything else."<ref name="gender"/>
As of June 8, 2019 Fontes served as senior defense official and defense attaché, United States Defense Attaché Office, India. On June 9, 2019, Fontes was named as senior defense official and defense attaché, United States Defense Attaché Office, Egypt.<ref>[https://officerassignments.com/general-officer-assignments-2019/ Release No: NR-163-19 (June 9, 2019) The chief of staff, Army announces the following officer assignment] Maj. Gen. Robin L. Fontes</ref> In December 2019, her next assignment was instead changed to Deputy Commanding General for Operations, United States Army Cyber Command.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2044297/general-officer-assignments/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229164840/https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2044297/general-officer-assignments/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 29, 2019 |date=December 19, 2019 |title=General Officer Assignments |access-date=December 29, 2019}}</ref>
Fontes is a founding lifetime member of the Foreign Area Officer Association.<ref>{{Cite journal|page=22|url=http://www.faoa.org/resources/Documents/pub2.pdf|journal=F.A.O. Journal|volume=1|issue=2|date=March 1997|title=The FAO Association salutes its founding lifetime members}}</ref> She retired to Lowman, Idaho at the end of her military career.<ref name=KIVI/>
==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{commons category}} *{{cite book|title=The Valley's Edge: A Year with the Pashtuns in the Heartland of the Taliban|first=Daniel R.|last=Green|publisher=Potomac Books|year=2012|isbn=9781597978644|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlrNJoxYgBgC}} *{{Cite book|title=Enduring voices: Oral Histories of the U.S. Army Experience in Afghanistan, 2003–2005|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=9780160872334|url=http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/enduring_voices/CMH_70-112-1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608152833/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/enduring_voices/CMH_70-112-1.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 8, 2010|editor-first=Christopher N.|editor-last=Koontz|year=2008}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Richard G. Kaiser}} {{s-ttl|title=Commander of the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan|years=2018–2018}} {{s-aft|after=James Rainey}} {{s-bef|before=Jeth B. Rey}} {{s-ttl|title=Deputy Commanding General for Operations of the United States Army Cyber Command|years=2019–2020}} {{s-aft|after=Paul T. Stanton}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontes, Robin Louise}} Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:People from Ada County, Idaho Category:United States Army reservists Category:United States Military Academy alumni Category:Defense Language Institute alumni Category:University of Washington alumni Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Female generals of the United States Army Category:Recipients of the Defense Superior Service Medal Category:United States military attachés Category:21st-century American women