The storied career of David H. Petraeus

On the march to Baghdad in 2003, back when many Americans expected the Iraq war to last weeks and not years, a little-known two-star Army general named David H. Petraeus posed a question to a reporter accompanying him that would come to define the grueling U.S. combat mission there: “Tell me how this ends.”

Before long, it was a query that many began to pose about Petraeus himself. After refashioning the military’s strategy for fighting insurgencies, after picking up his third and fourth stars, after overseeing the troop surge in Iraq and running the U.S. Central Command, and after taking charge of the war in Afghanistan, Washington buzzed with speculation of his next move. Would he run for president? The questions continued even after President Obama appointed him CIA director. Would he be Mitt Romney’s running mate? Nothing, it seemed, was out of reach for America’s most-famous living general.

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David Petraeus has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he had an extramarital affair. According to his letter of resignation, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign. T he president accepted on Friday.

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Now, we know how it ends for Petraeus.

His resignation Friday as CIA director because of an acknowledged extramarital affair aborts an almost four-decade-long career in public service defined by boundless ambition, political savvy and strategic acumen. And it almost certainly tarnishes the legacy of a man seen by many as the nation’s preeminent military leader in the post-Sept. 11 world, a commander who turned around the failing Iraq war and dealt the Taliban a bloody punch in Afghanistan.

He falls from a self-built pedestal that was based on more than battlefield heroics. As a general, his principal message to the troops under his command was not just about military tactics and high-concept strategy. He preached individual leadership above all else, often telling his charges that character meant doing the right thing when nobody was watching.

For Petraeus, a compact man with seemingly limitless energy, the race to the top began early.

Petraeus grew up outside the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which he entered as a cadet in July 1970. “A striver to the max, Dave was always ‘going for it’ in sports, academics, leadership, and even his social life,” the West Point yearbook noted in 1974. A month after he graduated, he married Holly Knowlton, the daughter of the academy’s then-superintendent.

Petraeus quickly made a mark as a young officer, earning awards in almost every assignment. He received all three prizes awarded in his class at Ranger School, perhaps the Army’s toughest physical challenge.

Unlike most of his peers, he adroitly pursued opportunities that were not always the most exciting but would come to help him later. He chose to serve as an aide to four-star generals, carrying their bags and cultivating valuable friendships. He also carved out time for advanced education, culminating in a doctorate from Princeton University.

Two accidents almost ended his career. In 1991, he was shot in the chest with an M-16 rifle when a soldier tripped during a training exercise. While skydiving in 2000, his parachute collapsed while he was 60 feet off the ground; the impact shattered his pelvis.