Christopher G. Cavoli

Post

Service

Christopher G. Cavoli was born in Würzburg, Germany, where his father, an Italian immigrant, was serving as a United States Army officer. He said so in written answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee. He graduated from Princeton University in 1987 with a degree in biology and was commissioned into the infantry through the university ROTC programme. He later earned a master of arts in Russian and East European studies at Yale. The Department of War lists him as a Eurasia foreign area officer who speaks Italian, Russian, and French. His awards include the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Ranger tab, and master parachutist wings.

That official biography records the commands that followed. He commanded the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, and the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division. He was deputy commander of Regional Command West in Herat, Afghanistan, and deputy commanding general for operations of the 82nd Airborne Division. He also commanded the 7th Army Training Command and the 25th Infantry Division. On the staff he was director for Russia on the Joint Staff, deputy executive assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and director of the Chief of Staff of the Army coordination group. He held fellowships at the National Defense University, the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies, and the Army Chief of Staff Strategic Studies Group.

In January 2018 he took command of U.S. Army Europe. From October 2020 until June 2022 he commanded the consolidated U.S. Army Europe and Africa. That was the Army service component for the two theatres. It was not the four-star U.S. Africa Command. In his Senate answers he said he had commanded at every level from platoon to that post, in combat, in peacekeeping, and on other deployments, and that he had served in Europe more than once.

He became the 19th commander of U.S. European Command on 1 July 2022. On 4 July 2022, at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, he became the 20th Supreme Allied Commander Europe, succeeding Air Force General Tod D. Wolters. NATO had approved the nomination on 3 May 2022, while he was still commanding U.S. Army Europe and Africa. As Supreme Allied Commander he headed Allied Command Operations. At the 2025 handover, Secretary General Mark Rutte credited him with modernising NATO collective defence during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with a stronger Allied presence in the Baltic Sea against threats to undersea cables and pipelines, and with a new NATO command in Germany to support Ukraine.

The Department of War dates both his European Command and his time as Supreme Allied Commander as ending on 1 July 2025, and lists him as retired. NATO records that Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich assumed command of Allied Command Operations on 4 July 2025 and calls Grynkewich the 21st Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Cavoli holds neither post now.

1. 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment
2. 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division
3. Regional Command West, Herat
4. 7th Army Training Command
5. 25th Infantry Division
6. U.S. Army Europe, from January 2018
7. U.S. Army Europe and Africa, October 2020 - June 2022
8. U.S. European Command, 1 July 2022 - 1 July 2025
9. Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 4 July 2022 - 4 July 2025