Biography

Major General Roger A. Nadeau is a native of Coventry, Rhode Island and a 1970 graduate of Cumberland High School. He was an excellent scholar and worked over 30 hours per week to pay his expenses. He entered the University of Rhode Island in the fall of 1970 and he enrolled in the four-year Army ROTC program. During college, Roger played in a dance band to help pay for his tuition. In his senior year, he served as the Cadet Brigade Commander, and he was the recipient of the coveted Cramer Saber Award as the most outstanding ROTC cadet.

In 1974, Roger graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Armor. He was a Distinguished Military Graduate. During his 36-year long career, he served as a Tank Platoon Leader, Scout Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, Motor Officer, Battalion Logistics Officer, Company Commander, and Assistant Professor of Military Science at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee.

After completion of the Army Command and General Staff College in 1989, Major Nadeau returned to Europe as the Brigade Logistics Officer for the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division in Vilseck, Germany. While in that assignment, his talents were put to the test when his Brigade was put under the operational control of the 10th Mountain Division during a European REFORGER exercise, testing the logistical limits of a heavy/light force mix with a Heavy Armor Brigade cross attached to a Light Infantry Division.

Major Nadeau was then selected to become the Battalion Executive Officer for the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor, 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division. It was in that assignment that he participated in Operation Desert Storm. As part of the largest Armored Corps assembled for combat operations since World War II, his unit supported the mission to seek out and destroy Iraq’s elite Republican Guard Divisions, ending their occupation of Kuwait and eliminating their ability to mount any further cross border offensive operations. During combat operations,

Major Nadeau’s unit engaged elements of the Republican Guard Hammurabi and Medina Divisions in four separate significant night fights. Despite the fact that his unit lost a total of 2 Abrams tanks to enemy fire, no soldiers were critically injured in battle; and the elements of the Republican Guards they faced were destroyed.

Shortly after returning to his Germany-based home station, Major Nadeau began his career transition to what is now the Army Acquisition Corps. He was initially assigned to the Pentagon and became the Department of the Army Systems Coordinator for the Abrams Tank, the first of several Pentagon assignments in the grade of Major through General Officer.

Over the next 18 years, Major General Nadeau was competitively selected to Command at the Acquisition Corps equivalent of Battalion, Brigade and Division level, with assignments as a Product Manager, Program Manager and then Program Executive Officer as a General Officer multiple times. In those assignments, he was responsible for the research & development, production, fielding and sustainment support of a myriad of Army systems, from ground combat vehicles, to the Army tactical wheeled vehicle fleet to selected Aviation and missile systems.

Following his third assignment as a Program Executive Officer at the grade of Major General, Roger was selected for two more Command tours. He became the Commanding General of the newly formed Army Research, Development and Engineering Command responsible for the Army’s entire research and development portfolio. He was then selected for Command again, this time as the Commanding General of the Army Test and Evaluation Command responsible for the planning and execution of all Developmental and Operational testing throughout the Army for its entire equipment portfolio.

Major General Nadeau is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with four Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Commendation Medal, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Ranger Tab and the Army Staff Identification Badge

Transitioning out of the Army after 36 years of service, Major General Nadeau joined private industry in Washington, D.C. He currently is a Senior Vice President for a defense consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. Major General Nadeau has spent his entire life serving his community and nation during peace and war. His exemplary devotion to duty, personal bravery and outstanding leadership is in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his family and the University of Rhode Island.

Major General Nadeau and his wife Helen currently reside in Ashburn, Virginia.