Major General Wendul Hagler II Bio

Major General Wendul Hagler II

Senior Defense Official / Defense Attaché
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Major General Wendul Hagler II is assigned as the Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché (SDO/DATT) to the United Arab Emirates. 

MG Hagler’s Army career includes 34 years as a commissioned officer and nearly three years as an enlisted combat medical specialist. A basic branch military police officer, he commanded military police units in the Missouri National Guard from detachment to brigade, twice serving as provost marshal, over a span of overseas deployments and exercises to Central America, Desert Storm, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. 

He entered the Army Strategist career field at the rank of major. In the strategist career field, he served as a strategic war planner on the Joint Staff at the time of the attacks of September 11th. Later, he served as the plans and programs branch chief for the National Guard Bureau Operations Division, as the Director of the Chief, National Guard Bureau’s Action Group and as the senior security advisor to the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior. He also served as the Missouri National Guard’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and as the Joint Force Headquarters Chief of Staff. 

As a general officer, he served as Vice Director of the Operations Directorate of the National Guard Bureau Joint Staff and as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Army National Guard with focus on operations, mobilization, and readiness. His first two-star assignment saw him triple-hatted as the Senior Defense Official, Defense Attaché, and Director of Central Command’s Forward Headquarters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he coordinated the deployment and operational activities of Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps forces defending the Kingdom following Iranian attacks there in 2019. 

MG Hagler’s most recent assignment was serving as the Deputy Commanding General of US Army Central. Army Central is the land component for US Central Command across 21 nations spanning four million square miles from Egypt to Kazakhstan and from Syria to Pakistan. In this capacity, MG Hagler was the principal assistant to the commanding general. He was responsible for partner nation engagements, security cooperation, contingency capabilities, and headquarters staff processes. 

MG Hagler received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Arkansas State University in 1989 and subsequently earned Master of Science degrees from Central Michigan University and the National War College. Over the course of his career, he completed numerous professional development and executive courses including earning a Harvard Kennedy School Executive Certificate in Public Policy and strategic studies qualification following coursework at the Army Command and General Staff College. His awards and decorations include three Defense Superior Service Medals, two Legion of Merit Medals, and the Bronze Star Medal. Foreign awards include the NATO Non-Article 5 Medal, Liberation of Kuwait Medal Defense of Saudi Arabia Medal, the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior Medal of Honor and the order of King Abdullah Aziz – Second Degree.