Tony Cucolo

Early life

Cucolo was born in Suffern, New York on August 22, 1957. Cucolo's grandfather, Anthony Sr. (1897-1983) was an immigrant from Italy who rose from laborer to president of a half dozen companies involved in the construction business. The senior Anthony Cucolo also served as a captain in the U.S. Army's Engineer branch during World War II. Anthony Cucolo III's uncle Belmonte Cucolo (1920-2005) and father Anthony A. Cucolo Jr. both attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1943 and 1946. Belmonte Cucolo served in the Pacific theater during World War II and attained the rank of captain before leaving the Army in 1957. Anthony Cucolo Jr. served in Korea during the Korean War, and attained the rank of captain in the Engineer branch before resigning in 1954.

Anthony Cucolo III graduated from New York City's Xavier High School in 1975, and is a 1979 graduate of the United States Military Academy. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of infantry in 1979.

Start of career

Cucolo served primarily in infantry and armor divisions. He commanded two companies and was an operations officer (S-3) at both the battalion and brigade level. He commanded an infantry battalion in Germany and deployed his unit as a combined arms task force for the first eleven months of the Balkans NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) in the contested area of Brčko, Bosnia. Cucolo also commanded 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

Career as general officer

Assistant Division Commander for the 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York. While in this capacity, he deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom and served as Deputy Commanding General, CJTF-180, during the 10th Mountain Division's service there in 2003-2004.

Cucolo's other Joint assignments include duty with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon from July 2001 to July 2003, with service in the Strategy and Policy Directorate (J5), Chief of the Future Operations Group in the Operations Directorate (J3) immediately after 9/11, and then Chief of European and NATO Policy, J5. His most recent joint assignment was as Director, Joint Center for Operational Analysis, US Joint Forces Command, from September 2004 through May 2006. In that time, Cucolo deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times, embedding in joint operational headquarters there, as well as duty with JTF-Katrina to develop the lessons learned from civil support operations in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Cucolo's next assignment was a two-year tour in the Pentagon as the Chief of Public Affairs for the United States Army. On 14 July 2008, Cucolo took over command of the 3rd Infantry Division, leading them to their fourth deployment to Iraq. On 15 April 2011, after 33 months as the Division Commander, Cucolo passed command of the 3rd Infantry Division to Robert B. “Abe” Abrams.

In June 2012 Cucolo assumed command of the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks Pennsylvania.

In March 2014 William E. Rapp was announced as Cucolo's successor, with Cucolo planning to retire and relocate to Texas.

Post-military career

In May 2015 Cucolo was announced as the University of Texas System's new associate vice chancellor for leadership and veterans’ programs.

Personal life

During Cucolo's deployment to Iraq he was among many high-ranking officers who has become the target of several impersonators. This included many fake social networking and dating service accounts. The victims were initially contacted on Skype and then lured to the fraudulent accounts.