Richard Armitage

Richard Lee Armitage, KCMG (Honorary) (born April 26, 1945) was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005. Born in Boston, Armitage attended Saint Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta before enrolling in the United States Naval Academy. Armitage graduated in 1967 and was then commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served on a destroyer stationed off the coast ... more

Richard Lee Armitage, KCMG (Honorary) (born April 26, 1945) was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005. Born in Boston, Armitage attended Saint Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta before enrolling in the United States Naval Academy. Armitage graduated in 1967 and was then commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served on a destroyer stationed off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War before volunteering to serve what would eventually become three combat tours with the riverine/advisory forces that advised the South Vietnamese navy during the war. According to Captain Kiem Do, a Republic of Vietnam Navy officer who served with him in Vietnam, Armitage "seemed drawn like a 'moth to flame' to the hotspots of the naval war: bedding down on the ground with Vietnamese commandos, sharing their rations and hot sauce, telling jokes in flawless Vietnamese." Instead of a uniform, Armitage often... less