Are Flag Rank officers, (O-7 to O-11), in any branch of the United States armed forces (either here in the states or overseas) assigned personal bodyguards as part of their regular staff?
I’ve heard of other nations doing something like this, but never in the U.S.
They might have a few sentries posted near their office and maybe their home (normally on base), but they don’t normally have “bodyguards”. There are probably exceptions, such as the JCS. They will be accompanied by a special contingent of military personel in a combat zone (actually I think some in Iraq have been guarded by contract secuity), but there are many flag officers and it would be impractical to provide all of them w/ personal guards. There was a Chief of Naval Operations that committed suicide a few years back. I believe he did it in his base quarters.
I work for an O-7 (a Brigadier General) as his Executive Officer, and no, we don’t schedule the guy a bodyguard. I’m the closest thing, and can assure you that I am in fact deadly with my Red Swingline stapler-nunchaku.
Now, back in Desert Storm I, Gen Schwarzkopf did have a few bodyguards in his entourage, but then again, he was the theater commander in a war zone. IIRC, they were Delta Force guys, to which I can only cite anecdotal evidence and some video footage from the war.
Tripler
“. . . Frankly, in all the confusion I lost track myself. Did I file 5 TPS reports, or 6?”
In the war zone there are companies of MPs assigned specifically to body guard duty for high value high ranking officers. But that’s not a guy with a pistol standing behind the boss’es desk. It’s a hundred guys with rifles & cannon & trucks & armored vehicles who run the convoy the Big Cheese rides in and who ring the field HQ with an inner layer of protection in addition to all the other perimiter defenses.
One of the guys who works for me now had that job in Iraq in 2005 guarding the previous head Army Dude.