About
AUSA’s Noon Report webinar series features presentations by senior Army leaders responsible for key programs and initiatives, as well as contemporary military authors who weave together the past, present and future story of the United States Army.

Général Louis Dio is the WWII French commander who worked with Général Philippe Leclerc to assemble the Free French forces that fought both the Axis powers and their Vichy collaborators. Together, their French 2nd Armored Division liberated the city of Paris, then turned eastward until they reached Hitler’s famed Eagle’s Nest. Dio took control of the division after the war, becoming the youngest general in the French Army.

Please join us on Tuesday, 28 October, at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Monique Brouillet Seefried and COL (ret.) Jason R. Musteen will discuss Général Dio, the role of the Free French in WWII, and the long history of Franco-American military cooperation.

When
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 · 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US & Canada) (GMT -4:00)
Agenda
  • 1145-1200: Log-on
  • 1200: Opening remarks by SMA(R) Ken Preston, AUSA Senior Fellow
  • 1205-1225: Fireside Chat with Monique B. Seefried, Ph.D., COL Jason Musteen & SMA(R) Ken Preston
  • 1225-1245: Question & Answer Session with Monique B. Seefried, Ph.D., COL Jason Musteen & SMA(R) Ken Preston
  • 1250: Closing remarks by SMA(R) Ken Preston, AUSA Senior Fellow
Presenters
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Monique B. Seefried, Ph.D.
Born a French citizen in Tunisia, Monique Brouillet Seefried grew up in Austria, France and Italy and holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. She is fluent in English, French, German and Italian. In 1973, she married Ferdinand Seefried, an Austrian, and they moved to Atlanta in 1977. They have three children and eight grandchildren. She became a U.S. citizen in 1985.
For 50 years, she has been working in education and the museum world.

Between 1982 and 2002, she was curator of Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum and taught courses on Ancient Archaeology and Islamic Art in the Art History Department of Emory University. She also served for a couple of years on the board of the Allbright Institute in Jerusalem.

In 1999, she became the founding executive director of CASIE (Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education) before serving and chairing its board. She is now Founder Emerita.
From 2003 until 2009, she chaired the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) and travelled for six years around the world visiting IB schools and addressing educators. In 2023, she was elected an Honorary Member of the IB Board of Governors.

In 2014, she was appointed by the Speaker of the House to the U.S. WWI Centennial Commission. Her service ended at the end of 2024 with the inauguration of the National WWI Memorial in Washington. During that time, and since 2011, she also honored the memory of American soldiers who fought in France during World War I as president of the Croix Rouge Farm Memorial Foundation which commissioned several memorial statues. Two are dedicated to the US 42nd (Rainbow Division), one on a WWI battlefield in France, the other in Montgomery, Alabama. The third one is a statue of Daedalus at Maxwell Air Force base in Montgomery honoring American flyers in World War I. A fourth one, “The Return from the Argonne”, is dedicated to all Alabamians who fought in WWI.

Most recently, in 2022, she co-authored a book on her godfather, General Louis Dio, the first French officer to join Marechal Leclerc in Cameroun, and who succeeded him in 1945 at the head of the French 2nd Armored Division, becoming, at 37, the youngest French general of the 20th century. The book was translated in English by Colonel (Ret.) Jason Musteen and published in 2025 by Helion & Cy.

Currently she serves on the Leadership Board of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the Visiting Board of Agnes Scott College, the board of the Alliance Française in Atlanta and the board of Advisors of the American Revolution Institute in Washington.

A knight in the French Order of the Academic Palms, in the French Order of Merit and in the French Order of the Legion of Honor, she is also an officer in the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 2019, she was awarded the U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
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COL Jason Musteen
U.S. Army Retired
Colonel Jason Musteen is a retired Armor/Cavalry officer and associate professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Colonel Musteen enlisted in the US Army in 1990 as a combat engineer and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1994 as a Distinguished Military Graduate from the University of Central Arkansas. He is a veteran of combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa, and of crisis response in South Sudan.

His assignments included: Executive Officer and Military Assistant to the Commanding General of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa; Chief of Military History and Chief of International History at West Point; CIG Action Officer in the Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq; Operations Officer of the 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division; Executive Officer of 1-61 Cavalry (Task Force Currahee); Chief of Training of the 101st Airborne Division; Commander of the Air Attack Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Opposing Forces) at the National Training Center; and Bradley Fighting Vehicle Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Brigade Adjutant in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

Colonel Musteen’s awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, five Meritorious Service Medals, the Combat Action Badge, Parachutist Badge, Pathfinder Badge, and the Air Assault Badge. He has also been awarded the French Parachutist Badge, French Advanced Defense Studies Badge, German Rocket and Missile Badge, and the Norwegian Foot March Badge.

Colonel Musteen holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts degrees in Modern European History from the Florida State University. He has also earned a degree in Advanced Defense Studies from the Collège Interarmées de Défense at the French War College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of Nelson’s Refuge: Gibraltar in the Age of Napoleon, translator of Général Louis Dio: The Wartime Epic of One of Free France’s Greatest Soldiers, and is a contributing author or editor of several other books and series, including consulting editor to the digital West Point History of Warfare and series consulting editor to Major U.S. Historical Wars. He was the military advisor to the documentary project, Behind the Lines: The Lives and Letters of Troops Around the World and he has appeared in several other documentaries on the History, Discovery, and Biography Channels. He is a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society, a member of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution, and the Masséna Society, and he served on the Board of Trustees of the Grant Monument Association in New York City.

Colonel Musteen has retired back home to Saline County, Arkansas where he works as an educator at the Little Rock Zoo. He is married to the former Marna Helmich. Together, they have two adult children.

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SMA Ken Preston, U.S. Army Retired
AUSA Senior Fellow
Sergeant Major of the Army Kenneth O. Preston served as the 13th Sergeant Major of the Army from January 15, 2004 to March 1, 2011. He retires as the longest serving Sergeant Major of the Army with more than seven years in the position.
As Sergeant Major of the Army, Preston served as the Army Chief of Staff's personal adviser on all Soldier and Family related matters, particularly areas affecting Soldier training and quality of life. He devoted the majority of his time in this position to traveling throughout the Army serving as a force provider overseeing Soldier and unit training, manning and equipping challenges, and talking to Soldiers and their Families to understand their personal hardships and challenges.
Preston is a native of Mount Savage, Md. He entered the Army on June 30, 1975. He attended Basic Training and Armor Advanced Individual Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
Throughout his 36-year career, he served in every enlisted leadership position from cavalry scout and tank commander to his final position as Sergeant Major of the Army. Other assignments he held as a command sergeant major were with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division; 3rd "Grey Wolf" Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division; 1st Armored Division in Bad Kreuznach, Germany; and V Corps in Heidelberg, Germany.
His most recent assignment prior to serving as the 13th Sergeant Major of the Army was as the command sergeant major for Combined Joint Task Force 7 in Baghdad, Iraq.
His military education includes the Basic Noncommissioned Officer's Course, Advanced Noncommissioned Officer's Course, First Sergeant's Course, M1/M1A1 Tank Master Gunner Course, Master Fitness Trainer Course, Battle Staff Noncommissioned Officer's Course, and the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. Preston holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Trident University International.
His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Meritorious Service Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Good Conduct Medal 11th award, National Defense ribbon with bronze star, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the NCOES Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon 5th award, the NATO Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal (Government of Kuwait), the Joint Meritorious Unit Award with bronze star, Army Meritorious Unit Commendation and the Department of the Army Staff Badge.
He and his wife Karen have 3 adult children Valarie, Kenneth Jr., Michael, and 8 grandchildren.
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