Dick Cheney received five military deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War, then spent three decades in government positions overseeing military policy. Born on January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and raised in Casper, Wyoming, he attended Yale University on a scholarship but dropped out twice before completing his degree at the University of Wyoming. He earned a master's degree in political science and began his government career as a congressional intern. His rise was remarkably rapid. He became Gerald Ford's White House Chief of Staff at age 34, making him the youngest person to hold that position. He served six terms in Congress representing Wyoming, then became George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, overseeing the 1989 invasion of Panama and the 1991 Gulf War. After leaving government, he served as CEO of Halliburton, the oil services and military contracting company. George W. Bush chose him as his running mate in 2000, and Cheney became the most powerful vice president in American history. He was the primary architect of the post-9/11 security apparatus: the invasion of Iraq, the establishment of detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, the authorization of enhanced interrogation techniques that critics called torture, and the warrantless domestic surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency. He argued for an expansive theory of executive power that pushed the boundaries of constitutional authority. His influence over policy was so extensive that some observers described the Bush administration as a co-presidency. On February 11, 2006, he accidentally shot his friend Harry Whittington in the face and chest while quail hunting in Texas. Whittington suffered a heart attack from a birdshot pellet lodged near his heart. Cheney did not apologize publicly for eleven days.