The Obama administration’s decisions about new ambassadors in two U.S. war zones may have had Tar Heel influences.

Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, a Goldsboro native, is widely reported as the pick for ambassador to Afghanistan. The 1969 graduate of Goldsboro High School served in Afghanistan for three years, including a tour while in charge of rebuilding Afghanistan’s Army and an 18-month stint in command of U.S. forces, reports Jay Price.

Eikenberry’s resume is almost ludicrously broad. He graduated from West Point, earned master’s degrees in East Asian studies from Harvard and in political science from Stanford and an advanced degree in Chinese history from Nanjing University, and he was a National Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

He speaks Mandarin Chinese so well that he is qualified as a translator. He graduated from the Army’s Ranger School, holds a commercial pilot’s license and master parachutist’s wings. In his spare time, according to an Army biography, he sails and scuba dives.

Eikenberry may have played an unwitting role in the selection of Christopher Hill, a career diplomat, as ambassador to Iraq.

In the latest drama over an Obama appointment, retired Gen. Anthony C. Zinni has said he was essentially given the job last month and then had it yanked back. A New York Times article Friday said the administration may have decided that naming two generals to such high profile diplomatic posts at the same time wasn’t a good idea.

Another North Carolina-related problem for Zinni may have been his recent job as a vice-president of the military contractor DynCorp. Last week, the State department told N.C.-based Blackwater Worldwide that it did not plan to renew Blackwater’s contract for guarding diplomats and the embassy in Iraq.

One of the two most likely replacement companies? DynCorp.