29 April 2009 - General David Petraeus, of the United States Army, joined New Zealand and Australian Defence Force personnel as the senior guest at the Anzac Day dawn service at MacDill Air Force base in Tampa, Florida on 25 April.

General Petraeus is the Commander of US Central Command and served as the Commanding General of the Multi-National Force in Iraq from January 2007 to September 2008.

The service was attended by 150 people including New Zealand Senior National Representative to US Central Command Air Commodore Dick Newlands, and Australian, Turkish, British, French and Canadian military representatives. The service was followed by a breakfast at the Officers' Club. Air Commodore Newlands said, "General Petraeus laid a wreath on behalf of the US military, which was well represented at the service by five General and Flag officers. He was well versed in the significance of Anzac Day, having attended previous Anzac Services in Iraq and elsewhere."

On Anzac Day the NZDF had over 680 personnel deployed on 14 peacekeeping operations, United Nations missions and defence exercises around the world.